Review: The Amazing Spiderman

The marketing for this early reboot was quite crazy and everywhere, almost akin to that spider that freaks you out but you can’t seem to kill it and it keeps popping up everywhere in your house and you inevitably live in fear…  Fear was there in my mind regarding this reboot and the relentless marketing. Fear that maybe, just maybe the reboot ideas was rushed and Sony took a look at the finished product and realized that this movie wouldn’t last long by word of mouth.  Well, #TeamJabber watched The Amazing Spiderman this past weekend and on IMAX, a bit late review-wise, but given the number of people taking this film for granted or wrongfully labelling it in several ways, this review is justified…

First of all, let’s get it out of the way; there’s nothing much to expect from the general storyline.  It’s the same when it comes to reboots of superhero franchises.  Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider, gets powers, his uncle dies at the hands of a criminal Peter had a chance to stop and on that motivation, ends up being a hero.  That’s the general storyline. It’s in the source material, the comics, it’s the same story that will  be told over and over again whenever Spiderman will be rebooted on the big screen.  So question is to those who have refused to see this movie because “it’s the same story” what do you expect? 🙂

The difference between this current version, helmed by Marc Webb and the earlier versions directed by Sam Raimi are the several specifics;

1. Actors cast and their abilities to pull off their roles.
2. The specific story line itself, the cause and effects, reactions and actions built on the foundation that is the general storyline mentioned above.
3. Villain used.
4. Over arching theme present with promise of sequels.

To start with, i believe the actors pull off their roles quite well.  I highly appreciate the heart, warmth, humor and grounding ability that Martin Sheen and Sally Field brought to the screen in their roles as Ben and May Parker, Peter Parker’s uncle and aunt.  It’s a tragic story when you know what’s going to happen to Uncle Ben, but Martin’s portrayal of the character made me wish for him to hang around longer.  Unlike the previous Uncle Ben and Aunt May in the Tobey Maguire led Spiderman, who gave the impression they were just there to play the roles and be casualties or part of the collateral damage, the ‘new’ uncle and aunt pairing and portrayal really strike home.  They make you realize that Peter Parker, and his whole story is as close to humanity as any hero can get.  Although towards the end, Aunt May’s character gets pushed to the back after her husband’s death but i blame this on the action.

Andrew Garfield was great as Spiderman.  More emotion to him.  The cockiness and dark humor was a plus too, those were the main elements greatly missing in the previous Spiderman adaptations despite the fact that that’s what defines Spiderman in the comics.  Gwen Stacy (played by Garfield’s real-life love interest Emma Stone) wasn’t just the love interest common to all super hero movies.  She sheds light on the other side of Peter Parker, his high-school ‘geek’ side.  They play off quite well against each other, with sweet/cute awkward moments that make you want them to work.

The villain, Dr. Curt Connors/the Lizard (Rhys Ifans) had the ‘tragic villain’ twist and feel all over him. If only i wasn’t familiar with the comics and Spiderman’s roster of villains, it would have been quite fun watching and trying to figure out out what exactly would make such a tragic man go down that path?  I felt for Curt in this movie.  He had a good heart, but his mind was muddled by life-long ambition and the tragic unexpected results of his early experimentation…

Nothing is absolutely perfect, or nearly (unless you’re talking Batman. Batman is good. He’s perfect 😉 ). To some extent, the story suffers a bit on some cheesy moments, and maybe some characters motivations were not grounded enough.  There were several plot-holes in the story, and the Lizard’s main plot at the end just fizzled out and didn’t make sense to some point given the Doctor’s character and end actions.  The corner-stone of the marketing for this film was that Spidermans’ ‘untold story’ would be, well, told.  This was in reference to his parent’s rushed disappearance and death.  well, the story does start off with that, and it does end up being the plot-point that leads to Peter getting his powers, but then after that, it dwindles down to mentions, references and then gets pushed to the background and forgotten as Peter Parker uses his power and rough disguise to go looking for his uncle’s killer.  Although i must say, given that that story point was too major to be ‘accidentally’ pushed to the back, i believe it was on purpose and may serve as a major story angle for the inevitable sequel.  Especially given the post-credit scene…

To sum it all up, The Amazing Spiderman was an attempt that lived up to the hype and delivered.  Whatever wrinkles that are present are not dooming in nature and can be worked out by the time Spidey swings in again with a sequel.  The action set-pieces were the best, the fights the web-swinging actions stole the show.  But above all, the ‘knife’ scene where Spiderman faced his ‘greatest weakness’ at the hands of a car-thief was simply a killer… 😉

Movie Jabber Rating: 7.5/10