It has been ten years since the first Spider-Man movie, and while 2007's Spider-Man 3 was god awful, I never thought it was bad enough that clearing the table and starting again was the only viable option. Clearly I don't work at Sony, because finally swinging into cinemas is The Amazing Spider-Man, which goes back to the beginning and reboots everything we knew from Sam Raimi's trilogy.
When Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) finds an old briefcase belonging to his father, who went missing along with Peter's mother when he was younger, he decides to investigate his fathers research into cross species genetics. With the trail leading him to Oscorp, and Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), Peter is bitten by a genetically modified spider, granting him the powers of an arachnid. When Connors uses the research to transform himself into a half humanoid/half reptilian monster, Peter uses his new powers as Spider-Man to stop him.
The biggest thing this film has going against it is people will compare it to the original movies. While not totally unwarranted, it does do it a disservice. Raimi's movies were the comic books on the big screen, bright, colorful, off the wall. Director Marc Webb goes down a different route with this one, making it darker and slightly more realistic. The main story beats are there (the spider bite, Aunt May and Uncle Ben, being a menace to the city, etc.), it's just everything in between that's different. The changes do work, though are sometimes frustrating. Hints that Peter's parents stumbled onto something dangerous that involves him are dropped as soon as they are revealed, and are only mentioned again at the end to set up the inevitable sequel. Keeping Peter in high school, whereas Raimi thrust him out into the real world as soon as possible, makes Garfield's performance so much different than Tobey Maguire's. This is Spider-Man as a teenager with powers. He has fun with it, cracks wise, gets cocky. It's something more akin to the comic book version of the character and is one of the main things to like about the movie.
Considering his first film was (500) Days Of Summer, Webb handles action very well. The decision to let Peter have fun with his powers really opens up the action scenes, he uses his webs in inventive ways and his movements are especially spider like. The much debated POV shots are used sparingly, and add quite a bit to already kinetic action, while the CGI on The Lizard isn't as dodgy as I thought it would be, towards the end he starts looking like a computer game character. Where the movie really falls down is the pacing of the story. It takes quite a bit to get going, and when it does, it continues to gain momentum, barreling towards the finale. Characters we think are important are dropped left right and centre, and major plot points, that again were built up quite a bit, give way to the generic 'stop the bad guy from carrying out his evil plan', only to show up fleetingly at the end.
As I said before, Garfield is a good Peter Parker, and he plays perfectly off Emma Stone as love interest Gwen Stacy. She's sweet, and funny, and their scenes together make you care about what is happening. Rhys Ifans plays a good bad guy, but the decision to make The Lizard CGI does limit his screen time, and his descent into mad scientist mode doesn't ring true, feeling like it only happens because the script said so. Denis Leary plays Gwen's police captain father as Denis Leary, which isn't a bad thing. Nobody does angry and sarky quite like him, and he lights up the scenes he's in. Ditto Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May, especially Sheen, who even made me feel guilty when giving Peter a dressing down. And yes, being a movie of a Marvel property, Stan Lee makes his usual cameo, this one being my favorite of the lot.
All in all, while not as good as the title would have you believe, it's fun and entertaining, and, while not always succeeding, attempts to do something new with the well known character.
