Directed by: MARC WEBB
Produced by: AVI ARAD, LAURA ZISKIN, MATT TOLMACH
Screenplay by: JAMES VANDERBILT, ALVIN SARGENT, STEVE KLOVES
Story by: JAMES VANDERBILT
Based on: "The Amazing Spider-Man" by STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO
Starring: ANDREW GARFIELD, EMMA STONE, RHYS IFANS, DENIS LEARY, CAMPBELL SCOTT, IRRFAN KHAN, MARTIN SHEEN, SALLY FIELD
Box office: $735,111,206 (and counting)
Critical reception: ROTTEN TOMATOES - 73%
IMDB - 7.6/10
METACRITIC: 66/100
Synopsis: Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father's former partner.
Foreword: how The Amazing Spider-Man came to be...
Sam Raimi and Co. were contracted to make Spider-Man 4 for release in 2011, following the commercial success of Spider-Man 3. However, with the pressure to meet the deadline and being dissatisfied with every script that he came across, director Sam Raimi eventually decided it was time to call it quits with Spider-Man and departed the franchise. Stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst followed suit. Columbia Pictures was now left without a director and its two main stars.
So- deciding it was time to re-haul the franchise- Columbia Pictures announced in January 2010 that the Spider-Man film franchise would be rebooted with a new director and new cast.
The reaction: extremely negative. The Raimi-helmed movies were vastly popular and well-liked (excluding the mess that was Spider-Man 3, of course)- thus, the fans felt that a reboot was unnecessary and a rather thinly-disguised attempt to make more money while scaling down on the expenses- Raimi, Maguire and Dunst were demanding much larger salaries for a fourth installment. Soon after this piece of news, a new director was chosen: Marc Webb (how ironic), whose previous credits included having directed several music videos and only one film, the critically-acclaimed romantic drama (500) Days of Summer. The choice was certainly odd and unexpected. Then again, Sam Raimi was another odd choice when he was first hired. Reaction was still largely unchanged.
Then- Andrew Garfield was cast as the new Spider-Man and Emma Stone was cast as Gwen Stacy. Mary Jane Watson would not appear in this film.
Now, little by little, the negativity started to dissipate and gave way to curiosity- many were interested to see what these two rising stars would bring to the table. Andrew Garfield was fresh off the success from his supporting role in the critically acclaimed The Social Network and Emma Stone was riding a wave of popularity after her performances in Zombieland and Easy A.
On July 3rd 2012, The Amazing Spider-Man was released...
The strength of this reboot relies on its lead stars, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. They shine in their roles, bringing a crackling quirky charm to their chemistry (coincidentally, they are an off-screen couple, too) that was absent in the previous films and instead substituted with sappy soap-opera moments between Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. This has lead several people to label it as a 'rom-com Spidey' as opposed to an 'action-oriented Spidey'. The interactions between the cast was similarly peppered with humourous moments rather than relying on slapstick moments that were famous in the Raimi trilogy.
When it comes to suiting up as Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield scores points as being truer to the comics, never short of the wisecracks that made the character popular when first published. The memorable scene in which Spider-Man confronts the car-thief had me and several audience members howling with laughter. That being said, however, when it comes to the action sequences, the fighting prowess and intensity were greater in the Raimi trilogy (the train fight in Spider-Man 2 still holds up as the best set piece in all the Spidey films to date)- the ones in the reboot simply felt a little lackluster.
However, the biggest cardinal sin which The Amazing Spider-Man commits is the promise of "The Untold Story" of Peter Parker's past, something the marketing campaigns kept harping on. The opening scenes stuck to this notion and a few scenes later alluded to it, too... then the rest of the film dropped it without any explanation, only to be brought up again in the mid-credits scene in a mysterious and obscure line by an equally mysterious and obscure person. Likewise, the stories of Peter's vengeful hunt for Uncle Ben's killer is left hanging without any closure- and what ever happened to Dr Ratha after the bridge incident? The whole film suffers from a lack of a cohesive narrative, with such story threads left dangling no doubt saved for the sequels; in fact, the second half of the film dropped everything for a big fight sequence that included a borderline ridiculous and eyebrow-raising plot where the villain decides to turn the New York citizens and police into mutant lizards. For a "gritty, realistic reboot", that part of the story certainly feels out of place.
