The Amazing Spider-Man just felt ordinary

When you entirely reboot a movie franchise after the previous film came out only five years before, you better make it different enough so that it doesn't remind us too much like the previous first movie. As it is, The Amazing Spider-Man is sorta, kinda, pretty much the same movie as the 2002 Spider-Man just with different actors, slightly altered storylines, a new love interest and villain.

Being forced to watch a second origin story of one superhero in ten years can be quite the chore especially if you pretty much know what to expect. This makes evaluating The Amazing Spider-Man much tougher. As a stand-alone, does the origin story work? For the most part, yes. But they wanted to reboot the Spider-Man franchise because Spider-Man 3 sucked, not because of the first two. The first two Spider-Man movies of the 2000s were actually pretty good. Having said that, I was still interested in watching The Amazing Spider-Man to see what the differences were and while they introduce interesting new storylines for Peter Parker, it was frustrating to see the majority of them go to waste.

As it begins, Peter Parker's primary focus is trying to figure out what happened to his parents. When he was a kid, his mother and father left Peter to Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Now a teenager, Peter understandably has questions about the whereabouts of his parents. His curiosity ultimately leads him to Dr. Curt Connors who works as a scientist at OsCorp. Connors had worked with Peter's father a number of years ago as they were doing research on cross-species permutation (or something to that effect, not too familiar with scientific terminology). It's not long after Peter introduces himself to Dr. Connors that they start working together on experiments... forgetting about the whereabouts of Peter's parents altogether.

It's as if, throughout the film's running time, they introduce plot points only to abandon them when something "more interesting" comes along which does little to justify its 136-minute running time. Especially considering the fact that for a superhero film, there isn't all that much action. For the most part, Spider-Man seems outmatched and overpowered by The Lizard (who is what Dr. Connors becomes after a failed experiment on himself) and the action scenes just feel run-of-the-mill with very little suspense involved. It's not that I'm asking for more action, it's just that when you're going to provide some, you better make it thrilling to watch. The first Iron Man had very little action, but what it had to show was pretty fucking cool. The Amazing Spider-Man had very little to show for itself for a reboot except for updated technology.

That's not entirely true, actually. The acting in The Amazing Spider-Man is, more-or-less, an improvement over the Raimi films. Andrew Garfield captures the youthful spirit more than Tobey Maguire and Emma Stone is a more fun female lead than Kirsten Dunst. But, even though The Lizard was an improvement looks-wise over The Green Goblin, Rhys Ifans can't really hold a candle to Willem Dafoe, from an acting standpoint. As a scientist, Ifans as Dr. Connors was pretty much on-point, but as a villain? He wasn't quite there. Willem Dafoe always had that gift of giving off creepy vibes even when he's acting extremely nice so, comparatively speaking, that kinda puts Rhys Ifans at a disadvantage.

While The Amazing Spider-Man was better, in some respects, to the 2002 Spider-Man, it also did some things worse. This begs the question: why even bother with a reboot at all? And honestly, are superhero origin films all that fun? Except for Iron Man, which learned that if you're going to spend most of the time with the origin story then you better make it fun to watch, watching how a superhero gets his powers has just become tiresome for me because there have been so many damn superhero movies over the last decade. Even with all that riding against it, The Amazing Spider-Man still could've justified its existence if it wasn't so all over the place, plot-wise.

I knew that after watching 500 Days of Summer, which I loved, that Marc Webb would do great with the love story and the high school scenes. He delivered there. But I was worried about how he was going to deal with the action and the more convoluted story lines; it looks like my worries were justified. Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man is really just your average by-the-numbers superhero origin story. I won't hold my breath for the sequel.

Grade: C

A couple of funny moments here and there can't save Ted

Seth McFarlane's first film "Ted" is successful in that it manages to capture McFarlane's humor that he has showcased, and subsequently squandered, with shows like Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show. Thanks to Mark Wahlberg once again showing some impressive comedic chops, "Ted" winds up being a lot better than it could have been. Of course there are laughs to be had, but like Family Guy and American Dad, the laughs go in as quickly as they go out.

There's really nothing to savor about "Ted" as it has an overly-familiar premise and a very thin plot that doesn't really stretch out too well in 106 minutes. Once you get past the fact that John Bennett's (Wahlberg) best friend is a foul-mouthed anthropomorphic teddy bear, you start to see just how painfully average this movie really is.

