Peter Parker was a young boy when he last saw his parents, who died in a plane crash shortly after he was left with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. He would be raised by his loving relatives, who treated him as their own son. Years would pass, and Peter would attend Midtown Science High School, where he lives a rather under the radar existence except for when he moons over Gwen Stacy or is bullied by Flash Thompson.
His life would change after the discovery of some of his father's old papers, which cause him to sneak into an Oscorp intern group to attempt to meet an old friend and colleague of his father's, Dr. Curt Connors. While in the building, he would encounter a genetically enhanced spider in a research facility, which would gift him with enhanced powers and abilities. Peter would later meet Connors, where the two, using a equation from Richard Parker's notes, would successfully develop a formula that allows for the regrowth of lost limbs from a lizard's DNA. It is hoped that this formula would be used to heal the dying head of Oscorp, Norman Osborn.
Peter soon abuses his powers, which leads to a conflict with his Aunt and Uncle, and results him in neglecting responsibilities to the family. Peter storms out, and later refuses to help a convienance store owner when he is robbed. The thief shortly thereafter encounters Uncle Ben, who attempts to stop him. In the scuffle, Ben is mortally wounded, and dies in Peter's arms. Peter decides to use his powers to try and hunt down his uncle's killer, but fighting in street clothes produces it's own sort of troubles. After he falls into an abandoned gym, a luchador wrestling poster inspires him to create a mask to hide his face for his undercover operations. Later, he adds a pair of webshooters, and eventually, the iconic Spiderman costume. However, the toil of his activities produces a strain on his home life, as his Aunt becomes worried about his activities, and the physical damage he is taking.
Peter later is asked to dinner by the lovely Gwen, where the two fall in love, though the dinner itself turns badly after Peter comes into conflict with Gwen's policeman father, who is hunting his alter ego. Connors is fired from Oscorp after he refuses to begin human testing of the formula in hopes of accelerating a cure for Osborn. Connors subsequently tests the formula on himself, and discovers that he has regenerated his lost arm. However, there are disastrous side effects, as Connors subsequently loses his humanity to his false hope for his disability.
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Now, with the police manhunt growing as much as his popularity amongst the people is, Peter must find a way to stop Connors' unstable alter ego, all the while trying to find a balance between his normal life and the one that tragedy seems to have chosen him to follow.
To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive as to what I was going to encounter with The Amazing Spiderman. To be quite frank, I thought that the old franchise was still too new for any sort of reboot. I was actually hoping that Marvel would somehow get the rights back, as I would love to see some Spiderman interaction with the rest of the crew from the Avengers universe. That wasn't going to be the case, however, and being the comic fan that I am, of course I was going to see this flick. And to be honest, I was rather pleased with the product, but not overwhelmed by it, which I'll explain upon in a bit.
First of all, it's a visually pleasing film, as the visuals of it are pretty strong, with some great animated fight scenes, plenty of Spidey swinging on a web through New York, and a rather convincingly animated Lizard, or at least as convincingly as could be expected. They were also able to have quite a few sequences of Spiderman living up to the name, from the descent upside down into a sewer to the wall climbing sequences. Overall, it was pretty well done in this respect, and lives up to the Raimi trilogy in this fashion.
First of all, it's a visually pleasing film, as the visuals of it are pretty strong, with some great animated fight scenes, plenty of Spidey swinging on a web through New York, and a rather convincingly animated Lizard, or at least as convincingly as could be expected. They were also able to have quite a few sequences of Spiderman living up to the name, from the descent upside down into a sewer to the wall climbing sequences. Overall, it was pretty well done in this respect, and lives up to the Raimi trilogy in this fashion.
The cast is quite good, and improves in some areas on the
original. For starters, I like Andrew
Garfield a lot more as Spiderman than I ever did Toby Maguire, who always felt
a little wrong in the role. For starters, Garfield actually looks like a teenager when he becomes Spiderman, while Toby both looked and felt like a man playing a teenager. It didn't help the Raimi franchise much that Maguire and Kirsten Dundst aged badly after the original film. By Spiderman 2, the best of that franchise, you kinda got the feeling already that the leads were stretched in their current roles, and that seeing them as the long term answers in the roles was not going to happen. It's kind of like watching The Karate Kid Part III, when you knew that, yeah, it was over for Ralph Maccio as Daniel LaRusso, who was 19 going on 35. Maguire's Parker was also a lot more unsettled, and unsure of what he was doing, how to manage his powers, as well as what he hoped to accomplish as a hero. Garfield's Parker is a lot more confident and self assured of himself, which is nice, and takes off some of the unnecessary angst that was in the Raimi trilogy. Another positive difference between himself and Maguire is that Garfield's Spiderman isn't quite as bulky or muscular as Maguire's was, but rather a lot more limber and athletic, which upon some thought, actually makes a lot more sense considering the different physical actions, fighting style, and transport methods Spiderman does engage in. Finally, I was pleased to see the return of the webshooters in this incarnation of the franchise, which always seemed to have a sort of presence in the films due to their knack to fail in certain situations. All in all, I was quite pleased to see the changes done to the new Spidey.
Rhys Ifans, who is cast as Curt Connors, almost steals the show, showing his character to be that of a essentially good, but flawed man who has chosen to shackle his sense of morals and scientific purpose to that of what he percieves as the best good. It is only when his project, and subsequent sense of purpose, is threatened to be taken from him, that he snaps. But even then, there is enough of a moral center that Connors clings to, although it will take a jarring shot to the head and heart to bring it back. What I also liked was how, after his initial transformation into The Lizard, how he seems to embrace his new dark side, and even allows a sense of malice to show in his voice as he converses with Peter later in the film.
