With the reboot of the franchise occurring after Spiderman 4 was nixed, and less than a decade after Raimi finished his trilogy the greedy movie making executive looking to exploit a money making character immediately comes to mind. However, the film does Spider-man justice and ultimately creates the best Spider-man film to date.
With the first film in what is assumed to be another Spider-man trilogy complete, it is safe to say that this franchise reboot may even be able to rival Nolan’s Batman franchise later on down the line. Until then this is an excellent re-start to the Spider-man franchise that has already surpassed the previous trilogy created by Raimi.
The
Amazing Spider-Man introduces us to Peter Parker and his parents who
leave Peter with his Aunt and Uncle at a very young age. This
disappearance of Peter’s parents occur under mysterious circumstances
and despite the films marketing, which suggests the mysteries of Peter’s
parents will be solved, the film never explores this mystery to deeply.
As Peter grows up and enters high school he finds himself attracted to the police captain’s daughter Gwen Stacey. While pursuing a possible love interest, Peter simultaneously tries to figure out what happened to his parents after he discovers an old photograph that belonged to them featuring an unknown man, later revealed to be Curt Conners.
As the film progresses we see how Peter Parker acquires the abilities and costume of Spider-man. Simultaneously we see Curt Conners experiments eventually lead him down a dark path as he transforms himself into the Lizard, a powerful adversary that Peter helps to create and now must stop. As Peter’s relationship with Gwen Stacey grows and as he learns to accept his new found abilities; the audience gets to see Peter transform from a carefree teenager to a responsible adult, or in this case hero.
As Peter grows up and enters high school he finds himself attracted to the police captain’s daughter Gwen Stacey. While pursuing a possible love interest, Peter simultaneously tries to figure out what happened to his parents after he discovers an old photograph that belonged to them featuring an unknown man, later revealed to be Curt Conners.
As the film progresses we see how Peter Parker acquires the abilities and costume of Spider-man. Simultaneously we see Curt Conners experiments eventually lead him down a dark path as he transforms himself into the Lizard, a powerful adversary that Peter helps to create and now must stop. As Peter’s relationship with Gwen Stacey grows and as he learns to accept his new found abilities; the audience gets to see Peter transform from a carefree teenager to a responsible adult, or in this case hero.
The Amazing Spider-Man is a very successful reboot of the Spider-man franchise, and it surpasses the quality of Raimi’s franchise easily. Where as Sam Raimi’s franchise has a lot of cheesy moments, childish humor, and a lot of close up shots of people screaming (this is very annoying) this Spider-man mostly does away with those ideas. The Spider-man reboot isn’t necessarily darker as much as it is grittier.
Spider-man is a tragic hero, and this film plays that up showing us major events in Peter’s life that have a strong emotional impact on him such as: growing up with no parents, the loss of his uncle, the strained but loving relationship with his aunt, and the highly stressful relationship between Peter and Gwen. The difficulty Peter has dealing with these events transforms his character from a misbehaving teen to the hero that the general public has loved Spider-man for being.
Andrew Garfield does an excellent job portraying Spider-man on film. He keeps a biting edge to his personality that forces Spider-man away from people that are close to him while also being able to capture his emotional vulnerability. Emma Stone has great chemistry with Andrew Garfield and adds another complex character who brings a complex situation to the Spider-man story. Gwen Stacey is fully functional character who is much more than your typical damsel in distress. Her character and her family adds a lot more to the story than Mary Jane ever could, and the choice to focus Spider-man’s love around Gwen rather than Mary Jane stays mostly true to the original Spider-man story.
The support roles played by Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben) and Sally Field (Aunt May) are played with the perfection that would be expected of veteran actors like Sheen and Fields. Captain Stacey (Denis Leary) is portrayed surprisingly well by the comedian who is not known for being able to portray serious roles.
The film does take some variances from the original Spider-man story but these variances feel like they help the overall plot of the film and future films of this reboot. Fans of the series will be relieved to see that Spider-man does make his own webbing in this film series (one of my biggest pet peeves in the Raimi trilogy). Introducing the film audience to Gwen Stacey, whom Stan Lee has said was intended to be the true love of Spider-man, helps change the tone and direction of this film series into a more serious and emotional film than its predecessor. Loyalty to the original concept of Spider-man is what gives the film trilogy a truly great start.
Here are a few of the nit-picking issues I had with what was a really good film. The biggest issue I had was with the physical appearance of the Lizard. He has a very human look to him, which presumably is there to remind audiences that Curt Conners has not entirely lost his humanity. However, the look just doesn’t work.
When Dr. Jekyll transforms into the horrible, raging, out of control, fierce and frightening monster Mr. Hyde, he looks like that type of monster… likewise when Curt Conners transforms into the Lizard monster he should look like a horrible, raging, out of control, fierce and frightening monster… except he doesn’t, he just looks ridiculous.
The removal of Curt Conners’ family from the story is also a bit irritating. This leaves Conners as a bachelor, while having a family could have added to the tragedy that has been the story of Curt Conners’ life.
Minus a few nitpicking areas this film comes highly recommended to anyone looking to add to their movie collection. As far as superhero films go this film is better than all of them save Nolan’s Batman trilogy. The Amazing Spider-Man is a worthy rival to that trilogy and as the Spider-man sequels are released, it will probably become a debated issue.
Spider-man is one best developed characters as far as super heroes go, so even for people who don’t normally like this type of film, it can still be easily accessible, appreciated, and enjoyed.
Minus a few nitpicking areas this film comes highly recommended to anyone looking to add to their movie collection. As far as superhero films go this film is better than all of them save Nolan’s Batman trilogy. The Amazing Spider-Man is a worthy rival to that trilogy and as the Spider-man sequels are released, it will probably become a debated issue.
Spider-man is one best developed characters as far as super heroes go, so even for people who don’t normally like this type of film, it can still be easily accessible, appreciated, and enjoyed.
Score: 8.9
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