The Amazing Spider-Man

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
The Amazing Spider-Man
Released 7/3/12, now in theaters

Marvel's third movie release of the year has arrived. The reboot of The Amazing Spider-Man has gotten kind of a rough ride from the public before its release because, well, it's a reboot that many didn't think needed to happen. This time around the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst triumvirate is replaced by Marc Webb/Andrew Garfield/Emma Stone, although Stone is playing a different "love of Peter Parker's life" than Dunst. So, where does Sony's reboot fit in with the stable of Marvel movies of the year? Is it closer to the sad waste of time that was Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance or does it fall near the epic Avengers?

Most should know the story of Peter Parker by now. Nerdy, unpopular, brilliant teenage boy makes a fateful trip to a science lab where he's bitten by a radioactive/genetically altered spider depending on which Spider-Man era you are following. Instead of becoming deathly ill, Peter finds that the spider has transferred its abilities to him. He's a bit arrogant and selfish after he gains his power and fails to act when a thief runs by him. Said thief later murders his beloved uncle. Peter learns the great Spidey mantra "with great power comes great responsibility." Peter vows to use his power to help the helpless.

In this movie, Spider-Man's origin doesn't seem connected to blind fate as much as it seems inevitable. Young Peter is playing a game of hide and seek when he enters his father's home office to find it ransacked. Richard Parker packs up his hidden research notes and he and Mary Parker take Peter to Richard's brother, Ben (Martin Sheen) and his wife, May (Sally Field). This will be the last time Peter sees his parents. Flash about ten years later and Peter (Garfield) is an awkward teenager who takes pictures for the high school paper/yearbook. One of his favorite photo subjects is fellow classmate and Science geek, Gwen Stacy (Stone), although she doesn't know that. Peter discovers his father's notes in his aunt's/uncle's basement and discovers a couple of things about his father. Before Richard disappeared, he worked at Oscorp (remember them from the Sam Raimi movies?) as a gene scientist experimenting with spiders. He and his partner, Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifans) were attempting develop a way to isolate certain traits in animals and apply them to humans. What if a person with Alzheimer's disease was able to regenerate brain cells? What if humans could regenerate limbs? Richard seemed to be on track to solving the riddle.

Peter lies to get into an Oscorp tour which Gwen is conducting as Dr. Connors' intern. Peter breaks away from the group and into the lab where it seems his father's work has been continued. These spiders have been exposed to the drug, Oz. Peter leaves the lab, but one pesky arachnid has hitched a ride. There's the fateful bite and Peter soon finds that he can handle himself very well against multiple assailants on the subway. So, of course one of the first things a picked on teen is going to do is get even with the school bully, in this case, Eugene "Flash" Thompson. He emabarasses Flash on the school basketball court, punctuates victory with a dunk than literally tears the rim down.  After he is reprimanded by the school and his uncle, he actually gets closer to Gwen.

But, this is Peter Parker we're talking about so you know something bad will happen since things seem to be going his way. It happens after an argument with his Uncle Ben, and Peter storms out of the house. Ben follows. Peter goes to a convenience store to buy a bottle of chocolate milk. Peter tries to take a couple pennies from the "leave a penny, pick a penny" jar to pay, the cashier refuses to sell the milk to him because it's against store policy to use this jar for purchases under $10. A thief standing behind Peter steals the money from the register and runs out. When the cashier asks Peter for help stopping the thief, Peter sarcastically tells him it's against his policy. This same thief runs into Ben on the street and when the two men struggle for the thief's gun, it goes off and kills Ben. Peter goes on a one man crusade to find his Uncle's killer and is inspired by a poster of a masked wrestler. He sews his costume (he already created his web shooters) and Spider-Man is born.

And the bad Parker luck is in full swing when Dr. Connors takes a liking to Peter as he discovers he is his old partner's son. Peter and Connors are able to solve the riddle of the gene sequence that allows regeneration using reptilian DNA. The experiment on mice appears to be successful (until Peter finds the mouse with the regenerated limb eating another mouse). When Connors is pressured by the dying Norman Osborn's right hand man to start human trials, Connors refuses and is told to clear out his office. In a last ditch effort keep his job, Connors injects the regeneration serum into himself. His missing arm is regenerated but there is one major side effect. The reptilian mixture is turning Connors into a humanoid reptilian being, and starts to drive him quite mad. Thus, the movie's
upcoming smackdown between Spider-Man and The Lizard is set in motion.

