Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Mostly interesting story, great acting all around
Cons: Story still predictable;
characters could be deeper
The Bottom Line:
Origin story
Good but has been done better
Not that long ago
I’m not one of those people who insists that all remakes are
bad. I like to at least see them before
I decide. I guess it’s the play lover in
me. Even so, I did think it was a little
too early for The Amazing Spider-Man, a film that attempts to set up a new take
on the superhero. But since Spider-Man
is one of the few heroes I know anything about outside of the movies (and
that’s limited), I was curious enough to see it. It really doesn’t hold up against the last
one.
As a young boy, Peter Park is left with his Uncle Ben
(Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field) right before his parents are killed
in an accident. Years later as a teen, Peter
(Andrew Garfield) finds his father’s old brief case that contains information
on the project he was working on with Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans).
When Peter tries to meet Dr. Connors, he winds up getting
bitten by a radio active spider, a bite that gives him strange powers. It also brings him into closer contact with
Dr. Connors’ assistant, his fellow student Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone).
But when Dr. Connors tries an experiment to use lizard DNA
to grow a missing arm back, it turns him into The Lizard, a powerful monster
that starts destroying the city. Can
Peter use his new powers as Spider-Man to stop him?
One issue I have with the current glut of super hero movies
is the origin story of most of them.
They are so similar as a result even if the details are different. I can’t help but think about that here since
we’ve got another origin story that covers the familiar bases. On the other hand, tying it back into Peter’s
dad was interesting.
My very limited knowledge of Peter Parker includes nothing
about Gwen Stacy, but I tried to approach this movie with an open mind as a
result. And you know what? I do like her. In fact, I found their budding romance one of
the best things in the film.
Likewise, I thought all the acting was great. The characters felt real to me, and that’s
all I truly look for. It was interesting
to see heavy hitters Martin Sheen and Sally Field in this, but they added some
depth to their characters that really brought them to life. And Andrew Garfield had fun delivering the
few one-liners he got as Spider-Man.
Note to the writers, give us more of those in the sequel.
On the other hand, the effects needed some work. Most of the time, I bought them when they
involved Peter as Spider-Man. However,
when Dr. Connors turns into The Lizard, it was pretty bad. We’re talking laughably for 10 years ago
bad. I don’t know how it got approved,
to be honest.
Of course, the danger with a remake is that fans will
inevitably compare the two, and I couldn’t help but do that as I was
watching. Keep in mind, I loved Sam
Raimi’s Spider-Man, so this one had stiff competition. But I felt the emotional level of the
original was better than this one. While
I liked this movie’s Peter and Gwen, they didn’t feel as real to me as Peter and
Mary Jane did ten years ago. This film
felt more by the numbers in character development as well as story.
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