And speaking of the film's villain- this was probably the weakest one in all four Spider-Man films after Sandman and Venom from Spider-Man 3. The Lizard, a great nemesis in Spider-Man lore, was sadly squandered in The Amazing Spider-Man. Rhys Ifans clearly did the best he could but thanks to the incoherent script, it was rather futile attempt. Similarly, the rest of the cast- while delivering admirably with what was given to them, notably Denis Leary's impressive performance as grizzled NYPD Captain George Stacy- were wasted, specially brilliant actors like Martin Sheen and Sally Field.
What happens next:
At least two more sequels, thanks to the financial success of the movie. The first sequel is slated for a May 2nd, 2014 release, tentatively titled "The Amazing Spider-Man 2". Writers Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (Fringe, Star Trek) have been hired to re-write a script by James Vanderbilt. It is still unknown whether Marc Webb will return to direct the second installment. However, the most exciting piece of news is that if Walt Disney (who now own Marvel) and Sony can work out some form of agreement, Spider-Man could make an appearance in The Avengers sequel.
Personal opinion:
My first proper introduction to the web-slinger was the Sam Raimi movies. For me, that was the definitive version of the hero (I was a kid when I watched them). But about half-a-year back, I got into the Spider-Man comic-books and I soon came to realise that the Sam Raimi trilogy, though great, was not entirely faithful to the material upon which it was based. In the comics, Spider-Man's web-shooters were artificially made and never organic (the latter concept was taken from a spec script written by James Cameron who was at one point ready to direct a Spider-Man movie back in the 90s before legal issues intervened); Peter Parker's first true love was Gwen Stacy (the new film is following this route)- Mary Jane Watson (who would go on to be Peter Parker's future love interest and later one-time wife) and Peter Parker would only happen after the Green Goblin pushed Gwen Stacy to her death off the George Washington Bridge in the tragic and acclaimed "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" story arc, Stacy's death being the catalyst that brought Peter and MJ together.
Acquainted with this knowledge, it is now understandable why a reboot was creatively necessary: the Raimi films had nowhere else left to go- and Sam Raimi appeared to be aware of this, too. Having eschewed the Gwen Stacy stories in favour of the MJ ones and killing off Spider-Man's primary arch-nemeses (Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Venom), anything that came after would be mediocre at best. The reboot, on the other hand, has set itself up for many stories to come by taking the road of the comics, by introducing Gwen Stacy first and saving characters such as Mary Jane and Harry Osborn for future films (though Norman Osborn was hinted at in the film).
All in all, though it was not a ground-breaking film with nothing truly new brought to this reboot and even sharing several plot similarities with 2002's Spider-Man, nevertheless- The Amazing Spider-Man is entertaining and enjoyable.
Personal opinion:
My first proper introduction to the web-slinger was the Sam Raimi movies. For me, that was the definitive version of the hero (I was a kid when I watched them). But about half-a-year back, I got into the Spider-Man comic-books and I soon came to realise that the Sam Raimi trilogy, though great, was not entirely faithful to the material upon which it was based. In the comics, Spider-Man's web-shooters were artificially made and never organic (the latter concept was taken from a spec script written by James Cameron who was at one point ready to direct a Spider-Man movie back in the 90s before legal issues intervened); Peter Parker's first true love was Gwen Stacy (the new film is following this route)- Mary Jane Watson (who would go on to be Peter Parker's future love interest and later one-time wife) and Peter Parker would only happen after the Green Goblin pushed Gwen Stacy to her death off the George Washington Bridge in the tragic and acclaimed "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" story arc, Stacy's death being the catalyst that brought Peter and MJ together.
Acquainted with this knowledge, it is now understandable why a reboot was creatively necessary: the Raimi films had nowhere else left to go- and Sam Raimi appeared to be aware of this, too. Having eschewed the Gwen Stacy stories in favour of the MJ ones and killing off Spider-Man's primary arch-nemeses (Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Venom), anything that came after would be mediocre at best. The reboot, on the other hand, has set itself up for many stories to come by taking the road of the comics, by introducing Gwen Stacy first and saving characters such as Mary Jane and Harry Osborn for future films (though Norman Osborn was hinted at in the film).
All in all, though it was not a ground-breaking film with nothing truly new brought to this reboot and even sharing several plot similarities with 2002's Spider-Man, nevertheless- The Amazing Spider-Man is entertaining and enjoyable.
Writer's rating: 3.5/5
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