second mesa

OK, so I know that Tianna will agree with me on this one. But we went to see The Amazing Spider-Man yesterday and it was really, really good. I would’ve turned right back around and watched it again.

It was at the very least on par with the first and second Spider-Man movies (3 was a mess). I think it’s actually better, but that might be just me being a Spidey geek and riding the euphoria of the new film. It was most everything a Spider-Man geek would want.

Andrew Garfield did a great job making Peter Parker a more modern day geek. Nick had mentioned to me that he did a good job of displaying how some situations made Peter uncomfortable and hard to get his point across, sometimes very unsure of what to say. And while his confidence grew in a lot of situations as he became Spider-Man, there were still occasions where he portrayed Peter having a hard time. There was more emotion in dealing with the whole Uncle Ben story as well.

Emma Stone was great as Gwen Stacy. Everything I think I remembered about that character from the comics she portrayed. She was not afraid to stand up for anyone or to do her part in difficult situations. She was Peter’s peer academically. And Emma Stone did a great job of showing Gwen’s understanding of who Peter was, what he had become, and what she was getting into. Her Gwen was able to help and encourage Peter, a trait that I remember from the comics. Doesn’t make too much sense now but if you watch the show you’ll see what I mean.

Was it direct canon from the comics? Not all of it. But did those deviations detract from the movie? I don’t think so at all. And as many times as I’ve read or watched Uncle Ben dying scenes, they still seemed to be able to pull off a very emotional part of the movie superbly. They did a great job of showing Spidey’s “way” of fighting bad guys, and his often witty banter he’d take part in with them. The web-swinging scene near the end of the movie was pretty cool. Even the resolution of the movie had me going from, “You can’t end it like that!,” to, “I really like how what they did there.” Finally, every scene that has both Captain Stacy and Peter/Spidey in it was awesome.

The secret scene half-way through the credits… well, I won’t spoil it, but it does set things up nicely, if not for movie 2, then at least the 3rd one. There wasn’t a secret scene at the very end of the credits like a lot of Marvel movies. I am interested to see if they eventually stick to the comic stories pertaining to Gwen. If you don’t remember, she was eventually killed by the Green Goblin and I’d like to see if the movie studio is brave enough to allow someone to tell that story on the big screen.

Bottom line, if you get the chance, go and see this movie!

Do to the recent events that occurred on CA, I’ve put together a couple of links that Becky found that at the very least, each of you should browse through.

FTC What To Do If Your Personal Information Has Been Compromised

Identity Theft And Your Social Security Number

Identity theft, fraud or misuse of my Social Security card

These are all links to government websites concerning identity theft. After reading through these, if you haven’t already, please call one of the credit agencies and put a fraud alert on your credit. This makes it so that they will call you anytime any type of credit is being applied for in your name. You only need to call one, and whichever you call passes the the information on to the other two.

I called Equifax and entered some information. Then a real person got on the line to verify the information, find out the reason for the alert, give me some information, then try to sell a fraud protection package (the person I talked to wasn’t pushy or anything).

I also read that you should wait to order your credit report, somewhere around a month after you suspect you’ve been compromised. That way any unauthorized activity will show up on it.

So make the call, then order your free credit report in a few weeks.