Age 8, John Bennett makes a wish one Christmas night that his large teddy bear could talk and be his best friend. To his and his parents' surprise, that wish comes true. Ted and John Bennett grow up and do everything together, but once John starts dating Lori Collins (Mila Kunis) it starts to threaten the friendship between the two. Ted is forced to get his own apartment and a job while John Bennett tries to make things right with Lori. But it doesn't take long before he screws things up by abandoning Lori at a party so that he can party with Ted and Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones makes a lengthy cameo appearance).

The Flash Gordon sequences are among the funniest bits in the film but it also showcases Seth McFarlane's terrible knack for relying on old pop culture references to make his jokes for him. We laugh because "oh my god it's Flash Gordon!" but the laughs never go any further than that. To his credit though, at least McFarlane never goes overboard with the non-sequiturs and sticks closely to the plot. If only there was more to the plot than just Ted-John-Lori triangle.

In an era where manchild comedies are coming out left and right, Ted just feels so run-of-the-mill. It's like they couldn't get past the initial premise that Ted is a filthy womanizing talking teddy bear. While Ted definitely lives up to that billing, he's simply not as funny as he or Seth McFarlane thinks he is. The potential was there, but the execution just felt lazy.

Furthermore, actors like Mila Kunis and Joel McHale are stuck playing one-dimensional characters. There's the weak, completely predictable subplot involving Giovanni Ribisi playing a creepy weirdo who is obsessed with Ted and tries to kidnap him which unfortunately makes the third act of the film devolve into a car chase scene which feels very out of place with the rest of the film.

Don't get me wrong, I laughed quite a few times when I watched this film but just over 24 hours later, I hardly remember much of it. An overly simple premise and plot keeps this film from being the crude comedy classic it aspires to be.

Grade: C

Just in case you missed it: my top 100 movies of the 1980s

I never made it easy to navigate through my list so, months later, let me do that now:

• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #1
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #2
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #3
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #4
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #5
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #6
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #7
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #8
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #9
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: #10
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: 20-11
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: 30-21
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: 40-31
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: 50-41
• Top 100 movies the '80s: 60-51
• Top 100 movies the '80s: 70-61
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: 80-71
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: 90-81
• Top 100 movies of the 1980s: 100-91

Enjoy!

Top 5 of 2012 so far?

Well I missed a lot of June movies because I was busy working on the set of a little indie film the past month and I hope I'll be able to catch up fairly soon. But, essentially disregarding most of the month of June (save for Prometheus and Magic Mike), here's my top 5:

1. Moonrise Kingdom
2. The Avengers
3. 21 Jump Street
4. Jeff Who Lives at Home
5. Wanderlust

Hmm, I really gotta catch up on those June movies...

Magic Mike review

From the first time I heard that the movie was being made, Magic Mike was intriguing to me. Steven Soderbergh directing a male stripper movie with Channing Tatum and, most importantly, Matthew McConaughey just sounds interesting to me. McConaughey has been picking very interesting projects lately, Tatum has been working hard to prove he's a serious actor, and Soderbergh is one of the most important directors to have come out in the last 25 years. Does that mean everything he makes is gold? No, in fact, his filmography is pretty spotty overall, but he always seems to be capable of making a movie that's interesting. Some of them are great and some of them are failures, but they're always interesting.

Another intriguing aspect of the film was the fact that it was drawing from Channing Tatum's past when he worked as a male stripper. That gave the film a necessary addition of authenticity. This wasn't just going to be a film where hunky beefcakes strut their stuff (and there's plenty of that), but we're going to be introduced to a world that we otherwise would never know about unless we were in the business. Like "The Wrestler," Magic Mike is about a profession that's so cut off from other professions that its workers basically live in their own little world. Magic Mike's world is more fun than The Wrestler's, but it's also a profession that I'd imagine would be tough to exit from. If you're in the prime of your life physically and you have nothing else going for you in your professional life, why wouldn't you want to dance your ass off every night, dry humping horny ladies for cash?

That's one of the questions Magic Mike asks and the movie is at its best when it portrays this secluded world because, thanks to Soderbergh's direction, it's all treated in a very matter-of-fact way. The movie goes through a very familiar rise-and-fall storyline where the veteran takes "the kid" in and shows him the ropes. The veteran being Mr. Magic Mike himself (Tatum) and the kid is Adam (Alex Pettyfer). Basically the kid is someone who has nothing else going for him as far as being able to earn a living for himself so naturally he winds up under Mike's wing to become the new star at Xquisite which is managed by the very charismatic and up-to-no-good Dallas (Matthew McConaughey).

