Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone star in this first Spidey reboot/remake that makes people in 2020 go “Oh yeah, this movie existed!”
Hey Everyone! We’re up on the fourth base of this little Spidey review marathon (wait a minute, fourth base?!?! In case you couldn’t tell by this point, but I REALLY don’t speak sports) and we’re moving on from the Sam Raimi trilogy to the Marc Webb-verse (if you could call it that) with The Amazing Spider-Man. Now per usual, no plot synopsis here but spoiler alert if you’ve seen the original Spider-Man or quite literally ANY OTHER VERSION OF THE PETER PARKER ORIGIN STORY, then you should know what to expect here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948470/
So yeah, in case you couldn’t tell by the title of this post, The Amazing Spider-Man is certainly not a groundbreakingly awesome movie, but it is certainly not a bad one either–ESPECIALLY after just having re-watched Spider-Man 3 a week ago (oh god… I just threw up a little bit in my mouth just thinking about that movie again). Now, I do remember liking this movie a lot when I was younger, but again, that “I’m a kid and I love everything” can definitely add a lot to any experience and it did for a good part of my life so far (as I can imagine it did for many people).
But if one thing’s for sure-ly amazing (Pun alert! Pun alert! Pun alert! Leave no prisoners!), it’s the chemistry that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone together whenever they are onscreen. There’s a reason I wanted to mention them immediately in the tagline, since they are just absolutely adorable at embodying that classic superhero romantic couple that feels A) actually believable as a relationship and not forced (*cough* Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams in Venom *Cough) and B) like a realistic interpretation of Spidey needing his supportive girlfriend Gwen just as much as she needs him. No offense to Maguire and Dunst, but when compared to Garfield and Stone, that is one thing that legitimately turned out better in this remake.
Additionally (*checks off word of the day calendar*), the performances as a whole are just pretty strong. Sally Field and Martin Sheen feel really believable in their attempts to embody Aunt May and Uncle Ben for a new decade. Denis Leary fits as Captain Stacy with all of his ‘Denis Leary-isms’. I actually think Rhys Ifans is fairly underrated as Curt Connors at bringing out the tortured natures of his character (for the most part- it gets a little hoaky when he tries to go nuts with split personalities ala the Raimi movies, but I blame that more on what he was given to work with than anything else). And of course, I will defend what Garfield does on his own rights in portraying a different kind of Peter Parker–with his Spider-Man in particular being on point. The scene with him and the criminal and the car alone feels like Spider-Man in his purest form and that’s always nice to see.
In fact, there are just a number of key moments and qualities to this film that understand the mythos of Spider-Man perfectly in a way that stand out in the character’s cinematic legacy. To go back to another scene with Spider-Man and a car (jeez, what is it with this movie and good ‘Spidey interacting with somebody in the car’ scenes?!) I think the moment where he is trying to help that boy get out of the car before it falls in the river is a phenomenal case of what makes Spider-Man different than the rest and I loved it!
Am I biased towards anything that feels remotely “genuine Spider-Man”? Uh, YEAH!!! I call myself the Friendly Neighborhood Film Nerd for Keanu’ sake (If you’re confused about whether it’s “Your” or “The” at the beginning of that, then we have something in common!). Yet, that’s just the way it goes when I’m reviewing movies, so yeah… I know what I’m doing… I think.
Anyway, I do think that the action here is also enjoyable to watch. It is certainly well-choreographed and is capture with a quick frenetic pace to keep things engaging (Need I mention Stan Lee’s best cameo EVAH?!)
So yeah, this movie definitely isn’t a bad one to watch, but there also just this aroma of un-remarkable that can be smelled throughout the entire movie. For starters, the plot does try to cram in a lot of different storylines into one complete package right from the get-go and I feel it leads to some overall middling and sloppy results. Granted, that issue is NOWHERE near as bad as it is in Spider-Man 3 (I feel like I’ve been saying that lot after last week), although it’s hard to deny that we didn’t need to have a backstory with Peter’s parents on top of his school struggles on top of the revenge for Uncle Ben’s killer storyline ON TOP OF the cops manhunt… I think you get my point. (You know, run-on’s *can* be a beautiful thing if used right- beat that English teachers!)
Weirldy enough, that plot-issue does get better towards the second half of the movie, so that’s something. However, there is also a general problem with the pacing feeling weird to where it could have either used more time to flesh things out or less time to create tighter package.
That certainly is a bizarre sentiment for sure and it gets even weirder how I know a better pace could have helped to make the stakes feel just a little bit more palpable to work. It’s just kind-of another bland excuse to make the superhero save the day from the big bad and in fact, I actually feel like that ties in with the biggest issue of The Amazing Spider-Man: identity. Outside of the good stuff that I mentioned earlier, Marc Webb and all of the filmmakers just don’t bring out a strong enough style to make anything in this movie feel anything more than generic, which is problematic in the ever-going comic book movie renascence that is STILL going on.
So yeah, is The Amazing Spider-Man a movie that I’m going to re-watch endlessly as say the first two Raimi movies and other movies the marathon that we haven’t gotten to yet? No. Although will I watch it and enjoy it when it’s randomly on *and* will I take it over Spider-Man 3? Yes and HELL YES!!!
Rating: 6.5/10 and I enjoyed it well enough (It’s easy to say that it should be a 6. But you know me well at enough at this point, I’m a sucker for any good Spidey moments)
Welp, that’s all folks!
…alright, I’m not just gonna end it there. Silly reader (Trix are for kids!). Thank you so much for reading this post and if you’ve been still managing to keep up with these Spidey reviews for the marathon four deep, then that’s just awesome. Next week will be The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which I have a hunch I won’t hate like the rest of ’em- even if I still have problems with it. I was also planning on actually writing a bonus of review of Sonic The Hedgehog mid-way through the week to get some relatively recent release blood into the fray, so please be sure to look forward to that. Anyway, if you enjoyed this review and if you have some thoughts on the The Amazing Spider-Man movies basically being the black sheep of the character onscreen, then feel free to let me know about it in the comments below. And as always, I think you should all know who I am at this point…
I’m Alex, *Your* Friendly Neighborhood Film Nerd!!! (Wooooo HOOOOOOO!!!)
Spinning the Cineweb 