The Amazing Spider-Man

Because of story problems with a fourth Spider-Man movie, Marvel decided to reboot the franchise. When I heard this, I personally felt it was too soon. After viewing the final product, I was impressed and I enjoyed the movie but its differences were quite distracting. It is fun to watch the other Spider-Man movies and this movie is quite dramatic instead. The realistic approach the filmmakers took was interesting and the acting was very good but without a true sense of fun, "The Amazing Spider-Man" is a moderate film.

The filmmakers appear to be portraying Spider-Man after the manner of Jon Favreau's "Iron Man". Design-wise, this Spider-Man movie looks more realistic. New York City in the other films is clean and appealing while in the reboot, the city is a tad dirtier and practical. There is a darker tone also. All this can be said about the story also. Peter starts out less like an underdog and more like a troubled teen. His parents mysteriously left when he was a child and he wants the truth. Peter's powers are not as supernatural as we are used to either. As great as his reflects become, they are depicted in a more realistic light. The same can be said concerning his swinging, strength and agility. Instead of a superhero, he is more like a super athlete and that is a neat approach. The movie has a few story similarities with "Spider-Man" from 2002. The most obvious one is the death of Uncle Ben. Peter could have stopped the robber but instead delivers an ironic line towards the victim in revenge for being mistreated. As a consequence, Uncle Ben is killed. Another similarity is Uncle Ben's lecture on responsibility. Furthermore, Spider-Man (in both the 2002 film and this one) takes shape because Peter wants vengeance against the man who killed Uncle Ben. He must redeem his mistake. In "The Amazing Spider-Man" however, Peter goes on a long manhunt and creates his costume along the way. He becomes an arrogant vigilante for quite a while. While Peter does choose the path of the hero in the end, I found the film a little discomforting to watch because Peter spends much of it as an irresponsible teenager. He is not as virtuous as we are used to but instead cocky. I also don't accept his intelligence as easily in this reboot and therefore, the mechanical web-shooters seemed a little inconceivable for him to be able to build. While Peter is a more realistic teenager in this movie, the consequence is that he comes across as less bright. The Spider-Man suit for this movie was created by Cirque du Soleil and that is ironic considering the realistic approach. Despite these criticisms I have, the story was still good and the climax was quite exciting. One good quality that "The Amazing Spider-Man" has is that when ordinary citizens have heroic moments, they are not cheesy as they were on the Sam Raimi films. I liked it when the construction men came together to help Spider-Man save the city at the end of the movie.

Andrew Garfield is a wonderful actor that everyone remembers from "The Social Network" and I believed his performance in this movie. The same goes for Emma Stone. It is a neat coincidence that she acted with Bryce Dallas Howard in "The Help" and Howard played Gwen Stacy in "Spider-Man 3". I like the character of Gwen more in this movie and the same goes for her father. Denis Leary's work was really good as was the performances of Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The acting in this show is very noteworthy but every once in a while, this got a little redundant. It seemed like there were too many emotional moments in the film and not enough fun moments. Also, the villain in this movie wasn't as entertaining as past Spider-Man villains. Every great hero needs a great villain. The Lizard wasn't as fun to watch as Doctor Octopus or the Green Goblin. Stan Lee's cameo was really funny however thanks to the use of sound in the scene. Screenwriter Steve Kloves from the Harry Potter franchise helped write this movie a little bit so that is cool. Back in the 90's, James Horner did some amazing work because his musical scores had memorable themes such as for "Braveheart" and "Titanic". In both "Avatar" and "The Amazing Spider-Man", his scores don't have memorable themes and in my opinion, are not as good. Finally, I feel that director Marc Webb (ha) did his job just fine.

The 3D in this movie was well done and I hear that new camera technology was used for this first time in Hollywood on this film. "The Amazing Spider-Man" is slightly better than "Spider-Man 3" because of its originality and realistic setting. "The Avengers", which came out two months before, was so much fun however that this movie could not compete in my eyes. You got some great acting and a well-done climax but this movie was a bit too different for my taste than what I am used to for Spider-Man. Because of the mid-credits scene and the unresolved question about Peter's parents, a sequel was inevitable. The result was good.

3.5 Stars