The Amazing Spider-Man Movie Review

Movie Review

Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field).  Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today.  He is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets.  As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance, leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), his father’s former partner.  As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

So the reboot machine keeps on churning out films from our childhood but here we have a reboot, or should i say remake, of a movie series that only ended 5 years ago.  Granted Spider-Man 3 felt like it was stuff to the brim with too many characters and too much going on to be coherent so going back to basics is a good idea but not necessarily back to the origin story as even though this does have some interesting ideas, you can’t help feeling a little deja vu on more than one occasion.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its moments either with it being based a lot more in reality this time around with a fresh take on some of the canon reveals too.  The comedy angle is brought to the fore even more than the previous films but it threads a fine line between humour and dramatic moments.  The visual effects are outstanding with nothing looking dodgy at all and the updated spidey suit looks so fresh and just pops off the screen.  We finally have the mechanical web shooters too rather than the organic ones from the last few movies which is a welcome return to the comic iteration of them.  The musical score, by James Horner, doesn’t have a great theme and just plods along with bombastic fare but the main theme pales in comparison to the previous films, which people bemoaned of not having a great theme either.

The two main leads, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, are superb with their chemistry and sexual attraction just beaming off the screen, no wonder they are going out in real life.  Garfield is perfect, even more so than Tobey Maguire, as Spider-man/Peter Parker.  His physicality looks very skinny and seems like he couldn’t punch out of a paper bag but when he becomes Spidey he’s all powerful but still vulnerable at the same time.  Stone is just that girl next door, has so much confidence  and doesn’t mind being a little goofy too.  The villain is a bit of a let-down though with Rhys Ifans doing a solid job but not having that much to actually do, his motivations are solid but his plan just feels meh!!!  Martin Sheen and Sally field are good but not that significant roles and don’t have the weight that they had in the previous films.

So was it worth rebooting/remaking/reimagining? Well yes and no, even though it’s essentially the same story with different actors and villain, it gives me enough of a rush to see what they do with the inevitable sequel, so it’s worth checking out.

“The Amazing Spider-Man’ is in cinemas now.