The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man is supposed to be a reboot of the Spider-Man movie franchise. Tobey Maguire is replaced by Andrew Garfield in the protagonist role of Peter Parker. His main love interest switches from Mary-Jane Watson to Gwen Stacy, and the villain in this installment is Dr Curt Connors aka Lizard. As expected, this reboot goes back to the beginning when Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man only it is told in a rather different way to the 2002 movie. This time they also try to add a bit more character oriented storyline.

Is it a good movie? Yes, particularly since I saw this movie in IMAX. This made the action scenes more exciting to watch. It also uses a villain that hasn't been used in the previous movies so at least it does make it different from the previous movies.

Is it a successful reboot of the franchise? In my opinion, not really. It's been five years since the last Spider-Man movie came out, and ten years since the movie franchise was first introduced. Even when they made the announcement of this movie being made, I was questioning it because it's just too soon to make a reboot. For the same reason, this reboot is not refreshing. Without trying to give anything away, you can recognise that this movie takes some of the elements from the 2002 movie. The character oriented storyline doesn't add that much meat to the character of Peter Parker as its supposed to. Its easier to count this as another installment only with different actors playing the roles.

I really enjoyed the first three Spider-Man movies, and yes that includes Spider-Man 3. This new Spider-Man movie is also enjoyable but it fails to refresh the series. It seems that I was right in thinking that its too soon to do so.

I must admit I wasn't expecting much from The Amazing Spiderman. I knew the special effects would be great, but I had my doubts whether Marc Webb would be able to add anything new and interesting to the Spiderman franchise, particularly since it has only been a few years since the Sam Raimi version was in theaters.

Well he did, and he didn't.

The casting of Andrew Garfield as Spiderman/Peter Parker was a great choice. Gone is the klutzy and nerdy Peter Parker played by Toby Maguire in the Sam Raimi version. In his place is a normal kid (although very intelligent), who while not being the most popular student at his school is not the class dork either.

This version of Spiderman also concentrates more on what happened to Peter's parents, and the effect that has had on him. The discovery by Peter of his father's suitcase and the ensuing investigation, is what leads him to becoming Spiderman. This investigation into his parents' disappearance will apparently be one of the common threads that will tie in future installments of Webb's Spiderman.

Gone also was The Daily Bugle, J Jonah Jameson and Mary Jane Watson, and although they will all return in The Amazing Spiderman 2, due out in 2014, I did miss the rantings of JJJ, portrayed so wonderfully well by J. K. Simmons in the previous version.

Marc Webb has instead used Gwen Stacey as Peter's love interest in his adaptation, played very service-ably by Emma Stone, and to be honest the chemistry between Stone and Garfield is much better than that between Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, who played Spiderman and MJW respectively in the Sam Raimi films.

Denis Leary who is always good joins the cast as Gwenn's father – police Captain Stacey, and as is becoming a trend in super hero movies, big name actors are playing the parts of the hero's parents, or in this case uncle and aunt, with Sally Field and Martin Sheen taking on the roles of Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Both, as usual give very polished performances.

The excellent Rhys Ifans plays the one armed Dr Curt Conners, who used to work with Peter's father at Oscorp until he disappeared, and since then has been struggling to complete their work on cross species genetics on his own; unable to discover the final equation that will allow it to go forward.

Peter supplies Conners with the equation, and following pressure from his boss at Oscorp tests the formula on himself. Of course it has unintentional side effects, and as well as repairing his lost arm, turns him into a giant lizard who then wreaks havoc throughout New York; as well as trying to turn everyone else in the city into creatures like himself.

And the battle between Spiderman and the Lizard begins. As expected the special effects are great, and although I am not usually a fan of 3D, I highly recommend seeing The Amazing Spiderman in that format if possible, as the scenes of him swinging through New York are (no pun intended) amazing.

Marc Webb has done a fine job. There are holes in the script and story, but they are not that noticeable, and it can get a bit clichéd at times, but these things are to be expected in a big budget film such as this; however they can also be forgiven.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed The Amazing Spiderman, and am looking forward to the next installment of Marc Webb's version, which at this stage will see Jamie Foxx playing the villain Electro and is due out in 2014.

