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Reel World Reality A ministry of the ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP Ministry) A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Christian Ministry. www.capalert.com/ Entertainment Media Analysis Report A service to His little ones through you in His name by His Word MAR2012.081  (2012), PG-13 [R-13*] (126.75min) The #1 Christian entertainment media analysis service on the Internet. We give you OBJECTIVE tools NO ONE ELSE CAN to help YOU make an informed decision for yourself whether a film is fit for your family. Over 1500 analyses for parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more. |
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(While the Scriptural references are certainly not subjective, my commentary may be and sometimes is somewhat subjective.)
 Production (US): A Marvel Entertainment, Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach Produnction Distribution (US): Sony Home Entertainment Director(s): Mark Webb Producer(s): Stan Lee, Kevin Feige, Michael Grillo, Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach Screenplay by: James Vanderbuilt, Alvin Sargent, Steve Kloves Story by: James Vanderbuilt Based on: Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Cinematography/Camera: John Schwartzman Music: James Horner Film Editing: Alan Edward Bell, Pietro Scalia Casting: Francie Maisler Production Design: J. Michael Riva Viewed on Sony Home Entertainment DVD This version of the Spider-man films is a rehash with mostly the same characters with different performers. It still tells of Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), still in high school in this version, getting bitten by a unique spider then developing spider capabilities. Mary Jane is replaced by Peter's high school sweetheart, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Uncle Ben and Aunt May are still Uncle Ben and Aunt May but Ben is played by Martin Sheen and Aunt May is played by Sally Field. One day, Peter at four years old (Max Charles) discovers the den of his father, Dr. Richard Parker (Campbell Scott), in shambles. Richard expects the trashing of his den to be the work of men looking for a secret formula he had developed. Sensing the event to be a danger to his family Richard quickly hustles Peter and his wife, Mary (Embeth Davidtz) out of the house. Richard and Mary leave Peter with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben then disappear, a disappearance than oozes "sequel" since other events in the story hint of it. Apparently Peter's parents were killed in a plane crash. With his aunt and uncle, Peter grows to intelligent adolescence. Peter has been living a life of torment at the hands of his high school nemesis, Flash "Eugene" Thompson (Chris Zylka). One day, an attractive young lady named Gwen comes to his rescue and a romantic spark between them is ignited. Peter had found some papers of his father's scientific work and seeks to find the man with his father in an old picture, Dr. Curt Conners (Rhys Ifans). Peter finds that Conners works in research in the Oscorp building as the foremost authority in herpetology. Together with Richard, Conners was working on a special formula that would cure all that ails anyone and would even re-grow missing limbs. Later, feigning his identity to appear as an intern, Peter sneaks into the Oscorp building to meet Conners but finds his high school sweetheart, Gwen also works in the Oscorp building as the emcee for the group of new interns into which Peter has sneaked. But she remains silent about it. Later Peter showed up at Dr. Conners' home doorstep. Initially, Dr. Conners recognized Peter as one of the new interns at the Oscorp building and tries to get Peter to leave. Soon, Peter plagiarizes his father's work to influence Dr. Conners into inviting Peter in. It is then Dr. Conners gets his first taste of Richard Parker's work which promises to complete the new formula. There is, of course, a great deal more to the plot and story but I won't spoil the film any further should you decide, based on what we have yet to reveal about it, that this cinematic work is fit for your family.  With a final score of 47 out of 100, the content of this film falls well into the range of scores earned by R-rated features (54 and below out of 100) in our comparative baseline database of film analyses. By cursory observation of the film I did not expect it to earn a R-13 score but the CAP Analysis Model proved me wrong ... again. There are a few moments the content seems a little graphic but overall it subjectively "feels" more like a "hardcore" PG. But after crunching the numbers I see that, in spite of the few instances of somewhat graphic content, there are so many of the "lesser" kind of content to yield a magnitude of content equivalent to some R-rated features in the comparative baseline database.For your information and convenience, to the right is a scoring data comparative of the four Spider-man installments. It reveals this 2012 installment is the lowest scoring of the four installments. All four installments earned a zero score in Wanton Violence/Crime (W) but this 2012 installment earned a zero score also in Impudence/Hate (I). There is much more information to gather from the above comparative by the studious and probing reader but I will leave the additional information to your scrutiny. Following are brief discussions of the content per individual content investigation area. As always the Findings section of this report, the heart of the CAP Analysis Model, is the best source for discovering the full accounting of the content of this film. Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - Zero out of 100 Violence/crime content basically swirls around a few core content elements such as assaults, beatings, action violence, defiance of police and police violence, creature violence and bully violence. There are enough of these content matters to steal all the starting 100 points from this content investigation area. Think that not to be a problem for the impressionable? Consider ... God warns about violence and its influence more than 50 times from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Proverb 16:29 seems to sum up His admonitions against violence rather well. In Proverb 16:29 God warns that violence can be enticing: that violence can be "catching"; that it can lead one into a path that is not good. And sure enough, man [thankfully] plagiarized God's Word by four professional public health agencies warning that violence in and as entertainment can, among other things, lead the observer, especially the young to real life violence and that it can lead the observer to believe that violence is an effective means of settling conflict. God further warns of the sweetness of ill-gotten gain by crime festers and spoils [Prov. 20:17]. He further warns, figuratively, an athlete cannot earn the victor's trophy unless he competes by the rules. [2 Tim. 2:5] Impudence/Hate (I) - Zero out of 100 Contradictory to the trend of the content of PG-13 films this PG-13 film presents only seven uses of profanity plus three incomplete/masked uses of the most foul of the foul words. [Col. 3:8, Eph. 4:29] Though the contribution to the ignominious content of this film by the profanity is ugly enough, it was not enough to cause of the loss of all the starting 100 points from this content investigation area. Many of the starting points were lost to adolescent disrespect, defiance, deceit, antagonism [1 Pet. 5:5 - 6, Isa. 30:1] and to lying [Rev. 21:8]. Sexual Immorality (S) - 66 out of 100 Atypical of PG-13 films, no one gets in bed with anyone in this film. The only nudity is of a creature returning to human form at a distance and then not showing any gender-specific anatomy. However, two teens engaged in a clothed make-out frenzy on school property, a female in a very short skirt repeatedly, an adolescent boy in an adolescent girl's bedroom repeatedly and Spidey wearing a form-fitting outfit which often reveals his anatomy plus an adult in her underwear stole a third of the starting 100 points of this investigation area. Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 74 out of 100 Booze appears only once but untested drugs are injected into a character's body repeatedly. Also, the police are subjected to a morphallaxis substance to change them into reptiles and Dr. Connors tries to cause the entire city to inhale the morphallaxis substance though Spidey is successful at foiling that attempt and in distributing an antidote. Though distributing the antidote was a good thing in that it returned the police to human form, it was still forcing drug consumption on the populace. Offense to God (O) - 61 out of 100 God's name is abused 11 times but each time without the four letter expletive. [Deut. 5:11] Other than that Peter is portrayed as having non-human powers throughout the film. Murder/Suicide (M) - 84 out of 100 Two murders are portrayed. Once by gunfire and once by run-through impalement. Both are rather graphic. SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ] or bold. If you wish to have full context available, the Blue Letter Bible is a convenient source. If you use the Blue Letter Bible, a new window will open. Close it to return here or use "Window" in your browser's menu bar to alternate between the CAP page and the Blue Letter Bible page. CHAPTER/VERSE --> Children who see a lot of violence are more likely to view violence as an effective way of settling conflicts. Children exposed to violence are more likely to assume the acts of violence are acceptable behavior. --> Viewing violence can lead to emotional desensitization towards violence in real life. It can decease the likelihood that one will take action on behalf of a victim when violence occurs. --> Entertainment violence feeds a perception that the world is a violent and mean place. Viewing violence increases fear of becoming a victim of violence, with a resultant increase in self-protective behavior and a mistrust of others. --> Viewing violence may lead to real life violence. Children exposed to violent programming at a young age have a higher tendency for violent and aggressive behavior later in life than children who are not so exposed. Further, God speaks darkly of violence 56 times in the Old and New Testament of the KJV.] As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie. |
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(The objective heart of the CAP Analysis Model, independent of and insulated from the Summary / Commentary section.)   Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - Zero out of 100 Impudence/Hate (I) - Zero out of 100 Sexual Immorality (S) - 66 out of 100 Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 74 out of 100 Offense to God (O) - 61 out of 100 Murder/Suicide (M) - 84 out of 100 |
| There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings. |
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| For G rated Films with G equivalence: G PG equivalence: PG-G PG-13 equivalence: 13-G R equivalence: R-G< | For PG rated Films with G equivalence: G-PG PG equivalence: PG PG-13 equivalence: 13-PG R equivalence: R-PG | For PG-13 rated Films with G equivalence: G-13 PG equivalence: PG(13) PG-13 equivalence: PG-13 R equivalence: R-13 | For R rated Films with G equivalence: G-R PG equivalence: PG-R PG-13 equivalence: 13-R R equivalence: R | For NR rated Films with G equivalence: G-NR PG equivalence: PG-NR PG-13 equivalence: 13-NR R equivalence: R-NR |
