Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has grown up under the watchful eyes of his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) ever since the day his parents left under mysterious circumstances and never returned. Helping his Uncle in the basement one day, he discovers a briefcase which belonged to his father, which in turn leads Peter to the biogenetic research his father was engaged in at the shady company OsCorp. Naturally, Peter has a run-in with a genetically-enhanced spider, after which he discovers he is far more prone to clinging to the ceiling than he is normally used to doing. But just as his newfound powers land him in the eyes of school crush Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and power over the school bully Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka), Peter suffers a terrible tragedy, which drives him to don a costume and seek out criminals wherever they lurk…and just in time, because at OsCorp, Doctor Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) is testing a new serum to re-grow his own lost limb, with disastrously reptilian consequences.
If a lot of the above sounds familiar, then most likely you have either read a comic sometime in your life or caught the 2002 film; with only a few changes, Spidey’s origin has remained pretty much intact. But what is funny is that, while Raimi kept the origin almost word for word faithful to the original story, how director Marc Webb handles the tale here feels much more organic and, to a greater extent, more emotional. Instead of Peter receiving his lesson of “great responsibility” in a nutshell, we see it unfold in a much more dramatic fashion, as he goes from merely beating up punks and tossing them in front of the police station to the moment when he realizes he is capable of much more good than that. In both films, Peter is a nerdy loner, but while Maguire was a nerd with a heart of gold from the very start, Garfield goes an extra step by giving Peter a reason to be a kid stuck between heroism and villainy, to need responsibility in his life. And that extra shove is not just reserved for Garfield…even the characters of Aunt May, Uncle Ben, and Gwen Stacy get much more screen time and meaning than they ever got in the previous trilogy (and all of them much more interesting to watch than Kirsten Dunst’s damsel-in-continuous-and-ridiculous-distress Mary Jane), each not only a fleshed out character in their own right but an integral part of making Peter the hero he will become. Stone especially has fun in the role, and gets her chance to fight back even without webbing and super-strength to back her up. The only real weak point here is Ifans as Connors, and that’s only because he plays his “villain” role perhaps a little too dry. Still, if we must compare it to the original trilogy, while nowhere near the outrageous ham we got with Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, he is more in line with Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus than anything we saw in the third film. Oh, then there is Denis Leary as Police Captain Jack Stacy. He plays Denis Leary. Depending on your tolerance for Denis Leary, this is either a selling point or a minor inconvenience.
Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield in “The Amazing Spider-Man.” © 2012 – Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Of course, we have to touch on the 3D. The Amazing Spider-Man, unlike Marvel’s previous The Avengers, was actually shot in 3D…and in all honesty, you probably could not tell the difference between the two. After seeing the likes of Hugo (and, admittedly, Final Destination 5), it is a shame to see a movie actually filmed using the process not take advantage of the medium more than it does. Only a few shots look notable, most of them involving webbing going in and out at the viewer, while the rest is filmed in such a way that it might as well have been 2D. While director Webb can be given credit for creating a variety of lush visuals, standout performances, and memorable set pieces, a 3D cinematographer he is not. Close-ups in particular looked particularly flat, and while action scenes have the right visual “pop” to them, the numerous scenes where people are talking do not.
Did the Spider-Man franchise really require a reboot? Probably not. With a new villain and a new girl for Spidey to latch his eyes onto, it is very well possible that they could have worked this story into the existing storyline somehow. But it very easy to argue that this new direction works, both in terms of the strong acting and the clear direction Marvel has set in its film marketing. With a second Avengers film in the works and sequels galore for every Marvel character under the sun, Garfield’s Spider-Man seems fit to inhabit the same universe as Robert Downey, Jr.’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America (even if studio ownership is making a crossover shaky at best and impossible at worst). The Amazing Spider-Man may be a reboot, but it is a reboot worth watching. It takes itself seriously, but has enough wit and charm to carry it through its over two hour running time. And, if it helps, at least Peter Parker has no dance moves in this one.
Seth Paul
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