The Amazing Spiderman

The Amazing Spider Man review

Poor Spiderman, the recent years have not been kind to him at all. His comic book series has spiralled downhill, the recent cartoon series Ultimate Spider Man has made him into a complete rip off of Deadpool and because of Spider man 3 he has now got a reboot film under the name of The Amazing Spider Man. This movie once again tells us the origin story of the web-slinging hero but with a more darker tone very similar to the Chris Nolan Batman films but there’s more to the dark, gritty tone of the film than you think. Was a reboot worth restarting the Spider Man film series? Or was Spidey better off without it? Let’s find out.

For those of you who are familiar with the comic books, the story of course needs no introduction a teenaged boy named Peter Parker who’s considered the nerdy kid in his school but is bitten by a radioactive spider, gained superpowers and becomes the costumed superhero Spiderman. But unlike the Sam Rami Spider Man movies that came before Amazing Spider Man actually revolves around a Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker relationship like in the comics instead of Mary Jane Watson. The movie’s main plot focuses on Peter’s parents and with the involvement of Dr Connors A.K.A The Lizard. Gwen’s father Captain Stacy believes Spiderman is a wanted criminal and issues a warrant arrest on him which gives Peter the difficult dilemma of being with Gwen and not being arrested by her father or be killed by The Lizard.

The Amazing Spider Man features a new actor to play the main lead of Peter Parker and his alter ego enter newcomer Andrew Garfield who I have to say is a much better Spiderman than Tobey Maguire. Spiderman was known as a jokey superhero who used humour to hide his real feelings. While Tobey Maguire nailed the part of Peter Parker to a tee but as Spiderman it was a different story. At times when he tried to sound funny he just came off as half asleep but Andrew Garfield’s take on Spidey in this film really blew him out of the water and after spending 5 minutes with him as Spiderman it’s clear he was meant to be the web-slinger. The jokes, immaturity and “in your face” sort of attitude felt genuine and very real. Most of the scenes when he’s Spiderman were very funny to watch especially the scene where Spiderman is sitting on a bed made of his own webbing in the sewers playing on his Iphone.

The chemistry between Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker felt more believable compared to Peter’s relationship with Mary Jane which got boring, stale and quite wooden as the Sam Rami movies progressed. Gwen was clearly an independent woman who is in control and was a relatable character and kind of a change of pace from the usual damsel in distress character that we’ve seen a little too often in superhero movies. The supporting roles all fit nicely. Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben was a pretty spot-on portrayal. He was a stern but loving father figure towards Peter who tragically lost his life when Peter was going through the ups and downs of his life and that in turn is what makes Peter stronger and makes him a better hero. The Lizard was not half bad either. His descent to madness reminded me so much of Dr Octopus in Spider Man 2. The person who put on a surprising performance was Denis Leary as Captain Stacy. I feel that he was the “J Jonah Jameson” character of this movie needed without relying on Mr Jameson so much to tell us what his view on Spider Man is. I loved the moments before Peter Parker was Spider Man because it provided the best jokes in the movie. Mainly how Peter deals with coming to terms with his new super powers and actually learning to be careful in situations that require him to use his powers which I thought was far funnier and showed Peter knowing his limitations rather than standing in the mirror and noticing his abs like Tobey Maguire did as Spiderman.

But where the movie falls flat is that it tries so hard to be like other superhero movies like The Dark Knight Trilogy, Iron Man and even things like X-men Origins Wolverine not to mention the movie even skips plot elements in offer of something different. Like the unresolved scenario where Peter tries to track down his uncle’s killer but instead it’s left as an after thought and he goes after The Lizard instead whose attacking the bridge at that point. Another area of the plot that went nowhere was the inclusions of “Lizard people” roaming the streets of New York we see them mutate but never see them do anything and ultimately get changed back. They wasted what could’ve been interesting content for the movie but they end turning it into pointless filer. But the biggest plot point they don’t flesh out entirely for me was Peter’s parents, the whole point of the movie is that Peter is learning the truth about his past but they just have the parents in one flashback sequence that’s in the beginning movie and never touch upon that aspect until much later on in the movie but are only briefly mentioned by Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

The movie because of it’s dark tone is trying so hard to mimic the Chris Nolan’s Batman films. It’s not outright copying those movies but some areas of the movie did feel a bit overkill to me and as a result incorporate elements into Spiderman which aren’t really needed. Some things like having 500 men pursue Spider Man I thought belonged in things like Batman or The Hulk. And the fact that Spidey gets beaten up a lot bothered me because we never really see Spiderman get beaten up in terms of a character and it reminded way too much of the one scene from The Dark Knight where Batman has no limits.

But the one scene that utterly disgusted me was the scene with the Lizard mouse. It was literally thrown in there just for the sake of the dark tone of the movie and I really didn’t think we needed to see the mouse mutated and it would’ve been better if we just saw the damaged cage it came from rather see the changed mouse altogether.

The Lizard as a main villain felt forgettable and lacklustre as a character. As much as he was a good villain to start the reboot I felt he couldn’t hold together a whole movie on his own. Granted throughout the movie we are given glimpses and foreshadowing of Norman Osborn but I think starting out this new series of Spiderman movies would be redundant. I feel they should’ve at least given Dr Connors at least some depth to his character like maybe see him with his family just to show us that he’s not just a scientist and would’ve developed as a character more.

The Amazing Spider Man was a surprisingly good reboot for the series but it felt more like it wanted to be a Batman movie rather than a Spiderman movie and relied too heavily on the dark tone it had. Despite that it has some great and intense action sequences, likeable characters and follows if not a little bit more closely to the comic books itself.

7/10

Directed by Marc Webb

Budget: $230 million

Box office: $752,216,557

Profit: $522,216,557