The Amazing Spider Man Review

Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man

 

The Amazing Spider-Man

B

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

After just ten years it’s time to reboot the money making Spider-Man franchise. This time Andrew Garfield is behind the mask and indie director Marc Webb is behind the camera. The tone is darker and the cast is new, but Spider-Man manages to play by pretty much the exact same rules and regulations as the prior films.

The Amazing Spider-Man hits all the basic points as one would expect from a Spider-Man origin film. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), a nerdy/outcast high school student who lives with his Aunt and Uncle (Sally Field and Martin Sheen), gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains supernatural, spider like powers from the bite. At first Parker uses it for selfish reasons aka getting back at the school bully Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka) but after his Uncle Ben is murdered by a low league thug Parker decides to use his powers for good under the alias of Spider-Man. Of course not all people like this as police chief Captain Stacy (Denis Leary) wants him off the street. This makes things complicated Peter is romantically involved with Capitan Stacy’s daughter Gwen (Emma Stone) who so happens to know his secret. Oh and there is good old Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) who’s experiment, which Parker himself helped create, goes completely wrong and he turns himself into an angry lizard who wants to “cure” New York City.

           

I’m really torn about this film. On one hand the film is better cast, acted, and directed than the previous Spider-Man films. Webb, who previously directed the fantastic low key romantic comedy “500 Days of Summer”, does a great job with the smaller romance scenes between Peter and Gwen. The scenes are fantastic and Garfield and Stone (who are a real life couple) have wonderful chemistry together. Two of the other things that this film gets right are tone and action sequences. The tone of this film is a lot darker (more remnant of the Nolan Batman films than the Rami Spider-Man films) and it allows for the storyline to be more impactful than before. The action sequences can be dazzling, especially when Spider-Man is swinging through the city. These again allow for a more impactful film than the original Spider-Man films.

On the other hand this film basically tells the story that the original Spider Man film told ten years ago. There are plot points that pretty much play out shot for shot like the original film. This makes the film feel lazy and uninspired and that is disappointing. The worst offender of this is the very uninspired villain Reptile. His origin is so similar to Goblin’s from the original Spider-Man that it feels like the screenwriters are just trying to take the quick way out on the front of making a villain and so they decided to make a familiar one. The filmmakers try to do something interesting with Spidy’s origin but it falls flat leaving all the familiar, lazy bits front and center.

As mentioned earlier the acting here is quite good. The main problem with earlier Spidy films was that Toby Maguire always felt miscast as the web slinger. This is not the case in the reboot as Garfield is perfect as both Parker and his alter ego as he can be very awkward as Parker as well as being smart and witty behind the mask. The other main Player Emma Stone fits Gwen Stacy very well and, as mention earlier, her and Garfield have fantastic chemistry. The other fantastic player here is the great Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben. Sheen provides basically all the momentum for the first hour of the film and fits the character of Uncle Ben perfectly. The only miscast in the film is Sally Field as Aunt May. Never, especially after Rosemary Harris’s performance was so perfect in the originals, could I wrap my head around her playing May.

With the progression of special effects technology The Amazing Spider-Man is a much prettier film than the originals. The final fight aside, the action scenes in this film are stunning; especially when Spidy is swinging through the sky. The 3D is well implemented I these scenes as each action scenes have a depth in the screen that helps give a great look to the scenes. When the film zooms into first person the CGI really dazzles as these scenes are breathtaking and fantastic. The score is normal superhero affair and overall never left me impressed or disappointed, it’s just for the most part there. Overall though the cinematography and action scenes help elevate the film.

The Amazing Spider-Man is a mixed bag. On the one hand it is a very well produced film; while on the other it’s revisiting old concepts in the almost the exact same way. Despite its problems The Amazing Spider-Man ends up being a solid piece of summer entertainment that is fun and definitely worth the price of admission.