Bad omens for The Amazing Spider-Man

Last week I caught Men in Black 3 at my local IMAX theater. That film was decent, but nothing that special.

However, before the movie, there was a six-minute preview of the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man. That preview was incredibly noteworthy and not really in a good way. Here are my impressions/warnings regarding that preview.

• Loud
• Dumb
• Seizure-inducing color pallet

I hate to sound like an old man, but man I hope they turn down the volume on this thing. It was nothing but pounding drums, blaring music, and every line was screamed directly into your eardrums. I know that it was just a preview and things like sound editing and sound mixing still have a long way to go, but they are not doing themselves any favors by cranking up the volume to 160 decibels.

The story appears dumb and awkward. The preview featured an exchange between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey that was almost unbearably awkward. I know that high school kids are developing social skills and asking a girl on a date can stress those skills to the max, but the scene shown was laughable. After a couple of minutes of silly posturing with Peter struggling to string words into actual sentences, I wanted Parker to simply club the girl in the head and drag her off to a cave. That would have at least been a direct approach to the situation, and it would have ended the dumb posturing the two were displaying. I hope the rest of the film surpasses this quality of dialog. It would be painful indeed if the rest of the film is that idiotic.

Finally, a word of warning. If you are prone to epileptic seizures, stay away from this movie! One of the major selling-points of this film is the first-person perspective of Spiderman flying around New York. These sequences look terrible! The colors are overly bright and they flash by too rapidly. I got a headache just from the few seconds I saw (though the pounding bass drum probably didn't help). I have a feeling that people prone to seizures are going to lose it during the movie. Even if you don't have a full-on seizure, I can't imagine that you're going to enjoy these sequences. It's painful to watch.

I was hoping that the preview might help settle my nerves about this movie, but I have to say, I'm not sold. A well-done action film could be awesome and justify the reboot for the franchise. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good for this one.

I suggest you lower your expectations for this one on July 4 weekend.

So, are you going to ignore my warnings and be at the midnight release of the film? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter!