The Amazing Spiderman (***)
Directed
by: Marc Webb
Starring:
Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Dennis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally
Field,
Seen:
July 13th 2012
***
Out of ****
The
Amazing Spiderman is a reboot of The Spiderman series as last directed by Sam
Raimi only 5 years before this movie (Spiderman 3), a mere 10 years after the
start of the series it is rebooting. Out with the old and in with the new: Marc
Webb of (500) Days of Summer fame replaces Sam Raimi as director, Andrew
Garfield replaces Toby Maguire as the titular character, Emma Stone replaces
Kirsten Dunst as love interest, and Bryce Dallas Howard as character, and Denis
Leary replaces James Cromwell as Captain Stacy. I’m uncertain of whether this
reboot is actually better than the series it’s rebooting, but it is, however,
infinitely better than the cry-fest that was Spiderman 3. Out with the old and
in with new… old: Peter still loses his uncle which drives him to revenge which
brings him to eventually being the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman.
As
the aforementioned Sam Raimi series is relatively fresh in the memory, most of
us know the premise: Peter Parker (Garfield), all-round nice guy, gets bitten
by a radioactive spider, and turns into a spider himself, sans the eight legs
and creepy exoskeleton. He can basically do whatever a spider can. He is
bullied at school, he is in love with the Police Captain’s (Leary) daughter
Gwen (Stone), and he is an orphan living with his Aunt May (Field) and Uncle
Ben (Sheen) after his parents are killed in a plane crash. Peter discovers some
of his father’s old work relating to genetic restoration with some adverse
effects, and decides to try and follow up with an old colleague of his
father’s, Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), to find out more about his dad. Dr. Connors
is seemingly friendly but nurses a
grudge and a stump arm – and Peter’s dad’s work will both help him and
make him into something completely different and un-human, and something that
turns out to be quite a menace for Spiderman.
As
visual effects advance, so has The Amazing Spiderman moved past the previous
Spiderman movies re visual effects. That is not to say that it is perfect, as I
didn’t really buy the Lizard special effects on Rhys Ifans, even though the
fight sequences and everything surrounding it was very exhilarating and
adventurous. While Toby Maguire was a friendlier Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield
is a more darkly introspective Peter Parker with a more cutting and sarcastic
sense of humour, and he cries less than Maguire in Spiderman 3, thankfully!
Director
Marc Webb lends an entirely new look to Spiderman, in my opinion improving it
when there is no action and/or drama, but barely keeping up with Raimi’s
action. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have good chemistry under a strong but
relatively oblivious (well-played) Dennis Leary’s nose; Rhys Ifans is great in
those scenes that do not feature him as the lizard; and Sally Field and Martin
Sheen are tender and sweet as Aunt May and Uncle Ben.
I would say The Amazing Spiderman
is on par with and perhaps a bit better than Sam Raimi’s first Spiderman movie.
It is far better than Spiderman 3, but it does not compare with Spiderman 2;
the horror-like nature of Doctor Octopus as directed by Raimi and portrayed by
Alfred Molina remains the best part of all the Spiderman movies. If you like
Spiderman, you will probably like this quite a bit, but it doesn’t break
massive ground for the series and only the follow-up movie(s) will tell if the
choice to reboot the series was really the right choice. As long as the fans
are happy I suppose they can do what they want…
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