In Review: The Amazing Spiderman

The Gist

Bigger but not exactly better, the reboot to the Spider-man franchise lacks the humor of its predecessor, but the good casting choices--particularly the pairing of Andrew Garfield with Emma Stone--makes the movie entertaining and gripping in its own right, one rife with heart and action.

The Good

• that on-screen chemistry between Garfield and Stone
• nicely cast
• a gripping plot

The Bad

• Can be dismissed as unnecessary reboot due to its predecessor having a better lead and an overall better treatment of its material.
• Never quite establishes its characters, failing to cite a reason why Peter stands up against the bullies but not criminals.

Synopsis

Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is a normal highschool student living with his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Michael Sheen) after his mother and father left him to them at a very early age. Peter grew up with this chip on his shoulder, always having a gap to fill. In pursuit of filling that gap, Peter stands up to the bullies in search of human intimacy or purpose--and it doesn't always go well. This particular trait caught the attention of his highschool crush, Gwen Stacy (Emma Watson), who happens to be an associate at Oscorp where his father's former lab partner, Dr. Curt Connors, works as head of human tissue regeneration research. In search for answers, Parker takes to asking Connors himself and, in the process, got bitten by a radioactive spider that starts his life as a rebel and as Spider-man.

Teenage Dirtbag

Considering that Spider-man was in highschool in the comics when he got bitten by the radioactive spider, it surprised me that Sam Raimi had a mostly late 20s cast on his 2002's Spider-man (Maguire was 27 then and Peter Parker was 16). Webb decided to go with teenagers this time and chose a mostly younger-looking cast. You might be surprised to know, however, that Andrew Garfield is actually 28 when he was cast and Stone, 22. Though because of perhaps how skinny Garfield is, and how--well--young Stone is, they actually look the age for the comic book hero reboot.

It Takes Two to Tango

For some reason, when you say Spider-man movie, the scene that pops to my mind is that upside down kiss between Tobey and Kirsten circa 2002. And that's because the first movie is so iconic and fun, it imprints itself to memory very easily. And also probably because it follows the comic book canon more closely than this reboot. I cannot say the same for this reboot. As with most Marvel movies nowadays, a lot of elements has been lifted from the Ultimate Marvel series. The darker tone of the movie probably had been derived from Ultimate Marvel timeline, and I wouldn't say that Marc Webb had an easy time with this. Storytelling for a great part of the first hour is a bit sloppy and leaves mess like a toddler, not really provoking one to think or at least enthrall its audience. But it gets better after the first hour.

Casting Garfield is both good and bad. On the good side, Garfield can be a really charming teen who is unsure about life and has a natural rebel in him that fit Marc Webb's idea for the refresh. On the other end, he can be a bit dull, not having the same humor and finesse that Tobey's Parker has. At best, he is full of angst and determined, though he works best paired with Emma Stone. Their pairing was a blessing to the movie, as on-screen, the pair really works--making for a cutesy couple with a believable tension and grip.

Martin Sheen was, well, mostly angry and detached as Uncle Ben--almost always strict and ready to reprimand Peter, but caring nevertheless. Just not sure is Sheen was proper for the role, I was expecting him to implode and I was disappointed when he didn't. Sally Field was far far from the Aunt May in Sam Raimi's Spiderman. This one was more antagonistic or at least less expressively caring for Peter, as opposed to the snoopy and sneaky, overly protective Aunt May in Raimi's.

On the plus side, technically, this is a better film compared to Raimi's, given the technological advances from 2002 to 2012. The CGI is more believable. And I have to give it to Webb (he, btw, directed 500 Days of Summer) for taking on an enormous job, and coming out nearly unscathed--giving Spidey more grit and making Peter less of a nerd but more of a rebel. Sure, it is similar to Raimi's, but it had a notably darker undertone, which might be how this new franchise is going to be. He did manage to translate the material to film albeit rather confused and dull at time, and at the obvious risk of being compared to the fun ride that was Raimi's Spider-man. Webb's was an antihero, a defiant kid who always had a piece of him missing, while Raimi's was a geek who loved the world, got powers, and forgot the very lessons that made him. Sure, this adaptation has its weaknesses, but in the end, comes as a whole, capable of delighting and entertaining--and at its best parts, it really is good: the last few scenes are actually very heartfelt and at one point cute, making you want to hug along with Peter and Aunt May.

Though you'd know there is a sequel only because it's a franchise, not because you really want to see one.

