The Amazing Spider-Man Movie Review

Hey guys, this is Rich (rwmarvelmaster) here, giving my review of the new Amazing Spider-Man movie. I'm going to do this in sections and subsections with images splashed in there for effect.


(NOTE: THOUGH I DO LIKE THE RAIMI TRILOGY, I FEEL THAT THIS IS A SUPERIOR FILM VIA CASTING, PLOT DEVELOPMENT AND POTENTIAL) 


WARNING: SPOILERS AWAIT

Part 1: Story


(COPIED AND PASTED DIRECTLY FROM WIKIPEDIA)

A young Peter Parker discovers his father Richard's study has been broken into. Gathering up hidden documents, Peter's parents take him to the home of his Aunt Mayand Uncle Ben, then mysteriously depart. Years later, a teenaged Peter attends Midtown Science High School, where he is bullied by Flash Thompson and has caught the eye of Gwen Stacy. At home, Peter finds his father's papers and learns he worked with fellow scientist Dr. Curt Connors at Oscorp. Sneaking into Oscorp, Peter enters a lab where a "biocable" is being created from genetically modified spiders, one of which bites him. On the subway ride home, he discovers that he has developed spider-like abilities.

After studying Richard's papers, Peter visits the one-armed Connors, reveals he is Richard Parker's son, and gives Connors his father's "decay rate algorithm", the missing piece in Connors' experiments on regenerating limbs based on lizard DNA. Connors is being pressured by his superior, Dr. Ratha, to devise a cure for the dying, unseen head of Oscorp, Norman Osborn. In school, Peter gets into trouble after humiliating Flash in an act of revenge. As a result, his uncle is forced to change work shifts in order to meet with the principal; Uncle Ben tells Peter to pick up May tonight for him. Peter neglects his responsibility, instead helping Dr. Connors regenerate the limb of a laboratory mouse. When Peter returns home he gets into an argument with his uncle and storms out of the house. While searching for Peter, Uncle Ben attempts to stop a thief and is shot. The thief escapes as Peter finds his uncle already dead on the sidewalk.

Afterward, Peter uses his new abilities to hunt criminals matching the killer's description. After a fall lands him inside an abandoned gym, a luchador-wrestling poster inspires him to create a mask to hide his identity. He also adds a spandex suit, and builds mechanical devices to attach to his wrists to shoot a biocable "web". Peter accepts a dinner invitation from Gwen, where he meets her father, police captain George Stacy. After dinner, Peter shows Gwen his abilities and they kiss.

After seeing success in the mouse, Ratha demands Connors begin human trials immediately if Osborn is to survive. Connors refuses to rush the drug-testing procedure and put innocent people at risk. Ratha fires Connors and decides to test Connors' serum at a Veterans Administration hospital under the guise of a flu shot. Later, Connors tries the formula on himself. After passing out, he awakens to find his missing arm has regenerated. Learning Ratha is on his way to the VA hospital, Connors, whose skin is growing scaly and green, goes to intercept him. By the time he gets to the Williamsburg Bridge Connors has become a hybrid of lizard and man, tossing cars, including Ratha's, over the side of the bridge. Peter, now calling himself Spider-Man, saves each fallen car with his web-lines.

Spider-Man suspects Connors is the Lizard, and unsuccessfully confronts the creature in the sewers. The Lizard learns Spider-Man's real identity and attacks Peter at school. In response, the police start a manhunt for both Spider-Man and the Lizard. The police corner Spider-Man, where Captain Stacy discovers that he is really Peter. The Lizard plans to make all humans lizard-like by releasing a chemical cloud from Oscorp's tower. Spider-Man eventually disperses an antidote cloud instead, restoring Connors and earlier victims to normal, but not before the Lizard fatally claws Captain Stacy. The dying Stacy makes Peter promise to keep Gwen safe by staying away from her. Peter initially does so, but later suggests to Gwen that he may see her after all.

In a post-credits scene, Connors, in a prison cell, speaks with a man in the shadows who asks if Peter knows the truth about his father. Connors replies, "No", and demands Peter be left alone before the man disappears.

Part 2: Characters

1) Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield)

Andrew Garfield IS Peter Parker/Spider-Man. He gets Peter Parker's awkward and geeky behavior and really makes him charming. His motivations are understandable and really evolve as time goes on. First he starts with the mystery of his father (Richard Parker) and his works: He finds a bag of his fathers that leads him to Oscorp, where he gets his powers. Next Uncle Ben dies and he goes on a manhunt for his uncle's killer and never finds him. Then his next big outing was his first fight on the bridge with the Lizard. From there, he's hunting the Lizard, and proactively attempting to find and cure the one person that can really help him with the mystery of his father. What makes his Spider-Man/Peter Parker more interesting than Tobey Maguire's version of the character is that he's funny throughout the course of the film, which is a big improvement over the more somber and brooding approach Tobey gave (up until Spider-Man 3 that is).

2) Dr. Curtis Connors/The Lizard (Rhys Ifans)


Rhys Ifans casting as Dr. Curt Connors was a genuine surprise for me, as the only movies I had seen him in prior to this were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2, where his character was eccentric and even a bit over the top at times. However, here he is genuinely sincere and interesting to watch. His goals in the beginning were simple: Finish the serum he and Richard Parker (sound familiar?) were working on to restore missing limbs, whether it be from an accident (like his own) or a birth deformity. Later, he's pressured into testing the serum on himself, which leads to his first transformation into the Lizard. After that, he becomes obsessed with the idea of genetic perfection, convinced that the Lizard transformation would create this new, perfect world... And it's pulled right out of the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko origins of the character.

3) Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone)


If there was one love interest I had wanted to see done right on the big screen, I must say it had to have been Gwen Stacy. Emma Stone's performance COMPLETELY blows Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane out of the water. She is spot on for the early characterization of Gwen (which I approved of more): she was witty, tough, and was able to stand on her own. Gwen is just as proactive as Peter, and even takes the role of secondary protagonist (along with Dennis Leary's Capt. George Stacey) rather than just the simple love interest to be kidnapped later Mary Jane Watson of the Raimi Trilogy.


Part 3: Final Thoughts


I loved Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Films until Spider-Man 3. I like Spider-Man 3, but it felt like all the characters were going through the motions: Peter dealing with being Spider-Man, Mary Jane dealing with something shallow and superficial, insert supervillain of the film's problems here and so on. The Amazing Spider-Man helped breath new life into a character that started grow bored in his own films. Though it does feel choppy in some instances, and whole lines that were in the trailers were absent, along with most of the parent's storyline, it will still be my favorite of the bunch. It is easily my favorite of the Spider-Man movies produced by Sony, followed by Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3.  I hope the Amazing Spider-Man 2 (or whatever they choose to call it) lives up to it...


8.5 out of 10