Out of all the superhero movies that premiered this summer, The Amazing Spider-Man was definitely the most anticipated, especially by our editor. It’s been 5 years since Spider-Man 3, which was still an utter disappointment in our opinion.
Director Marc Webb, along with writers James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves, all do an awesome job of re-imagining the origin of New York City’s resident web-slinger. The story is much darker, putting a completely different spin on the franchise as a whole. We’ll say this, after you watch this movie, you’ll leave the theatre completely forgetting about the other Spider-Man movies.
There were a ton of really good points to the movie, as far as Spidey is concerned. First off – Web-Shooters! They gave Spidey his web shooters back. And some of the moments, while Peter is getting used to his abilities, are hilarious, some of which will make you laugh every time you think about them. Another thing is the way that the director had Spider-Man move. There were a lot of scenes that had Spider-Man move like a… Spider, which is something other Spider-Man films hadn’t done until now, only really playing up Spidey’s agility.
The cast did an excellent job of making the characters their own. Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) did a good job playing Peter Parker as an angsty teen, but absolutely nailed the part of Spider-Man, especially with his deliverance of The Amazing Spider-Man’s trademark snappy comments (which is something we feel the older movies were missing). The super-hot Emma Stone (The Help, Easy A) plays Gwen Stacy this time around. She was a great choice for the character and definitely beat Bryce Dallas Howard’s performance of Gwen in Spider-Man 3, and Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson. Casting these two together was a really wise decision, and their on-screen chemistry adds warmth and believable closeness to the characters.
The character development was really good in The Amazing Spider-Man, from showing Peter as a kid with his parents before he’s left with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), helping viewers to understand why Peter is such a loner, then later showing the Parkers as an actual family, rather than assuming that everyone watching the movie knew about Spider-Man’s back story. In our opinion, the script could have done a bit more to show the connection between Peter and his Uncle, but Garfield and Sheen did a very good job to try and show their bond.
The rest of the cast did a really good job too, and deserve a bit of recognition. Dennis Leary (Rescue Me) as Captain Stacy, did a great job of blending his humour with the character’s seriousness. The casting choice for Dr Curt Connors/The Lizard could’ve been damn near anyone, so casting Rhys Ifans (The Replacements) was a decent pick. He could’ve done a bit more to make you give half a damn about the character, but he did a good job overall.
There were some things that we didn’t like about The Amazing Spider-Man, like the fact that there were still some poetic licenses taken here and there that we liked the way that they were in the comic book, like some things they screwed up with Captain Stacy for example, but none of them took away from the story, or the way the movie played out. Ultimately, you should go see The Amazing Spider-Man, while drowning out all of the whinings from over-critical fanboys. We’re pretty sure that you won’t be disappointed.
Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.