My verdict:

A slow Marvel with grit, but does get boring and confused. I had fun but can't really recommend it. A passing mark of 4/5.

In Review: What We Saw from the Cheap Seats

What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, 2012

Gist
Spektor might have lost a little of her humor and quirk in her newest effort, but she gains depth, coming back with often paradoxical lyrics and a dark (and possibly personal) sound not usually heard from her previous efforts. Her piano work has also become noticeably more eloquent and classical.

Overview 
The album starts with the track Small Town Moon which basically sets the mood and expectations for this album. A little lilting and easygoing--quirky but without conscious effort or need to be. The album ends, also, with the equally easygoing guitar-backed track Jessica, which I think is about a song for someone in coma, to which Spektor sings "I can't write a song for you, I'm out of melodies." This made me think how applicable it is to this album as she seems to be running out of the same wild random fervor notably present in her previous works. Her melodies have gone from quirky to emotionally deep, the sort of tracks on her album that I don't enjoy at once. Tracks with the same emotional traction like Lady, Man of a Thousand Faces, Field Below resonate throughout much of the album, save for one to three tracks. I also noticed how much she has switched from storytelling to writing heartfelt songs about heartbreak, sickness, coma, and unrequited love. She has perhaps gone more personal this time and thought of writing songs that people would not only love to sing--and be thought of as weird--but also would be able to relate to.

Favorable Tracks
The opener Small Town Moon worked amid an easygoing demeanor. The backing piano and percussion are easy to listen to and the song itself gets away with a marking phrase, "how can I leave without hurting everyone that made me?"

The new version of Ne Me Quitte Pas from 2002's Songs retitled as Please Don't Leave Me has a classic Spektor flair that blends quirky storytelling with catchy melody. The new version cuts off a verse and adds other instruments to the mix, most notably a trumpet routine that makes everything livelier.

Firewood goes for the daring as it compares humanity to a piano, with sickness and death equated to a piano being cast as firewood. This, I say, is the most emotional and memorable songs from this album, probably producing the most quotes you can need in time of depression and losing hope. The pathos is deep and the melody is deep and Regina does not spoil it by her quirky vocal antics.

The easy-going Patron Saint is a hymn to loving someone undeserving, backed up by playful and curious piano chords. It lights up mid-chorus with a cheery melody that makes it one of my favorite tracks in this album.

How is perhaps as mainstream a ballad can get under Regina's hands. The purity of its lyrics felt like Regina took the song to heart.

All the Rowboats, with its dark brooding tone, sounds like Far's Machine, in which she compares museums to public mausoleums. And like Machine, Rowboats is the noisiest, busiest track in this album.

Initially quiet, Open surprises with a good piano routine at the chorus. The song would have been pretty empty without that precious piano routine in the middle--it sounds like a spring morning coming into being. The exaggerated vowels sort of ruin the song and make it sound scary, with those exaggerated Os coming after a quiet verse.

And speaking of quiet, the very short Jessica, summing itself up in 1 minute, 44 seconds, closes the album with Spektor saying "I am out of melodies," swapping Spektor's piano for a guitar. The song feels like a conversation between two children: Jessica, who is in coma, and is about to celebrate her birthday this February, and her sister who's prompting her to wake up and grow older.

The bonus track Call them Brothers, co-written by Dishel and appears on his album, is a breath of fresh air from mostly solo efforts that Spektor dished out most of her career. The song, which is a hymn to war, is beautiful as well as haunting.

Two other bonus tracks in Russian were included. Both are written by the bard Bulat Okudzhava. Both are beautifully rendered by Spektor, which again brings to the forefront her classical piano.

Unfavorable Tracks
I like the quirky Regina, which is mostly absent here. Her quirkiest novelty work, Oh Marcello, is a big mess and did not work for me, although it seemed like a big middle finger for the whole music industry (just like how Lady Gaga keeps on using fake accents, acting like a good soul, hoping not to be misinterpreted).

The Party sounds better than Open, and even livelier, but there's a silliness to it that didn't quite work for me. You can imagine it playing at a city parade, though, with floats and confetti, but Regina needs to work on her rhymes here as those make her silly songs funny.

And my least favorite from this effort, The Ballad of a Politician, goes a la Songs. It feels like the lovechild of 20 Years of Snow and Chemo Limo and it didn't quite cut it out for me, perhaps due to Spektor trying to make her voice sound big and that just makes this effort too weird.

