The Amazing Spiderman

The Amazing Spiderman

Only ten years after Sam Rami began his Spiderman Trilogy we are offered Marc Webb's (ironic right?) series reboot. The main question I have walking out of the theatre is this: Did we really need a reboot of Spiderman?

Lets get this out of the way right now, I liked the movie. But it wasn't quite as good as Spiderman.

Garfield's Spiderman is a bit different from the boyish Tobey Maguire, and he needs to be to handle the arduous task he is given throughout the film. Maguire's Spiderman was an out of place high school student just trying to make it out of high school any better than he came in. Garfield knows something is different about him, and it's not until his spider-bite induced super-prowess that he can fully fulfil his destiny. Garfield is a different Spiderman than Maguire and that's not a bad thing. The Amazing Spiderman deals more with Peter Parkers past than any of Rami's trio. That being said Garfield nailed the questioning, cocky, and driven Parker of The Amazing Spiderman.

I loved Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey. I love Emma Stone. I found myself thinking during the movie, "This seems more like the type of girl Peter Parker would go for." No offense to Kirsten Dunst but Stone's witty Stacey is far more of an equal to Parker than Dunst's gorgeous but doeish damsel in distress. I was happy to see the same Dennis Leary I know and love from Rescue Me. Captain Stacey feels as though he was written just for Leary.

Uncle Ben and Aunt May are the grounding force for Parker in The Amazing Spiderman. Martin Sheen was a great choice for Uncle Ben, and felt more like a father to Parker than the more grandfather like Cliff Robertson from Spider-man. Meanwhile I felt like the relationship between Garfield and Sally Fields' Aunt May wasn't nearly as sweet or organic as Rosemary Harris'. Sally Fields in my opinion just failed to make me feel as close to her as I did to Sheen's Uncle Ben.

I feel as though the plot was almost rushed to get to the conflict. It seems as if it just reared it's ugly head as opposed to the setups given in the other films. And that gets me to the biggest problem with this film. It's so hard to see this film and NOT compare it to Sam Rami's excellent Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. I leave out Spiderman 3 as it is easily the weakest of the Trilogy.  
 
Visually however The Amazing Spiderman is brilliant. This film was shot in the new 4k x 2k standard offering nearly 4 times the resolution of the current 1080p HD resolution. The results literally must be seen to believe. While I didn't care as much for the POV shots used in the film the contrasting wide angle shots looked phenomenal. It wasn't until one scene towards the end of the film that I really began to care about Spiderman, I didn't want him to fail. I found myself getting slightly emotional. It was late in the movie to feel that, but better late than never.

James Horner's score was good but not quite as expressive as Elfman's original Spider-Man. It wasn't over the top but almost blended TOO well into certain scenes.

All in all the movie was enjoyable but not exceptional with the exception being the visuals, mostly thanks to the next gen 4k x 2k hi def wizardry.

The Amazing Spiderman                    79 out of 100