As I previously mentioned, there has been a lot of negativity hurled this film's way before its opening. The negative reviews I have read from moviegoer and critic alike seem to stem from a few things. A reboot of the franchise was not necessary. We've seen this story before. Why were Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire replaced? Well the real reason for this movie is that Sony doesn't want to lose a cash cow franchise. The reason why I didn't mind a new team handling the adventures of the Webhead is, let's face it, Spider-Man 3 wasn't that good. It wasn't horrible, but just not up to the standards of the first two. So, I want to ask the group that didn't want a reboot, why not? Batman has been rebooted. Superman will be rebooted. Granted those two franchises need/ed it more than Spider-Man, but, I say so what? We're getting our web slinger back! Rejoice! Especially since this is an awesome movie. Of course, this is a rehashing of old material. What popular super hero's origin hasn't been told ad nauseam?  Didn't we already know that Bruce Wayne's parents were gunned down when Batman Begins was released?  Don't we know that Kal-El's home planet of Krypton explodes before Man of Steel is released? Batman Begins made plenty of money as I'm sure Man of Steel will, also. This movie, while it feels familiar, does offer some nice tweaks to the origin such as Peter's father being somewhat responsible for his son's spider powers.

The performances are top notch. I have never seen Andrew Garfield before this movie. He plays Peter as the awkward teenager he should be, but he adds a little bite the role, too. Peter's no wallflower as he stands up to Flash before he obtains his powers (and pays for it dearly). He plays Peter, at times, as an angry, disrespectful teen which did come across as a little odd. But Peter also has a big heart. It's partly his fault the Lizard exists and he'll die trying to stop him. I think Emma Stone is one of the better young actresses in Hollywood today. Gwen Stacy is on the same intellectual plane with Peter Parker. You never get the sense she's a damsel in distress that needs to be saved. It's refreshing because many of the female leads/love interests in these type of movies are useless and bring nothing to the table. They're there to be saved. Nothing more. There should be an Oscar in Emma Stone's future. Not for this necessarily, but sometime. And hey Denis Leary fans, he's in this movie, too, as Gwen's father, Police Captain George Stacy. Leary is a sufficiently grizzled veteran of the NYPD who loves his daughter and doesn't think much of her new boyfriend at first.

I believe this film has captured Spider-Man's movements better than any of the predecessors. Very often when Peter/Spider-Man fought, he was a blur. That's how it should be. It's supposed to be extremely hard to touch him. Andrew Garfield's body type fits Spider-Man's profile perfectly, long, lithe, and acrobatic. The CG on the Lizard is very good, although I would have liked the head to look a little less human.  The Lizard still looks to have a large human like head.

While the movie has more sinister overtones than its predecessors, it does have a sense of humor.  Peter accidentally breaking everything in his house because he doesn't know his new found strength is hilarious.  If you have read the Spider-Man comics forever like I have, you know the ultimate fate of the Stacy family.  Part of that story comes to pass in ASM.  Stick around during the end credits as you will  be introduced to a figure in the shadows that might be, arguably, the Web Slinger's greatest foe. 

Just so you know that I'm not the type of fanboy that loves everything Spider-Man no matter what, I'm going to say something that might bring me a lot of flak.  I liked the first two Sam Raimi movies. While the general consensus is that Spider-Man 2 was the best in the Raimi trilogy, I couldn't vehemently disagree more.  The overly long, meandering middle act of that movie is hard for me to sit through now.  Actually, I don't really want to sit through it any longer.  Don't misunderstand me.  I liked Spider-Man 2.  I'm just not found of movies that go on longer than they should.  I believe it was almost an hour from the time Peter decided not to be Spider-Man to the time he donned the mask again.  Too much Aunt May, too much pining for Mary Jane, not enough Spidey action which I guess is the point, but it still went on too long.  So, now that you know that I can be critical of a beloved Spider-Man movie, believe me when I say ASM is worth seeing.  In my opinion, it's the best of the big screen Spidey movies.  This movie is to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies what the Christopher Nolan movies are to the Tim Burton Batman movies. The latter movies are good, but the former movies are amazing.  I'm not going to tell audiences to see or not see a movie. Make up your own mind.  I will say that if you decide not to see ASM for any of the reasons I mentioned earlier in this review, you're missing out on something special here.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

*****stars

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit! 2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.