An Amazing experience

At the advice of my fellow blogger NotGood I went and watched The Amazing Spiderman this morning. Alone. Yes sir, with only me and myself for company.

I have always been scared of solo movie outings. What if people think I’m a weirdo? What if I get strange looks at the refreshment counter and at the ladies washroom? What if I am late and have to grope my way in the dark all alone and sit down on the one empty seat in the already full theatre? What if I laugh out loud and there’s no one there to laugh with? What if this? What if that?

But the thing with what ifs is, they are unreal. They are, most of the time, worst possible outcomes we imagined in our heads. And most of the time they didn’t happen. Just like today. None of the things I was scared of, the strange looks, the getting lost in the dark, the laughing out loud, none of it happened. It was as easy as ABC.

So the moviegoing was a breeze. I booked my tickets online, went to the mall, loitered around for a bit, went to the theatre just in time to print my tickets and buy a bottle of water, and went inside just as the movie trailers began. I found my seat easily, sat down, put my feet up, laughed at the funny parts, and had a good time. Nobody cared if I was alone or with the entire colony, nobody stared, and there was nothing awkward about it. The only minus point was that I had to keep adjusting the 3D glasses over my glasses every two minutes. Oh, and I lost the plastic spoon and had to eat the American sweet corn (buttered, no masala) with my hands.

So, shall we talk a bit about the movie?

(Pic source: Comicbookmovie.com)

Andrew Garfield? was my first reaction when I heard he was the next Spiderman. I had only seen him in The Social Network, and he was an okay guy, but I didn’t like his hair. Emma Stone, fine, she is cute, can act well, and I thought she would be perfect for the role (though Gwen Stacy is not the helpless girl Mary Jane Watson was).

But I saw the movie and Andrew Garfield was fine, yes sir he is one fine man. Beautiful eyes, lovely smile, and tall. I like tall. Tall is sexy. And the pairing with Emma Stone was perfect. Although they look a bit old for high school students, the acting was very convincing. The hallway scene, the awkward conversation, and the balcony scene, well played, guys, well played.

In this movie we get to see the young Peter Parker with his parents and were given a clue as to why they left and he had to live with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. I’m not going to narrate the whole plot, don’t you worry. What I like about it is that it is more scientific. I like the fact that Spidey did not just generate the webs and mysteriously shot them out from his wrists, but that the webs were produced in a laboratory, or shall we say cultured, and he had to wear a wristband like thing and it was from this device that the webs came. The sticky hands and feet, the agility and amazing reflexes, the super strength still came from the spider bite, which is absolutely fine with me. The effects and all that technical stuff were of course, top notch.

Many reviewers say the movie is more emotional than the previous Spiderman movies. Agreed. It was more about The Amazing Peter Parker than The Amazing Spiderman. The discovery of his father’s research, the misuse of it by the desperate Dr. Connors and the obligation that he had to stop it, the teenage romance, and the conflict in his mind (about being a superhero), all add to the emotional element. And Andrew Garfield (the fine, fine man) portrayed it very well. The only thing I miss was there were not much of the witty comebacks that we have come to expect from Spiderman. There was only one such scene I can recall: the car thief breaks open the car door and as he sits comfortably in the driver’s seat we see Spiderman in the back seat, and he says “If you’re going to steal cars stop looking like a car thief”. I laughed out loud. Alone.

To sum up, it was a good movie, worth every rupee, I didn’t feel out of place or awkward. It was indeed an amazing experience. Next stop: Batman-The Dark Knight Rises. Releasing on July 20^th.