Review - The Amazing Spider-Man

What Will They Sling Next?

 

When the reboot of the Spider-Man franchise was announced, I like many folks was skeptical of the outcome. But color me pleasantly surprised that the reimagining of a classic story actually works.

Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is a college student that is smart and involved. Taking pictures and documenting high school life as it happens leads him to make some friends, and other “enemies”. He has always been attracted to the exciting Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Gwen is one of those girls that has it all. She’s not only attractive but intelligent to boot.

Parker’s dad had left him when he was young with his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen). When he is looking deeper to find out what happened to his dad he is drawn to Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans). Connors was a friend of his father and Parker finds a way to get close to him. Gwen happens to be his assistant and Peter and Gwen are able to get close.

So without going into much more on the plot at this point…Peter’s bitten by a spider, and love. Gwen’s bitten by love. And the city is bitten by a giant lizard. Oh and let me mention that Denis Leary is a police chief that doesn’t like Spider-Man, even though he is trying to help. Now will Spider-Man save the city? Will he get together with Gwen? And just who is this “lizard” character?

Everyone will compare this film to the Sam Raimi effort as they are so close together and telling the same story. But let’s take a minute and just look at this film. Andrew Garfield is well cast in the Spider-Man role. When he puts on the mask, his voice fits what I imagine in my head for Spider-Man. The dialogue is snappy and you can’t wait for the next thing to come out of his mouth.

Garfield shares the screen with the lovely Emma Stone. The only problem I had with Stone’s performance was I didn’t totally buy her in high school. Maybe it’s the grown up student from Easy A, but I always saw her as older than what she was playing. That said the chemistry between Garfield and Stone works magically.

Because we are dealing more with the origin story, the action was a bit lacking for a good part of the movie. But never fear fans, that action does get made up for as we progress through the movie.

Overall, I was caught in the web that Spider-Man cast. I’m a fan of the genre, I’m a fan of Spidey and I’m a fan of Marc Webb. I can’t wait to see what they’ll sling at us next.

B

The Amazing Spider-Man

Columbia Pictures

Director: Marc Webb

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action and violence.

Runtime: 2 hours 16 minutes