In 2002, Spider-Man was the first time that I watched a superhero film on the big screen. I came out of the theater very happy with just how fun it was, considering I was a kid. Little did I know there was a contract in place between Sony and Marvel which states that the film studios that own the rights to Marvel characters have a span of 5 years to create a film based on the heroes. Once the time has been used up, the rights revert back to Marvel. It was then that in 2012 Sony rebooted the wall crawler with a different actor, love interest, and origin story. For better and worse.
The first time watching The Amazing Spider-Man, I enjoyed the new interpretation of Peter's origins, as well as seeing Gwen Stacy being integrated. Knowing for a fact that she has to die since it happened in the comics, it made me interested to see how she was going to be incorporated. Now years later and seeing TWO Peter Parkers, Andrew Garfield is the weakest of the Spider-Men. For one thing, he's not nerdy or aloof as depicted in the comics. I believe that Garfield is representing the contemporary Peter Parker where he is more confident and has a full time job which is a far cry from when readers saw Parker. This take is more hipster oriented, by having him use a skateboard for two scenes. Why they decided to implement the thing is beyond me. It gets to a point where I wondered why exactly could the studio not draft someone who is younger. Aside from that, Andrew Garfield does an okay take of Peter Parker, he keeps to himself and tries at first to establish a connection with Gwen Stacy.
Most of the romance between Peter and Gwen works well. Considering the fact that both of them were dating which makes the intimacy between them feel real. It really is romantic and sweet just seeing them talking. Additionally, Gwen does more than just be the damsel in distress in this film. Such as helping Peter figure out how exactly to beat The Lizard. To be honest, I would pick her over Kirtsten Dunst's Mary Jane.
This interpretation of Spider-Man is slightly realistic. One of the best moments is when we see him assembling the web blasters. That moment feels grounded since what Peter has lying around are used watches and computer skills along with science. It's refreshing than seeing spinnerets being on Parker's wrist as shown in the original Raimi films, we'll get to those eventually. The overall suit is okay, like the web blasters, it attempts to be grounded in reality by having it something where anyone can put it together. There's literally a moment where Peter is looking for spandex and looks up skiers and bobsledders. One detail I like is Peter putting on sunglasses lens on the mask. It's ingenious. The whole body reminds me of the Lee & Ditko run on Spider-Man.
Having him be fit but a bit lanky, or skinny makes the movements be more dynamic. One of the downfalls is that during the early trailers, there is a one shot take of Spider-Man running in a first person point of view which resulted in him web swinging across the city. It reminded me of the video game Mirror's Edge, I assumed that most of the moments we follow Spidey would be in this point of view. Alas, it's not so, what could have been a visceral display is just a cobbled together edit that looks choppy than smooth.
So what's the story about? One of the posters touted that it would be an untold story of Peter Parker's origins. When the movie opens, the Parker's home has been robbed. Specifically, Peter's dad Richard has his office looted. Knowing the gravity of the situation, the Parkers take Peter to live with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. It's not until he goes into Oscorp and meets a scientist Dr. Curt Conners, who helps figure out a formula to help Connors. Since he only has one arm. In the comics, Curt turns into the villain The Lizard when he takes an experimental drug he created. This is one of the first good things I believe that is fresh for Spider-Man by having him be responsible for his unintentional creation of his villain. Aside from that, the overall mystery of his parents is nowhere to be seen. Just a heads up, it does not go anywhere in the sequel.
I feel that the movie just feels off, most of the action involving the wall crawler takes place at night. It's an odd choice since most and every Spider-Man action sequence in any medium has it during the day. Like, we never see the Spidey costume in normal daylight. To be fair, we see it once in the high school fight and that's really about it. I think because it just looks weird under sunlight. The red and blue don't pop under the sun and it's slightly muted. The only time where it is effective is at night by having most of the colors be overexposed to make the colors pop. As well as give it a stylized take. Although, the direction feels more akin to Batman than Spider-Man.
The ending is a pretty standard superhero cliche. Spider-Man beats The Lizard, while the villain attempts to unleash a dangerous gas that would turn New Yorkers to lizard men. Captain Stacy attempts to help but dies from The Lizard when it stabbed the captain with its claws. There contains a mid credits scene, where a mysterious man visits Dr. Connors and asks him if he told Peter what happened to his parents. As what happens with Peter's parents, the man in the shadows goes nowhere in the sequel.
Now, I might have left out some characters such as Aunt May and Uncle Ben. As well as Captain Stacy since, they really are just there. They do an okay job.
Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man is just an okay retooling of the wall crawler. Most of the shortcomings mostly come down to Sony trying to do the same thing to keep the hero relevant. It reeks of desperation since the film has the same story beats as the first one. It doesn't do anything unique in terms of direction for Spider-Man which leads it to be just okay.
The Amazing Spider-Man gets a 3 out of 5.
*Next time, I review the worst Spider-Man film, which happens to be the sequel to this one.
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