Modern superhero movies are officially old enough to be rebooted now. That thought makes me feel old. I was a sophomore in High School when the first Spider-Man movie came out, and I loved it. I was an awkward geek, like Peter Parker but minus the academic abilities, and even though I thought Tobey Maguire looked way older than me, I connected with him. Looking back through the lens of more recent superhero movies though, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films seem a little silly. Spider-Man 2 is still a great film, and I never saw the third movie, but when I heard that Sony was planning to reboot the franchise, I understood. I was ready for a new take on Spider-Man.

And boy is it dividing fans. I saw it on opening day at my local IMAX theater, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot, trying to figure out what I thought. Rather than writing an in-depth review, I thought I would just round up my likes and dislikes and see if we could get a discussion going.
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I don’t watch a lot of new TV. Adventure Time, Community, and The Office are the only shows I bother staying up to date with, which usually means digitally acquiring episodes or buying them for silly prices on Amazon Instant because we have no actual TV channels at my house. But with a summer full of (hopefully) awesome comic book movies ahead, I’ve gotten the itch to get back into some animated superhero shows.

So, a new Spider-man cartoon based on the Ultimate line of comics, with a heavy dose of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Coulson? What? Stan Lee plays a janitor at his high school? This sounds like a pretty awesome Spider-man show.

Then I watched the first two episodes.
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It’s a good week to be a Marvel fan. A few hours ago the new trailer for Marc Webb’s reboot of Spider-Man debuted and it is pretty amazing indeed. I loved the first Spider-Man movie when it came out, but then again I was a sophomore in High School and I haven’t really watched them since that time. The Amazing Spider-Man looks like a Spider-Man movie I can get behind.

Andrew Garfield looks great as Peter Parker, and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey will be a welcome break from whats-her-face playing MJ. The tone of the film looks great. Spidey cracks jokes and displays some impressive acrobatics, and the costume and tech look awesome. All in all, this is one of the top four movies I’m most excited about in 2012, along with…
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Like any new technology, the field of e-books for kids is still experiencing growing pains. In recent history there have been a few exceptional examples of e-books done right, most notably with the classic The Monster at the End of this Book starring the loveable, cute, and furry Grover, as well as this year’s exceptional, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Now Marvel Comics has gotten into the game with the release of The Amazing Spider-Man: An Origin Story, currently available for the iPhone and iPad for $6.99. Can the House of Ideas keep up with Sesame Street and Charlie Brown? Let’s take a look.
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It’s official, the Spider-Man reboot is going to be called The Amazing Spider-Man. Marvel announced the title along with a brand new image of the costume, this time complete with the mask. I think it looks great, and I hope the film can match the lighting and mood these photos have had. This costume and the thought of Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker is making me very excited to see what this movie has to offer.

Here’s the full press release:
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