Old vs. New
At Comic Con 2013, the Marvel panel kicked off with an
entrance from Loki. Without doubt, it played out exceedingly well as the crowd
continued to chant “Loki”. Tom Hiddleston commanded the entire audience with ease
by turning up in character and proved to be a true demi-god.
I saw the Spider-Man panel and Andrew Garfield turned up in
costume as well, trying to pull off what Hiddleston did to perfection. Unfortunately
and quite surprisingly, Garfield was unable
to draw the same hysteria Loki did.
I was startled.
Unlike most, I was content with the reboot of the Spider-Man
franchise despite being an initial skeptic. We all love Tobey Maguire so seeing
someone take his post so early was outrageous. There are some highly notable
differences in their two portrayals of the superhero. Maguire created the geeky
tone with nerd-like innocence and it was something to savor from the beginning.
Garfield, on the other hand, plays a teenage Spider-Man who is more energetic and
hormonal. He serves his own brand of humor which unfortunately is at the
expense of others more often than not and his tone comes off as arrogant and
petulant. Garfield playing with the carjacker like a toy was funny in the movie,
but it had a sliver of cruelty. It’s difficult to like him early on as a result
of this.
Could this be why Garfield was not heralded more affably at
Comic Con? Fans could still be in love with Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man making
Andrew Garfield’s appointment objectionable. Even I find Maguire’s Peter Parker
more likeable.
In Garfield’s defense, he is representing a teenage Peter
Parker. Adolescents are prone to have less control over their behavior, opting
to act on impulse rather than sensible thought so you can cut Garfield some
slack. I am not familiar with the comics extensively so it is difficult for me
to judge whose Spider-Man is more accurate in character. However, on film at
least, I would side with Tobey Maguire.
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