Conclusion
I am not sure, but Spektor feels running out of ideas, or at least the quirky ones. Gone are the days when she'd write about drinking soap she played with on the sink, singing dolphin songs, or refuse chemotherapy for a limo ride. She opts, however, to write more relatable songs about people being like a party not good for her, or a guy who falls for the wrong girl against her advices, or the impossibility of moving on from a lost love.

The general shortness of the album (the only album without a single track surpassing 5 minutes), the loss of the frenetic piano play for a more disciplined classical piano, the fact that you almost always see nothing from the cheap seats, and the admission that she's "out of melodies" in Jessica seem to be telling that she's out of stuff to write about. That or maybe she got tired of writing about quirky things. My fear is of the former. Ne Me Quitte Pas, one of the two or three quirky songs in this album, came from her 2002 album, Songs, and nothing in the album sounds like it, or of her old quirky songwriting.

You can also notice her marked change in clothing and figure. Is it possible that her music label is promoting her as a pop artist, which, of course, she is not?

Not that all those are bad things at all, but where's the funny and fun Regina Spektor? The wild Regina. This perhaps may be her darkest, possibly most personal and disciplined body of work to date, and that makes this album beautiful and a stand out compared to her previous works. It's impossible to hate what she makes, for me at least, but I can't help but miss the classic (ack) Regina who's just about quirkier and sillier, and would rather write about people inside a musicbox, two birds lying to each other, and being kicked out by the bartender. Where art thou, old Regina? Have the Skrulls taken over you, too?

Score: 4 out of 5 stars

Personals: Fly

May 2012 was a difficult time for me. Its last two weeks were particularly troublesome, mentally taxing, annoying, and emotionally wrecking. I was only so happy to see it gone. And with it, my brother who was to live with his family in the USA.

Me and my brother had an uneasy relationship, if it was at all, as one may say, a relationship expected of siblings. We were more like strangers who for some reason hate each other to hell. I am not keen on what he hates about me, but probably the fact that I breathe and that I criticize him and question his authority as often as I draw breath--and probably the fact that I have work and that I am knowledgeable and there was no escaping the fact that you cannot subdue an educated man's conviction. On my part, I hated my brother for being the biggest Bible-reading, Old Testament professing bigot that I knew. If my mother is religious, my brother thought it was best to read the Bible on a daily basis and shove it down your throat whenever he gets the chance. And he claps while you choke on it. That's to put it on a nutshell. Or maybe I am just stressing for a comic effect.

He's not very brave. We, as a family, are aware of that. He needed faith, the Bible, for a reason. Everything for him is scary or doomed to fail. He quit school early and didn't get back to finishing it amid my parents' repetitive--almost forceful--efforts. And he wasn't satisfied with just being unschooled, he thought it cool to have a son by the age of 20. And another by the age of 23. And another by 25. Another by 26. I've lost count actually. But, thank God, his children are delightful and brilliant little children capable of bringing and sharing happiness. Imagine now how he is without work, and with children, he needed something. Something to still make him a man he believes he is. He needed religion. Something to make sense of the poor decisions he has made, that it was all planned somewhat. That there was a God to blame for all of his mistakes. And the only way it can be right is if people agreed to him, to the Bible--the words of God that says everything is God's will--the perfect device for absolving yourself of responsibility.

He's a good son, nevertheless. He loved our mother. He was always there for our mother when she was sick. He cared for her, albeit with a few outbursts of temper. As for father, he always doubted if father has any love for him. The fool will probably never realize how much our father thinks of him, of how much the old man cares for his future, of how much father wants him to correct his ways and start moving. For our Dad was a mechanic, he believes everything can be fixed. Even our brother. But I am not. I quit on people. Dad wouldn't. And that's what my brother couldn't see. My father couldn't see that my brother thinks that his constant attempt to repair him is a sign of his lack of affection, but my brother couldn't see that that disapproval was the only way available to my father to express his love--even after all that he's done to himself, our father's desire for him to live decently for him and his children persists.

Amid all this, I find myself going home each night missing my brother for the past few days, worrying how he is doing in America. He was always one to ask me to turn on the wifi router as he doesn't know how to. I wonder if he's figured this out now on his own. Amid all our disagreements and the many things I dislike about him, at the end of the day, he's still family. And family is family. It's not the same household without him.

Secretly, I root for him, that he finds success and happiness out there. Although, I'm just happy he's gone. I can now play Wii all I want!