The Amazing Spider-Man Review

Y'all ever notice this? I mean this has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the review but, it's weird man...anyway Amazing Spider-Man, let's review it.

After the critical failure that was Spider-Man 3, the state of Spider-Man had yet again returned to limbo, you see a Spider-Man 4 was in pre-production, both Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire wanted to return to the project, not Kirsten Dunst because she got sick of being nothing more than the damsel (right on!) but both of them were tied up with other projects at the time when Sony wanted to get the movie going, so rather than wait so Raimi could return to the project they scrapped it all together and rebooted the franchise...after 5 years. Why did they need to reboot it? Because if Sony doesn't make a Spider-Man film within a certain amount of time the movie rights revert back to Marvel, which means if Sony weren't greedy money grubbing pigs then yes, we could have seen Spider-Man with The Avengers. Point is we got a new Spider-Man franchise only a decade after the last one began, but while I do bring this up because it's important to know why the movie is made, I'm not going to be using this against the film, nor shall I focus on the atrocious marketing campaign, because that's judging the production of a film, not the actual quality of the film itself, with that being said, let's get into the film already.

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) was directed by Marc Webb (Pun not intended) and was written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves and starred Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Now this is the first and best thing about this franchise is Andrew Garfield's portrayal as Spider-Man, if you remember my biggest problem with the previous Spider-Man films is that they never felt like Spider-Man, here, they nailed it almost right away. I've heard people complain that someone like Andrew Garfield can't pass as a socially awkward nerd because he's too: handsome, athletic, stylish & funny. Webb & Garfield's response to this is that Peter is an introvert by choice, because let's be honest, the reputation that nerds have these days doesn't instantly signify that you're uncool, so if they were to go that route then it would be too unrealistic, and I am completely fine with accepting Garfield's awkward portrayal because for me he does genuinely come across as someone who would be hard to get along with, at least at first. Also they get the comedy down pretty well I'd say, I mean not entirely, being honest a lot of the time when he's telling jokes (especially as Spider-Man) they're just sort in the background or people are talking over him, I would have liked that to get more focus.

But apart from that they nailed the most important aspect is the heroism of it all, Spider-Man is not the hero, Peter Parker is the hero, Spider-Man is just a mask that gives him the confidence to be who he really is, but the important thing to note is that Peter is the hero, and that is exactly what he is here. Even before he becomes Spider-Man, he's still not afraid to stand up for himself or for others, I mean granted he never actually wins, but the fact that he tries is important, what makes a hero isn't what they can do, but why they do it. So overall I love this Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield is without a doubt a much better Spider-Man than Tobey Maguire.


And then there is the love interest, Gwen Stacy played by Emma Stone...she's fucking awesome, I mean seriously a million billion times better than Mary Jane, absolutely incredible. Firstly, the chemistry between Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield is through the roof adorkable, you truly believe them as a real couple...probably because they are indeed a real couple. But more than that, her character is not just a damsel in distress, in fact I don't think there's a point in this movie where she becomes a damsel in distress. The only point where she's in danger from the villain, she get's herself out of the situation thanks to her quick thinking, because that's another thing, she's a genius, in fact she's smarter than Peter, she's the one that creates the antidote that defeats the villain. So she's smart, take's care of herself and has great chemistry with her love interest, you know, all the things Mary Jane didn't have!

And then there is the villain, Kurt Conners A.K.A. The Lizard, played by Rhys Ifans (thank god I don't have to pronounce that name) and uh...he's not very good. My main problem is STOP MAKING SPIDER-MAN VILLAINS CRAZY!! You should know by now I fucking hate this cliche, not every Spider-Man villain needs to be crazy, the Lizard shouldn't be treated like a split personality, it's more like a disease that plagues his life, like The Hulk to Bruce Banner, not the Green Goblin to Norman Osborne, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! Also his plan to change the entire city into lizards makes no sense, but it's okay because he's crazy...apparently? Also the design of the Lizard sucks, he's even worse than the 2014 Ninja Turtles, the face just looks all wrong. So not a fan of his motivation, personality or design, does this mean I hate the villain? Well no, not necessarily, after all, I've never been impressed with any of the Spider-Man movie villains, so this is just following that trend, though I will say the biggest let down is in the design, which the Spider-Man villains have always had great designs, this is the only exception.

