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7/10
Mixed feelings, but a good movie overall
16 July 2012
The Amazing Spider-Man is a reboot to the superhero film series owned by Sony and not related to any other Marvel films out there. This film comes out a decade after the original Spiderman but my feelings are mixed whether I should review it as a stand-alone, or as if it was better than the one that came out in 2002.

The film, as with any first entry on a superhero film series, deals with the origin story of Spiderman and how his life changes dramatically after the usual "radioactive exposure event that gave him superpowers". Like I mentioned before, I am not sure whether it would be fair to compare this movie to the first one since they're kinda in the same levels of quality, but the original cast is naturally more likable for me and most of the audiences.

In my opinion, Tobey Maguire is a much more likable Peter Parker than Andrew Garfield. Andrew's performance was quite juvenile and refreshing, yet he does not really look like a "high school nerd" that Parker is supposed to be. Andrew did succeed in performing more joyfully than Tobey, which made the film's tone less dramatic, and while he is wearing the Spiderman suit he seems to be having more fun than the corrupted Peter in Spiderman 3.

The film's cinematography is great and overall I think the cast is on the same level like the original film series, although anyone is obviously more used to the first. The Lizard is the villain on this film, and Rhys does succeed in making his role work, although I was slightly disappointed he didn't have a "crocodile-like jaw".

On other comments of the cast, Gwen Stacy didn't look too different when it came to her portrayals by Emma Stone and Bryce Howard. I am not familiar with Denis Leary's work in Rescue Me, but I actually believe his animated sabertooth counterpart Diego was a lot more expressive than his performance in this film. Peter's new adoptive family was well cast, and supported the film when it came to comic relief at times.

Overall, the film is quite good, but I am unable to tell whether it was better than the first Spiderman. This film's tone is less dramatic and more cheerful, making it more appealing to the younger audiences. Truly worth to watch it if you're interested in comic book adaptation movies.
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6/10
A good entry in the series, but not a terrific movie
9 July 2012
Ice Age: Continental Drift is the fourth installment in the Ice Age series, which was started a decade ago by FOX when they tried their hand at animation again after Titan A.E. became a box office bomb. The series follows a group of quite different prehistoric animals and the plot that it follows has been so far a formulaic "go from point A to B" story.

As the title suggests, Ice Age 4's plot revolves around the separation of continents. The herd is separated and while the original trio goes into an adventure overseas, the "half opossum, half mammoth" family tries to reach a rock bridge to meet up there. The film's animation is fantastic (you could hardly say a mainstream animated movie doesn't have terrific CGI) and backgrounds and water effects are beautiful, but the movie's storytelling is too fast paced and there are too many characters for them to develop while the movie lasts.

If the series is too formulaic what is the appeal of this movie? For anyone who has seen the whole series, you'll be happy to know Diego meets a female saber-tooth on the way and Sid is reunited with his sloth family. Amongst the new characters are a crew of pirates that capture the trio while they explore the ocean and become the main antagonists of the film.

The movie is overall quite worth it to watch with your family, but even the third one (which I didn't like a lot) had a better paced storytelling. New characters, in my opinion, don't really display a lot of personality traits other than Granny Sloth, but it is quite the enjoyable flick I would watch a few times on theaters.

The 3D, by the way, is not really worth it and the movie doesn't make use of it correctly. There were some moments when the background looked it was over the characters and that almost gave me a head ache. If you're taking your family to watch the movie don't waste your money on 3D.
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