The Amazing Spider-Man - Review

I wasn't really looking toward to this movie, something didn't quite click with me during the build up, maybe it's the very widespread opinion that’s it's too soon for a reboot?? Quite possibly. But with the new franchise brings a new story, I’ve read far too many comic books to poo-poo this movie so I saw it and golly did I enjoy it!

Let's just get a few things out the way, Andrew Garfield, for me, absolutely batters Maguire’s Peter Parker, I absolutely love his performance and after 2h 16m it is the shining beacon of the movie, he was spot on. This version of Peter is a bit more emotional than before and no where near as geeky. He walks the halls of high school with his skateboard and camera, he has a rather cool air about him, socially awkward but after the spider gives him a nip he grows more confident.

The interactions with his family are great, this movie gives us an actual look at his parents, something we didn’t get in the other franchise and also adds in a tiny bit of mystery about them, which further adds to Peters teenage angst due to growing up without them and not knowing why, this explains some of his more introverted qualities.

Garfield is great with the comedic parts of the script but what got me the most was his chemistry with Emma Stone during the more gooey parts of the movie, obviously Stone and Garfield started a relationship whilst  filming the movie and it is so obvious when watching these scenes.

Garfield is supported by Emma Stone playing Gwen Stacy, no Mary Jane this time around and that's a good thing! this is a reboot going a new direction after all and that's the only way it should be. Stone is great, not only is her acting superb she's also immensely attractive and that is something... Hmmm. Stacy's role is obviously Peter's love interest, I was told beforehand it was twilight esk' but that's bullshit, I don't get that at all. One thing I loved about her character was unlike MJ in the previous set of films, she’s was never really in mega danger, what I mean is MJ seemed to always get herself in a pickle where the villain would have her in a trap for Spider-Man, ready to drop her from a great distance normally and it was a boring and easy set-piece, not this time though, Gwen Stacy was rather involved with helping Spidey and seemed a pretty tough character.

The rest of the cast is made up of Peter’s family, in the shape of Aunt May and Uncle Ben, played by Sally Fields and Martin Sheen respectfully. I really liked the new Parkers, Sheen did a great job as Ben and Fields played a good, caring Aunt May, not getting as much screen time as the previous Aunt May I don’t think but obviously she’s there as a symbol of Peters responsibility to his family after his uncle dies (not a spoiler, that’s the most well known part of the origin so bite me!).

Our villain comes in the shape of Dr Curt Connors played by Rhys Ifans (lovely name that…) of course, anyone with knowledge of the Spider-Man universe knows that he is The Lizard. He is missing an arm and whilst trying to splice human and reptile genes to see if he can re-grow his arm he turns himself into a massive humanoid lizard. I’ve wanted a live action Lizard for ages and I was pretty excited to see Connors missing an arm in Spider-Man 2 as I thought it would obviously lead to him being a villain, apparently that was the case before a re-write and that never happened!

So yes I got my Lizard and was he any good? I thought he was. People mentioned that he looks like a Goomba from the Mario movie and they aren’t exactly wrong but this version of the Lizard is based on his first appearance in the comic books, no snout like in the cartoon series and later versions of the character so at least it’s loyal to the source material.

What I liked about the Lizard was he always felt like a threat, when he is towering above Spidey you feel that Spidey really is about to get his arse kicked and that his agility and web skills were his only hope, their fight scenes were great and very well done. Rhys Ifans plays the human side to the Lizard well, he is both a confident scientist but also shows the signs of frustration and emotional instability when alone, which makes his transformation into the Lizard have more to it than just seeking power.

So what of Spider-Man himself? How does this new version of the character differ from Raimi and Toby Maguire’s version? Well the suit is cool, I thought there needed to be more build up to the suit and obviously there is some evolution from his first attempt to the new finished suit but not enough for me, you kinda’ just see him walking along a rooftop with the brand spanking new suit with no real build up or reveal. Maybe its because I loved the montage in Spider-Man with the suit design. Same can be said about the web shooters, I was rather interested in those, but he kinda’ invents them and uses them in a space of 20 seconds.

Those are two extremely small nit picks but they both combine to what I thought was a slight rushing of the evolution from Peter to Spider-Man. The pacing of the film at the beginning is very well done but when it comes to actually becoming Spidey it feels rushed and is all done with a montage barely 30 seconds long.

This version of Spider-Man is a lot cockier and wise cracking than the previous one, something that is a big trait in the character and very reminiscent of the cartoon that so many of us loved during our childhood, teenage years and now as full adults! It works well and is pretty damn funny on some occasions.

Responsibility is always a big theme with Spider-Man and in this movie you really do get that Peter uses Spider-Man as his responsibility to New York to help them and further into the movie to help others, there is a scene when he is saving someone and Garfield’s performance is fantastic in showing Peters desperate need to save this person, how emotional he is whilst doing it, I really enjoyed those scenes, you really do see that it means the world to Peter and failure would destroy him.

I liked the story, it’s a good take on the very popular origin story of Spider-Man, not much differs from the Raimi origin except for locations and a few other small details. No wrestling Macho Man (RIP) this time sadly although there are some wrestling elements to help inspire Peter! There aren’t really any big surprises with the story; it’s fairly standard, good vs. evil, a new hero learning his new skills and powers, there are times when he falls and when he gets stuff wrong, you really get the feeling this is the start of his new life as a superhero and you see the physical effects his new lifestyle takes on him 

The movie has some really good special effects, obviously the Lizard is 100% made of CGI and most of his fights with Spider-Man turn into two CGI characters battling it out, but it’s good! They work really well. There are some really cool shots in a first person view when Spidey is running and flying around NYC that are pretty ace. I really enjoyed those shots because they felt new and different to what we’ve seen before. The 3D isn’t mind-blowing, there are some good uses, but I felt it could have had a lot more what with the subject matter, the last shot of the film is a good use of 3D and the SFX, enjoy!

Overall was this reboot a success? I believe it was. Sony took some flack for rebooting too soon and some of that certainly came from me, but in this world of superhero blockbusters you can see how they didn’t want to waste time on a lengthy reboot process and not lose out on some serious money. The sequel is already in place, May 2014 in fact so we have less than 2 years to wait for that too, which is great because I can’t wait to see Garfield don the mask and take to the high skyline of New York City once again.

Talking of said sequel I would say it’s fairly obvious who the next villain will be, there has even been talk that Sony will carry on with their plans to make a dedicated Venom movie, going back to the origin that was butchered in Spider-Man 3 and perhaps leading to a clash with Spidey in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise down the road. Of course not only is that absolutely years away it’s also very unlikely as that is just studio speak, nothing concrete, but that would seem the way to go! During the build up Mark Millar claimed they were taking inspiration from “Batman Begins” to be fair I don’t see much of that in TASM but there is a new grit to the character, Peter has more of an edge to him and it works perfectly.

I will be seeing this film again, mainly so my co-collaborator for this blog can see it and then probably add his thoughts to the site. I didn’t like the constant comparisons to Raimi’s franchise of old but it had to be done! If you’ve been ummin’ and ahhh’ing about seeing the film then stop and go see it, it’s a cracker. Oh and hang around during the credits!

8/10

R

@reece_bird