The Amazing Spider-Man

The “Amazing” Spider-Man

In my experience, change is bad. As soon as you change the original formula of something great, it flops. It’s evident in every medium of entertainment, from video games to music to films, people seem to think they have some divine ability to change something that is already successful and make it instantly better (the old phrase ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” comes to mind.) The newest instalment of The Spider-Man franchise has went through a lot of change since the previous director Sam Raimi, (Spider Man - 2002, Spider Man 2 – 2004, Spider Man 3 – 2007 and the cancelled Spider Man 4 – 2010.) a brand new director and cast leaves the formula of previous success tarnished which leaves the question has this change been for better or worse in this situation? In my opinion... it was definitely for the better.

The Amazing Spider-Man depicts the story of the comic-book under the same name, starting with Parker as a child and then into his teenage years showing us how he stumbled upon his supernatural abilities through research that his father had been working on with Dr. Curt Connors and how he began to use these abilities to hunt down the murderer of his uncle and other vigilante efforts.

Marc Webb was an odd choice of director for me, I believe his best known work prior to this would be ‘500 Days of Summer’ (a definite chick flick) but his visual interpretation of the Marvel story was fantastic from the comedic values of the fight scene on the bus as Parker is discovering his supernatural powers to the menacing tension as the whole city’s well-being is at stake, however there are some instances that he fell short, for example at the death of Uncle Ben I felt no emotion or remorse for that character, now that could just be me being a heartless bastard, who knows?  I feel there are some things Webb needs to improve on before the next instalment is released (The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – 2014.)

Andrew Garfield best known in my mind for his role in ‘The Social Network’ plays Peter Parker this time around and although I wasn’t convinced in this casting choice it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I would say he definitely came into his own more as his portrayal of the awkward, nerdy Peter Parker than he did as the masked vigilante himself (there were a few voice-overs during fight scenes that made me cringe to say the least.)  Emma Stone is a fantastic actress and plays the love interest in this film very well. I wasn’t exactly sure how she would fit in to an action movie, with her forte seeming to be comedies but she definitely held her own and looks to be on a path to stardom in her future. Lastly, I must express admiration to Rhys Ifan for his part as Dr Connors/The Lizard I can’t think of anyone who would’ve done this job better than him, the only fault I have is as Dr. Curt Connors he did remind me of a one armed Stephen Merchant, which took away some of the seriousness of the role.

I found the film to be overall a surprise seeing as the previous films in the franchise didn’t really do it for me, despite their box office success. It’s a definite watch for any movie goer or action-junkie, whether or not it sticks true to the original story I cannot say as I’m not a comic book buff. With the recent injection of outstanding action movies being churned out right now, (The Avengers, Dark Knight Rises etc.) do I feel this is up to par? Perhaps not, it is a reasonably good film but definitely not faultless and sets up for the sequel to be fantastic.

3.9/5 – Doubt it will be the best action movie of the summer, but an enjoyable watch no less.