The Amazing Spider-Man [M]

Typical teenager, Peter Parker, spends his days trying to win the heart of his high school crush Gwen and unravel the mysteries of his own past. When he discovers a briefcase that belonged to his father who abandoned him when he was a boy, Peter is led to his father’s partner in science, Dr. Connors and after Peter is bitten by a genetically enhanced spider, which gives him inhuman abilities, the two strike up a partnership to continue the secret crossbreeding work that his father died trying to bring to life. But the promising partnership disintegrates when, after testing the product on himself, Dr. Connors becomes corrupted by an aggressive and villainous alter ego that soon threatens the city. 

I really loved the original Spiderman movies. So when this one came out, I was in two minds about what it would be like. On the one hand, I wanted to see it because it was Andrew Garfield and I have a bit of a crush on him, and then on the other I didn’t really want to see it because it was a completely and unutterably new chapter in the Spiderman story that I wasn’t much keen on becoming acquainted with. So I waited until it came out on DVD…as you do, and I actually quite enjoyed this movie. It’s not as good as the original trilogy, it’s not as comic book-like for one thing, but it’s a more modern Spider-Man for a more modern and fractured age. It was actually quite good. 

Typical teenager, Peter Parker, spends his days trying to win the heart of his high school crush Gwen and unravel the mysteries of his own past. When he discovers a briefcase that belonged to his father who abandoned him when he was a boy, Peter is led to his father’s partner in science, Dr. Connors and after Peter is bitten by a genetically enhanced spider, which gives him inhuman abilities, the two strike up a partnership to continue the secret crossbreeding work that his father died trying to bring to life. But the promising partnership disintegrates when, after testing the product on himself, Dr. Connors becomes corrupted by an aggressive and villainous alter ego and threatens the city. 

What I really liked most about this movie was that it told a different story of Spiderman and at the same time translated the comic book into a modern age language. 

The best way to describe this movie; the performances, the writing, everything is stilted, fractured, and doesn’t flow smoothly in any way. Rather than think this as being a horrible pace for an action movie, I actually found that the general vibe of the film was quite cleverly reflective of society nowadays. The character of Peter is a great interpretation of this: his distant relationship with his aunt and uncle as well as his general lack of communication was a rather spot on personification of teenage boys and their way of thinking. It’s when you look at his character this way that you see how the transformation of him into the hero is actually really empowering and really special because it’s a complete change in worldview. It’s here that the real story and drama comes into play: the story of boy to man, the whole superhero versus super villain is really just a lengthy footnote running parallel. 

Andrew Garfield was highly successful in recreating Spiderman to appeal to a modern and antisocial audience. His Peter Parker was not geeky, but merely socially inept, nervous, and then when he’s got the mask on he was rather funnily cocky and a bit of a smartarse, which brought some nice comic relief to the picture. I really do love Andrew! 

Starring Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary, Irrfan Khan, and Rhys Ifans, The Amazing Spider-Man is a great movie packed with action, romance, dramas of all kinds, comedy, and journeys. You can’t compare it to the original trilogy because it really is in a league of its own; nowhere near as fun and rollicking, but there is definitely something about it that captures and holds you attention. I enjoyed it greatly.