The Amazing Spider-Man Movie Review

Was it really necessary for Sony to reboot the Spider-Man series only five years after the last film and ten years after the first? Is Sam Raimi’s trilogy already ancient history? Apparently for the Millenials anything older than half a decade is passé. I don’t mind a new actor in the Peter Parker/Spider-Man role or a new director at the helm. James Bond has changed hands through six actors across fifty years. The problem I find is the absurd need to retell the origin story. The Batman series went through three actors and two directors with a major stylistic shift halfway through without getting back into Bruce Wayne’s history. It was Christopher Nolan who rebooted that franchise by taking a completely new track on the mythology. Unlike Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man which is virtually indistinguishable from the first trilogy.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II Movie Review

It was fairly obviously a cynical ploy to maximize profits that led Warner Bros. executives to split Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into two films. One film made from the seventh book in the popular series by J.K. Rowling would have had to top the four hour mark to have even a semblance of coherence, but that hasn’t really stopped the writers and directors of the previous films. Last year we were treated to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and now this summer the final chapter concluded with Part II.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The real problem facing Steve Kloves (screenwriter of all but the fifth Harry Potter film) since, oh, about the fourth film is that the books are so bloated and weighed down by countless minor characters, back stories and pieces of the puzzle that it’s simply impossible to turn them into entirely coherent movies. I think he’s done a fantastic job with the thankless task he’s taken on. The first three films in the series, although still leaving out some key elements that help explain certain motivations, are effective adaptations of the source material. The third film is still the best, due in large part to director Alfonso Cuarón.