Never mind all the dancing montages and the film's subject matter, regardless of how you feel about all of that, you cannot help but admire Matthew McConaughey's spirited performance here. The guy goes all out and showcases the best of what he can offer as an actor. There's no wonder why the ladies go crazy over him. His relaxed, charismatic Southern drawl pulls them in and he shows absolutely no fear in his performance. He's only bested by Channing Tatum who has the advantage of previously being a male stripper. Still, Tatum shows that if he wanted to, he could go right back to that profession.

But that's why the film is mostly successful. All the actors show no fear in going out to the platform and dancing their asses off including former WWF wrestler Kevin Nash. It's when the film strays from the nightclub where it starts to falter. Magic Mike's relationships with women (portrayed by Olivia Munn and Cody Horn) aren't handled as confidently. Cody Horn plays Adam's sister who tries her best to protect her brother but can't help but be won over by Mike's charm. The scenes between the two, however, just feel weak and the stakes never really go as high as they should. This is also true when Adam falls into the trap of drugs and crazy druggy women; aside from a scene depicting him overdosing, the film never really goes far enough and only hints at Adam's possible downfall instead of explicitly showing us.

I also felt that the film kinda copped out at the end. While I don't feel it all needed to wrapped up at the end in a perfect bow, I still feel like it ended at the most interesting part. Is Mike really going to quit? Is Adam going too far? Is Dallas moving the nightclub to Miami going to payoff? I guess we'll never know. Steven Soderbergh has said in the past that he has no interest in making serious films anymore and that he's bored with the craft of filmmaking. In some ways, you can tell. He's definitely still a great craftsman but he shows no interest in pushing the envelope any further than he has to. This makes Magic Mike merely decent entertainment instead of what could've been a really interesting expose of the world of male stripping. I like movies that show me worlds I would otherwise never know about and Steven Soderbergh is still a good enough director that he can keep Magic Mike from entering "Step Up" territory. I just wish that fire and passion he has for film was still there because I think this could've really been a great movie instead of just a pretty good one.

Grade: B-

"Prometheus" looks great, but is kind of a mess

One thing that "Prometheus" shows is just how much in control Ridley Scott is of his craft. He's showcased this for years, but Prometheus is easily one of his best looking films. One unfortunate trend though that has plagued Scott's films for years is an uneven script which is what Prometheus is largely guilty of. Having said that, there are some really awesome sequences in this film, some that are truly thrilling, like the scene where Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) is forced to perform an abortion on herself. It's some pretty intense stuff and this movie is filled with many intense scenes, but they unfortunately do not add up to a greater whole.

A prequel to Alien, Prometheus follows a team of scientists in the late 21st Century as they travel to a distant world, attempting to answer life's biggest questions (Who made us and where did we come from?). Unlike Alien, this team of scientists aren't quite as memorable and fun as the crew found on Nostromo. The one crew member who sticks out, aside from Elizabeth Shaw, is easily David (Michael Fassbender). David's a soulless android whose actions and motivations are never clearly explained. It would be too simplistic to simply call him an evil character. He appears to just have a general curiousness about him that makes him completely unpredictable.

Fassbender once again steals the show in this ensemble cast, operating on an entirely different level than the rest. Charlize Theron plays Meredith Vickers, who is supposed to be monitoring the entire expedition, turned out to really be nothing more than a bitch. It was fun to watch her in the beginning as it felt like maybe she would also be involved in some mischief like with David, but unfortunately her character never really develops into anything interesting. Idris Elba plays Janek, the captain of the Prometheus spaceship, and even though his character is also fun, Janek feels underdeveloped.

The film's pacing starts by slowly making its way through the distant world, but once they start exploring it, the film suddenly speeds up at a dizzying rate, leaving its intriguing ideas in the dust. And while this makes for some pretty entertaining and well-constructed sequences, it's literally going from one sequence to another with no clear attempt to tie it all together. It's like the filmmakers had all these interesting ideas that they wanted to explore and then just forgot about them.

Prometheus is not a bad movie though. It's too entertaining and looks too gorgeous to be a bad film. It just suffers in the writing department and as a prequel to Alien, it really falls short. This was supposed to be Ridley Scott's big return to sci-fi, but like David, the return felt soulless.

Grade B-

Sorry

I have had zero time lately to update this blog but I will be updating it really soon. Lots of updates to come. Don't worry!