Then there is the supporting cast, Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben and Sally Field as Aunt May. First of all, holy shit, how do you get two major actors like that in supporting roles!? That is fantastic casting. Also the relationships between the two and Peter are much better here, in the first film they had barely any screen time together and I said the relationship and drama was incredibly forced, here we get plenty more time of them acting like father & son, such as the two doing chores together, Peter getting in trouble at school and Ben disciplining him so when the eventual fight between the two and Uncle Ben's murder, the emotions are more justified and thus the moment is all the stronger because there relationship was better established, it didn't feel like a plot point that needed to happen because it's Spider-Man.

And Dennis Leary as Captain Stacy was also great, but I think what I love more than anything about his character and role in the film is the representation of the police force in general. Now it's no secret that in our modern society the American police force don't have the best reputation, and that is even worse in superhero movies where the police seem incapable of doing fuck all, so the fact that here the police are portrayed as skilled and competent makes for a nice change, hell they're even able to capture Spider-Man at one point. As for the rest of the supporting cast, well the Rajit guy that Conners worked with, he's completely forgotten about half way through the film, Flash is actually given some dimension here and isn't just a complete asshole like the bullies in the first film (Who are still complete dorks by the way). And finally Stan Lee...best-cameo-ever.

So those are the characters of the film, but the story of the film is something completely different, and by that I mean, it's very unfocused. First of all, the film pretty much retreads the origin story, which granted of course the origin is going to be the same but would it be so difficult to do something a little different? In fact that's how this film was marketed that it was going to focus on the "untold story of Peter's parents" which doesn't happen! They set it up that way at first but that's forgotten about pretty quickly, the same with Uncle Ben's killer, it's the macguffin that turns Peter into Spider-Man but it never actually gets a resolution! Or Rajit being hunted down by The Lizard, though there is a deleted scene for that, but if it's deleted then it doesn't count. So what I'm trying to say is this story is completely unfocused, badly paced and jumbled together without really knowing what it wants to talk about. So odd how opposite it is from the first film, there I thought the story was great and the characters were terrible, here I think the story is terrible and the characters are great.

Finally the visuals of the film, well the Spidey suit is...okay, I mean I get that they would have to make it different from the first series but the problem is that the Spidey suit looked perfect in the original films, so nothing they could do would look as good if they changed it up too much. As for the special effects, they're pretty good, I say pretty good because I do miss the practical effects of yesteryear and the cgi on The Lizard just doesn't look very good...at all, I'm always aware I'm looking at something that isn't really there.

Also the tone of the movie is something that a lot of people have criticized, that being that the tone is too dark and just copying off of The Dark Knight...first of all anyone that actually thinks this film is in any way like The Dark Knight, you can fuck right off, because this film isn't anything like The Dark Knight, not in tone, style or story, and no I don't even think it's trying to be like the Dark Knight, it is definitely trying to be a darker toned movie but there are more ways to tell a darker toned story than just The Dark Knight, seriously, it really pisses me off when people make that comparison THEY'RE NOTHING ALIKE!!! Sorry, mini-rant over, but actually discussing the tone of the film, it's odd, I get the feeling that they're trying to make it a dark toned movie but...they really don't, the only way how this movie feels dark is that a lot of the scenes take place at night, honestly if all the night scenes took place during the day I feel like the tone of the scene wouldn't be any different.

So that was my take on The Amazing Spider-Man, I love the cast & characters, the villain sucks but so does every Spider-Man villain, the story doesn't make a lick of sense and the tone isn't consistent with what they want vs what the get. As a film, it doesn't work very well, but as a Spider-Man film, it's fucking awesome.

My final rating for The Amazing Spider-Man is an 8/10.

If you disagree with me on this then boy are you gonna hate me when we talk about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, see ya then guys.

-Danny