Today U.S. audiences are finally able to feast their eyes on Marc Webb‘s reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, which started with great numbers at midnight showings. According to Comic Book Movie, The Amazing Spider-Man raked in a grand total of $7.5 million for these showings alone, which equals the same amount as such other blockbusters as Iron Man 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and Spider-Man 3.
It’s a little early to say how it will perform after its long week, but these results are quite promising. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the reviews have been fair with 72% of critics approving of the film with an ok score of 6.8/10. Our own Jonathan Lack loved it, giving the film a whopping 95% in his review.
I had my screening last night and unfortunately, I have to be Mr. Buzzkill as I wasn’t particularly impressed with it. I had been disappointed with Sam Raimi‘s original film back when it came out mainly because I had found the origin story pretty bland, so I was hoping that the writers of the reboot would do something new and exciting with it.
Sadly, I was disappointed again as they didn’t really do much differently other than change the villain into a dull giant lizard and switch Parker’s love interest to Gwen Stacy.
Personally, I’m hoping for a much more impressive sequel, like what Raimi did with the great Spider-Man 2. I look forward to a film that will explore the duality of Parker’s life in the same fashion, which will, in turn, offer up more emotional depth as it delves deeper into the character.
However, the midnight numbers show that people are anxious to see it regardless of anything negative critics have had to say. Even as I was leaving my screening last night at about 9:30, people were already lining up for the midnight IMAX showing. I’m pretty sure we can expect significant returns for the remainder of the week.
What did you all think of The Amazing Spider-Man? Great? Disappointing? Somewhere in between? Let us know in the comments!