(Originally posted December 18th, 2017)
Spider-Man is one of those amazing characters that keep being redone over and over and yet still remain fresh. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) is the 5th Spider-Man movie I've seen this year, and yet it felt like I was seeing the character for the first time. Is it as good as Spider-Man Homecoming or Spider-Man 2? Well, no, but it is one of the better movies I've seen this month, especially compared to what I've seen recently. Starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard, Denis Leary as Capt. Stacy, Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben and Sally Field as Aunt May.
I was getting worried during the opening sequence, which feature Peter as a young boy with his real parents. Yeah, it's okay to show who they were, but the movie tries to make intrigue surrounding the parents, particularly the father, their work and what happened to them. I was worried we'd be going too dark and gritty here, but surprisingly, this opening has very little to do with the rest of the movie. Yes, he uses his father and his work to find Dr. Connors and create the formula, but that's about it. You could have just have him think up the formula because he's smart, which he is. I don't understand why they had to open with such an irrelevant sequence... it's just there to set up for the sequels, isn't it? Oh, boy, we're doing one of these movie series. Oh, well, like I said, it didn't affect the movie overall.
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| Campbell Scott as Richard Parker and Embeth Davidtz as Mary Parker |
Andrew Garfield was brilliant as Spider-Man, and as Peter Parker. I'd heard he wasn't quite believable as Parker, but I thought he was just excellent. He had something about his performance that just made me completely buy it. One of the things I heard is that he wasn't geeky enough, but you don't need a character to make references to geek culture or be physically inadequate in order to be a geek. The thing that ultimately sold me on this is his reaction to finally getting his web fluid working. He just utterly geeks out over it, and it's great. He's also insecure and socially awkward, something I can relate to, and believe me, he nails it. He just got all the mannerisms down perfectly, and unlike Tobey Maguire's first movie, I can totally believe it when he starts mouthing off while in the Spider-Man costume, since it's so obviously right there under the surface. It's a very layered performance, and I really can't understand why people don't like his Peter Parker. I obviously can't speak for the sequel, but as a first outing, I preferred Garfield's performance to Maguire's in his first movie.
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| Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man |
Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy? Thank God they did this character justice. I mentioned how disappointed I was with the character in Spider-Man 3, so this feels like a big win. Not only is she an amazing character in this movie, she far-and-away surpasses anything that Mary-Jane ever did. Not only is there far more personality, but the character actually does things other than be saved by Spider-Man. In fact, she doesn't get saved by Spider-Man once in this movie. This is the first Spider-Man movie where the villain doesn't use the love interest against him, and it's so refreshing. Not to mention, the romance between the two of them is so believable, purely because we can see how compatible they both are with each other. They just seem so comfortable around each other, and the chemistry they have is really great. The character isn't a by-product of the romance, the romance is a by-product of the character. You can tell she wasn't just put in here to give Peter Parker someone to fall in love with. She was so great to watch, and I can't wait to see her in action in the sequel.
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| Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy |
Rhys Ifans was also fantastic in this film. I recognised him from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and it's really good to see him here, since I loved him in both of those roles. His motivations are so completely understandable. He's spent the majority of his life wishing against hope to get his arm back, so when he finally gets a taste of it after all those years, of course he's going to go a little mad. Yes, we once again get the insanity excuse, but it feels completely justified here. The Lizard is also a really threatening villain, except for whenever Rhys Ifans' voice is coming out of it. The CGI looks really solid, and the plan is a good one. The final climax was so entertaining to watch, everything from when Capt. Stacy confronts Spider-Man onwards is absolutely stellar. Everything about it just worked, and I loved watching it.
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| Rhys Ifans as Curt Connors |
We do get the Uncle Ben story in here, and while it's very well-handled, I do have some reservations. Martin Sheen does an excellent job, but he's no Cliff Robertson. I'm sorry, he's just not. I also don't know how I feel about Uncle Ben yelling at Peter about his mistake right after he apologised several times. Also, if you're going to have Uncle Ben in your movie, please just say 'With great power comes great responsibility'. Don't dance around it. If the character famous for saying it is in your movie, and the whole reason for him being there is so he can say that thing, just have him say it. Although, I will say, I love that Peter never actually catches Uncle Ben's killer. He's on his manhunt for a good chunk of the movie, but when he realises the gravity of Uncle Ben's message, he abandons the witch hunt. It's not as simple as in the first movie, where he gets the guy but then doesn't feel any better about it. Oh, I'm sorry, he didn't get the guy, because it turns out that wasn't Uncle Ben's killer after all even though he didn't deny it when Peter confronted him about it! Sorry, I'm still legitimately pissed off at Spider-Man 3 for doing that. That's not this movie's problem, though, they handled it well here.
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| Sally Field as May Parker and Martin Sheen as Ben Parker |
In conclusion, The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) was a pretty awesome movie, and one I'd be happy to watch again. I've heard less-appealing things about the sequel, so I'm looking out for that on the 27th, but for now, I'm looking forward to it. 8.5/10.
Tomorrow/today: it's the beginning of the mutants with X-Men: First Class.
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