Capsule reviews of 'Magic Mike' and other films

2012/06/28 17:33:40 @Entertainment News Headlines - Yahoo! News

It & #039;s impossible to avoid the comparisons, so we may as well just get them out of the way early so we can move on. This reboot — Prequel? New chapter? It & #039;s hard to decide what to call it — is pretty much different in every way from the staggeringly successful Marvel Comics-inspired trilogy that preceded it. The basics are the same: A high school kid gets bitten by a scientifically modified spider, discovers he has newfound super powers, decides to use them as a vigilante crime fig hter and takes to the streets of New York in an unforgivingly tight red-and-blue suit. But in terms of tone, characters, performances and even visual effects, & quot;The Amazing Spider-Man & quot; feels like its own separate entity. It may not be as transporting an experience as those earlier films, especially the first two, but it finds a distinct voice. Much of that has to do with the central performance from Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. In the hands of Tobey Maguire, who originated the role in & quot;Spider-Man & quot; a decade ago, Peter was nerdy, scrawny, insecure — that & #039;s how his everyman relatability manifested itself. Garfield plays Peter as more of a misunderstood outsider, a rebel with a chip on his shoulder. And that slightly arrogant attitude gives the whole movie a restless, reckless energy and a welcome sense of danger. At the helm, Marc Webb is a very different sort of director. He may not have sounded like the most obvious choice for a hugely anticipated blockbuster based on his only previous feature, the romantic comedy charmer & quot;(500) Days of Summer. & quot; His big set pieces may lack some of the imagination that director Sam Raimi brought, but they & #039;ll do. More importantly, though, he conveys an emotional truth, a pervasive sense of humanity, which may be an even tougher feat in this kind of fantastical scenario. Emma Stone is bright as ever as Peter & #039;s love interest, Gwen Stacy, with Rhys Ifans nicely underplaying his role as Spider-Man & #039;s nemesis. PG-13 for sequences of action and violence. 138 minutes. Thre e stars out of four.
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