Old vs.
New: Which Spiderman Comes out on Top?
When I found out that Marvel was completely
rebooting the Spiderman films and starting from scratch, I felt a bit
devastated. Throughout the last three Spiderman films, I had grown attached to
the romantic, heartfelt storyline Tobey Maguire, James Franco, and Kirsten
Dunst created through their fictional characters Peter Parker, Harry Osborn,
and Mary Jane Watson. Two years ago, however, it was decided that the film
series needed a new beginning and some major revisions. I'll be the first to
admit that the last two Spiderman films needed a bit of a facelift. Both the
acting and plots had been on a downward spiral from the first film, and it
seemed that if a fourth film were to be made, some serious changes needed to
take place.
The newest Spiderman – The Amazing Spiderman –
debuted to audiences in July 2012 and drew in a huge
box office opening. The reviews, though mixed, were mostly positive, and
the new cast was applauded for their undeniable chemistry and individual acting
performances. The first Spiderman film, however, was praised in similar ways
when it came out ten years ago. So when it comes down to it, I was curious to
find out which of these two Spiderman films came out on top. I compared and
ranked the Spiderman films based on acting, comic-book consistency, and use of
graphics.
Acting
In both Spiderman films, the two main characters
were Peter Parker and his main love interest – either Mary Jane Watson or Gwen
Stacy. Overall, I'd say that Andrew Garfield was the better Peter Parker and
Tobey Maguire was the better Spiderman. In the first film, Tobey Maguire does a
great job of bringing a sincere humanity and well-rounded personality to
Spiderman, but struggles to make us believe him as the geeky, insecure Peter
Parker. Andrew Garfield, on the other hand, weaves through the emotional and
inner struggles of Peter Parker brilliantly, but struggles with living up to
the notorious Spiderman hero. Had Tobey Maguire been able to convey Peter
Parker better, I suspect he would have been the better Spiderman overall. The
award for Spiderman's leading lady, however, has to go to Emma Stone, who
elegantly portrays Gwen Stacy. For the past two years, Stone has been on the
rise in the acting world with movies such as Easy A and The
Help, and Spiderman reaffirms she deserves to be up at the top. She not
only acts her individual scenes well, she also flawlessly connects with Andrew
Garfield. Kirsten Dunst, on the other hand, was always borderline cheesy in all
of her scenes and lines from the very first Spiderman up until the last one. In
this case, I'd say The Amazing Spiderman wins for acting.
Comic Book
Consistency
From the beginning, the old Spiderman films got
a lot of flak for stepping away from the storylines the comic books created.
The Amazing Spiderman, however, stays more true to the comic book. In fact,
when I started looking into the luxuries the first Spiderman took from the
comic books, I was rather amazed it did so well amongst diehard Spiderman fans.
For one thing, Mary Jane Watson doesn't come into Peter Parker's life until
much later on, following Gwen Stacy. Furthermore, the webbing that Spiderman uses
is actually something he builds and designs on his own; in the first Spiderman
film we see that Tobey Maguire's character acquires webbing during his
transformation into Spiderman, but The Amazing Spiderman actually stuck with
the storyline and has Andrew Garfield design the webbing himself. Lastly, The
Amazing Spiderman focuses more on the background and development of Peter
Parker's life, as opposed to jumping right into him becoming Spiderman. As you
can imagine, the comic books focused much more on Peter Parker's life before he
became Spiderman, and I believe The Amazing Spiderman stayed more true to that
story. In this instance, The Amazing Spiderman comes out on top again.
Use of
Graphics
I went back and forth on this one, but when it
boils down to it, both films did a remarkable job in their use of graphics. You
have to remember that Tobey Maguire's Spiderman came out ten years ago, and
even in that decade graphics have made tremendous strides. All the same, both
films neither overused nor underused their graphics. They both balanced the
action sequences and character scenes very well. In fact, I can't point to one
instance in which one of the films did better than the other in action
sequences.
For all intents and purposes, The Amazing
Spiderman is the better of the two Spiderman films based solely on acting,
comic-book consistency, and graphics. I've heard people argue in reverse, but
I'd say that The Amazing Spiderman wins for being the better of the two films.
Samantha Gray is an expert in online education
and a freelance writer. Pursuing an online bachelor's degree is
often fraught with myths and misconceptions. Samantha shows her readers the
way. She wants to hear your feedback and ideas, too, at samanthagray024@gmail.com.
