The Amazing Spider-Man

Director: Marc Webb
Writers: James Vanderbilt, Steve Kloves, Alvin Sargent
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Length: 2 hours 16 minutes

After the critical failure of Spider-Man 3 in 2007, Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced that instead of doing another sequel with Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi, they were going to reboot the franchise with a fresh new face. Was it absolutely necessary to reboot a world famous series last touched only five years ago, strictly for money purposes? No. Does that mean our annoyance with their decision will stop us from enjoying the results? Absolutely not. Marc Webb, best known for directing the celebrated romcom (500) Days of Summer takes on the weighty role of directing The Amazing Spider-Man, which stars possibly the cutest couple ever seen on screen together, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield.

This film has virtually the same plot set up as the original only we’re switching a green goblin for a lizard, a redhead for a blonde and a museum for a science lab where Peter is first bitten. The rest of the differences come through in Garfield’s interpretation of the role and the tone of the movie. At a high school in Queens, Peter Parker is once again a socially awkward seventeen year old that spends all his time taking pictures, creating inventions and fantasizing about being with the charming Gwen Stacy. After standing up to a bully at school, Peter is applauded by Gwen, who seems to always look like a 50s poster child wearing short skirts that meet her ridiculously high knee socks. And one more thing, Peter will always wonder about his father and mother, who were forced to leave him when he was a kid with his overprotective but loving Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen).

When Peter finds his father’s scientific files hidden in the seams of an old briefcase, he immediately becomes curious about the man framed with his father in the photo, Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans). Against his Uncle’s disapproval, Peter travels to Oscorp, a huge scientific laboratory building in Midtown Manhattan, where Gwen coincidentally works as an intern, now letting her white laboratory coat fall over her knee socks. At Oscorp, Peter provides Connors a formula to fix his proposed remedy to grow limbs back, such as Connors’ half-arm. When Connors becomes a bit too obsessed with his goal to prove his solution, New York might need a real hero to protect them, despite the chagrin of NYPD head Captain Stacy (Dennis Leary), Gwen’s father.

With the last film so fresh in our minds, there is no possible way we can’t make comparisons and in fact, we should. There must be something extraordinarily special with what the supposedly “amazing” Spiderman has to offer to have it be made so soon after the last series. That special trait is simply that this version is a non-stop thrill ride, however with a lot of fun comes a lot of cheese and a slight lack of severity. Marc Webb certainly knows how to make a fun, never slow, and always exciting comic book movie, which shows through in the cheesiest most obvious uses of 3D. When Spiderman is swinging into our faces from building to building and web literally is shot into the audience, we can tell they are obvious gags but it flows perfectly with the exciting tone of the movie. Also, opposed to a subtle use of 3D without any gags, a blatant, grabbing use of 3D can remind you why you paid three extra bucks in the first place.

Webb makes this different by not only bringing the geek out of the script and comic book story, but embellishing it with humor and a whole new vision of the character done with Garfield. Garfield, who got his claim to fame with a memorable performance in David Fincher’s The Social Network, gives us a layered, way geekier and much more interesting Parker than we saw five years ago. With all do respect to Maguire, Garfield simply had to go further into the character in order to separate himself, and he successfully does so. His intriguing relatable portrayal of Parker makes the movie, along with his unbeatable chemistry with real life girlfriend Emma Stone, the most lovable girl in Hollywood. The on-screen relationship between the two teenagers is much sweeter and lighter than the intense romance between Maguire and Dunst that we got previously.

The only hindrance to this refreshingly light and fun atmosphere of The Amazing Spider-Man is that when the plot takes a heavy turn, it’s hard to take it seriously. Since the original films were much darker, similar to Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, you can immediately detect the sense of gravity missing from Webb’s adaptation, despite the skillful acting of the cast. However, there thankfully aren’t too many heavy scenes, and with the adorable romance, highly entertaining action, and strength of Garfield’s performance, Spiderman was worth a second try.