Not Amazing but Far From Terrible
In the summer of 2011 FOX released a prequel (read: reboot) of their than tarnished X-Men franchise, rushed into production, out of contractual obligation than an obvious want to make a good movie. Surprisingly FOX managed to get Matthew Vaughn to direct and James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender to star. Even more surprising, X-Men: First Class turned out to be lots of fun. If you replace FOX with Sony, Mathew Vaughn with Marc Webb, James McAvoy Michael Fassbender with Andrew Garfield Emma Stone, you would have the basics of the Amazing Spider-man's birth into the cinemas.
After a critical disaster in Spider-Man 3 and a titled Spider-Man 4 imploding during production Sony was in a tight spot to produce a contractually obligated movie. The Amazing Spider-man isn’t as good as X-Men: First Class but manages to still tell a good Spider-man story.
This movie is supposed to be a reboot of the franchise and the changes they made to the universe are interesting and worth exploring more in future films. The whole thing needed to take a huge hint from The Incredible Hulk and not go back to the beginning. It is unnecessary for a character like Spider-man. He is among the top 3 icons of comics and international pop culture, everyone knows how he donned the costume. Making matters worse Amazing Spider-man comes 2 months after the 10th anniversary of franchise starter Spider-Man(2002). Showing the origin in a credit sequence or simply just dropping in on Parker early on his career would have been a better start than going through an opening act everyone already knows.
Even if the first portion of the movie is something you know the writers do a good enough job giving their own spin on things while still hitting the same plot and emotional notes. When Martin Sheen was cast as Uncle Ben it didn’t quite make sense to me. Uncle Ben is indeed an important part of Parker's journey to Spider-man but it wasn’t going to be a big part of the movie. Sheen was well cast getting exuding the fatherly, bordering on grandfatherly, love Ben has for his nephew. Star casting dosen’t change what inevitably must happen to Uncle Ben by minute 20. The same goes for Sally Field as Aunt May great casting but not that big a player.
The major change to the origin is the addition of a mystery surrounding Parker's parents. They disappear in the first minutes of the movie leaving young Peter constantly questioning why his parents left him. Their disappearance is somehow linked to Oscorp and the work Peters Dad, Richard did with his partner Dr. Curt Connors. The marketing made this seem like a major point to the plot but is only really hinted at in the film, it all comes off as some sort of melodramatic conspiracy. With everything being a trilogy, there is no pay off to the Parker Parents, just more questions for the writers an arc to play with through films 2 and 3.
Andrew Garfield is great as Peter Parker and Spider-man. His performance will inevitably be compared to Tobey Maguire, Garfield is for now the more enjoyable person to see wear the spandex. Garfield goes in the opposite of the glum, down trodden, quiet Parker Maguire played. This Parker is full of a quiet energy on top of some nerdy quirks, one of these quirks appears to be a head movement that just looked dumb and out of place. He nails the snarky sarcastic quips the Spidey is known for. Even if the characterization of Parker in the movie is a bit one note at a times, Garfield does an adequate job making that one note interesting.
Peter Parker is nothing without his losses even if he hasn’t lost everyone just yet. Amazing Spider-man did a fine job introducing Gwen Stacy. You can’t miss something if you don’t appreciate it and seeing Emma Stone on screen with Garfield is something to appreciate. They have excellent chemistry together as they figure out what they are to one another. Gwen Stacy becomes a nice counterbalance for the manic Parker. Honestly it is their chemistry together that makes this film watchable. Without it you’d just have a boring rehash of a well worn script.
The casting of Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors was another smart move. Dr. Connors isn’t the most well known Spidey villains but still a good character to challenge both Parker and Spider-man. His character is made more important with the conspiracy around Parker's’ parents deaths. The problem becomes that Dr. Connors doesn't feel that important or integral to the story. In the end they turn him into a stereotypical mad scientist with little reasoning for his motivations. He becomes a Green Goblin rip off in the worst ways. There are vague allusions to them but in the end this movie needed a monster and The Lizard fills that role perfectly. The Lizard had its moments of looking great but for the most part just seemed like a giant blurry green CGI monster.
Director Marc Webb is most at home with the character moments. For how little the high school moments are featured they are among some of the more enjoyable moments of the movie. Webbs style does a good job transitioning to the action pieces. They are not over edited giving things a chance to breathe instead of cutting every 5 seconds. This and the web slinging sequences while enjoyable did turn into a blurry mess, one wonders how that effects the 3D. For someone who’s only other feature credit is (500) Days of Summer Webb manages to craft entertaining if not exactly subtle movie.
It’s good to be proven wrong. After a less than enjoyable start to production and a teaser trailer seemingly made by an executive repeating the dark and edgy mantra Amazing Spider-man isn’t as good as Spider-Man 1 or 2 but holds its own among the franchise and the superhero genre.
Michael Mazzacane can be found many places on the internet but mainly onTwitter@MaZZM and on Tumblrweekntv.com