The rest of the cast is quite solid as well. Emma Stone is awesome, as she usually is in almost any role she takes on, and and takes to the role of Gwen Stacy quite nicely. The character's portrayal is more along the lines of the original Marvel continuity, rather than that of the Ultimate Universe, although this character is considerably brainier and feistier than the original ever was. Dennis Leary is also quite good in his role as George Stacy, and is able to breathe his own sort of sarcastic and tough guy comedy into the character, which is a welcome departure from how I've traditionally seen or read the character. Finally, Martin Sheen and Sally Field do well in their limited roles as Ben and May Parker, showing themselves as strong characters who do genuinely love their nephew as their own, and are loved in return. I especially loved Field's portray of May, which again is a departure from the typically frail and near death version of Aunt May that has been dry humped into society.
Another thing I did appreciate is that the movie did try and follow the Nolan model for the Batman franchise. In this instance, the first film is used to introduce the universe, and does so with a well known and established villain, and is able to do so without burning the huge baddie known as the heroes nemesis, which is introduced in the second film. So, my guess is we'll be getting the Green Goblin in the sequel, which was indicated through the numerous mentions of Norman Osborne throughout the film.
Rhys Ifans, who is cast as Curt Connors, almost steals the show, showing his character to be that of a essentially good, but flawed man who has chosen to shackle his sense of morals and scientific purpose to that of what he percieves as the best good. It is only when his project, and subsequent sense of purpose, is threatened to be taken from him, that he snaps. But even then, there is enough of a moral center that Connors clings to, although it will take a jarring shot to the head and heart to bring it back. What I also liked was how, after his initial transformation into The Lizard, how he seems to embrace his new dark side, and even allows a sense of malice to show in his voice as he converses with Peter later in the film.
The rest of the cast is quite solid as well. Emma Stone is awesome, as she usually is in almost any role she takes on, and and takes to the role of Gwen Stacy quite nicely. The character's portrayal is more along the lines of the original Marvel continuity, rather than that of the Ultimate Universe, although this character is considerably brainier and feistier than the original ever was. Dennis Leary is also quite good in his role as George Stacy, and is able to breathe his own sort of sarcastic and tough guy comedy into the character, which is a welcome departure from how I've traditionally seen or read the character. Finally, Martin Sheen and Sally Field do well in their limited roles as Ben and May Parker, showing themselves as strong characters who do genuinely love their nephew as their own, and are loved in return. I especially loved Field's portray of May, which again is a departure from the typically frail and near death version of Aunt May that has been dry humped into society.
Another thing I did appreciate is that the movie did try and follow the Nolan model for the Batman franchise. In this instance, the first film is used to introduce the universe, and does so with a well known and established villain, and is able to do so without burning the huge baddie known as the heroes nemesis, which is introduced in the second film. So, my guess is we'll be getting the Green Goblin in the sequel, which was indicated through the numerous mentions of Norman Osborne throughout the film.
That said, there are some warts in the film. Continuity is changed a bit, namely in how Peter got his powers, but in retrospect, it is presented in a way that allows for it to be believable, rather than just a simply accident. Also, the movie does drag a little bit, and in retrospect, is about
ten to fifteen minutes too longer. There
are a couple of sequences that could have been made shorter, and at least one
Gwen-Peter scene that could have been scrapped altogether. But, the only issue I could see where people would have had
a problem with the film is that, well, we’ve kind of seem this before.
What do I mean by that? When rebooting a franchise, it requires two things for it to be successful: distance and difference. We saw it implemented in a successful way in the Batman reboot, and in a smaller success in the Star Trek reboot. In both cases, there were several years that had passed since the last film of the previous franchise (8 in the case of Batman, 7 in the case of Star Trek), and both films were so drastically different in terms of looks, production, story and feel that they seemed like fresh, new beginnings and franchises for both. In the case of Spiderman, it's been a little under five years since the last of the Spiderman movies, during which the movies still were relatively fresh in the minds of people. But more importantly is that these still feel like a Sam Raimi film, from the rather serious and slightly emotional tone of loss to that of an excitement of a young man discovering something about himself, and venturing to try and use it to try and change the world. Even some of the web swinging sequences are similar, as is a particular sequence in which a sense of paranoia and fear is used (not elaborating it due to it being important to the plot.) So while the overall end product may be different in terms of it's story and direction, it still feels like it was made with Sam Raimi's toolkit.
So, in the end, The Amazing Spiderman was a quality film. That said, unlike the Avengers, I don't feel a need to see it again in theaters, nor was it enough to remain in my memory where I have the wish to talk about it after the fact. But still, go see it. It's good fun.
What do I mean by that? When rebooting a franchise, it requires two things for it to be successful: distance and difference. We saw it implemented in a successful way in the Batman reboot, and in a smaller success in the Star Trek reboot. In both cases, there were several years that had passed since the last film of the previous franchise (8 in the case of Batman, 7 in the case of Star Trek), and both films were so drastically different in terms of looks, production, story and feel that they seemed like fresh, new beginnings and franchises for both. In the case of Spiderman, it's been a little under five years since the last of the Spiderman movies, during which the movies still were relatively fresh in the minds of people. But more importantly is that these still feel like a Sam Raimi film, from the rather serious and slightly emotional tone of loss to that of an excitement of a young man discovering something about himself, and venturing to try and use it to try and change the world. Even some of the web swinging sequences are similar, as is a particular sequence in which a sense of paranoia and fear is used (not elaborating it due to it being important to the plot.) So while the overall end product may be different in terms of it's story and direction, it still feels like it was made with Sam Raimi's toolkit.
So, in the end, The Amazing Spiderman was a quality film. That said, unlike the Avengers, I don't feel a need to see it again in theaters, nor was it enough to remain in my memory where I have the wish to talk about it after the fact. But still, go see it. It's good fun.
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