7.5 out of 10

This movie " The Amazing Spiderman, " has been way over-due. Ever since it's initial creation by Stan Lee (who makes his usual Cameo appearance), audiences have been hungrily awaiting this new addition. This time, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) confronts a new and incredibly powerful super villain called, 'The Lizard'. Self created by a one armed scientist, named ( Rhys Ifans ) or Dr. Curt Connors, Spiderman unknowingly gives the fantastic formula to a desperate man who has been trying to invent a way for a human to re-generate a missing limb, without realizing the unfortunate side effects. From the beginning, the film has a dark, foreboding and sinister aspect, which pervades through the entire story. Indeed, this sequel returns to it's early history in that the audience is introduced to Parker's lost parents, as well as his present guardians superbly played by Martin Sheen (Who adds a bit of Panache to the movie and Sally Field. Furthermore, Parker is given a new girlfriend called Gwen Stacy and her father seriously played by Denis Leary. The movie itself is incredible, what with all new high flying action sequences, aerial effects and numerous exciting scenes. Although a bit heavy in using mostly nighttime exteriors, it does lend credence to Parker's equally somber state of mind. Over all, the film is grimly superior to earlier chapters and is therefore easily crafted to enthrall us. As a result, the cast and crew, have intentionally created a Classic in the process. Easily recommended to all. ****

So when I watched this movie for the first time (way after it had come out), I was under the impression that it was a pretty forgettable movie by the Marvel fandom and I just needed to watch it so I could understand what would happen in No Way Home. So I have it watch.

Honestly, it was better than what I thought it was, but definitely one of the weaker Spider-Man movies. There are things that don't work in this movie - personally, Peter Parker as a skate kid didn't do it for me, a couple unsolved plots, and Uncle Ben (where was the famous line??) but there were good things too

The action and design of this movie was phenomenal. The swinging action is still the only movie that fully captures the agility of Spider-Man (the newer MCU ones don't really have these action shots) and the fight scenes are so cleverly made. Andrew Garfield got the Spider-Man half right - he captured the clever and witty personality of Spider-Man better than Maguire did. The second thing, really what stood out about this movie is the chemistry between Gwen and Parker. Something about their relationship connected and really made me think they were destined to be together. It's better than any other marvel ship that comes to my mind and thus just made the ending so satisfying for me.

Being a Spider-man comic book fan I can say that a lot of the stuff that happens in this story is true to the comic book Spider-man. Spider-man has web shooters, Spider-man likes to joke a lot, Gwen Stacy was Spider-man's first love, etc. So Anyone who is a fan of the comics will respect this movie on that merit, the merit that it was faithful to the source material while bringing in new stuff without losing what made Spider-man who he is.

People who've only seen the Spider-man films and never bothered to read any of the comics. Won't like this film as much. They'll say the same old stuff. "Why was this made? We've seen this already?" Blah blah blah.

Let me go off saying that behind Spider-man 2, this is probably the best of the Spider-man trilogy for one reason.....it avoids all clichés that the original trilogy didn't. In fact the film pretty much avoids all clichés at all. I'll try and explain a few without spoiling the film.

Well first of all the woman in this film aren't morons. One of the main problems I had with Sam Raimi's films was the fact that all woman were pretty much portrayed as objects that Spider-man can save. None of them do anything helpful. Sure Mary Jane tried to hit Doctor Octopus with a plank in the second film, but she couldn't even do that right. That's not the case here. Gwen actually has a confrontation with with villain and she doesn't screw around, I won't say what she does but when I saw it happen I couldn't help but cheer. Finally a Spider-man film where the woman have a brain-stem.

The second cliché it avoids is being predictable. The original films basically have Spider-man going through the motions. Girl gets kidnapped, Spidey saves girl, Spidey defeats villain or jumps out of the way so the villain can do harm to himself. That is not the case with this film, a lot of the time you think one thing is going to happen but then it doesn't and the opposite happens.

The third cliché it avoids is having silly moments. The first trilogy had a lot of them, yes even Spider-man 2 (The raindrops keep falling on my head scene). Going back an having re-watched the Sam Raimi trilogy before seeing this one, the films are more like popcorn films. Sam Raimi is the master at making B movies and that's what the original trilogy was, an epic scale B Movie. With this film, they get a little more serious. There's not really any goofy moments that I can think of and if there are then it's usually played for laughs.

Also THANK GOD They got Flash Thompson right. Sam Raimi used Flash so he could be the stereotypical bully, and at the beginning you think that's what Marc Webb plans to do, but then he shows that Flash isn't as big a douche as he makes himself out to be. Flash is one of my favourite Spider-man characters in the comics, and I'd like to say "thank you Marc Webb for avoiding the cliché of him just being a bully and actually making him a human being with depth." The film also does other things right besides avoiding clichés. The actors all do fantastic jobs and I will go on record saying that Andrew Garfield is the perfect Spider-man and a great role model for young boys even though he has his flaws. Martin Sheen was great as an Uncle Ben who is kind, understanding, but at the same time doesn't take any crap. Emma Stone was great as the kind of jokey but intelligent Gwen Stacy who is a strong positive role model for young woman. The Guy who played the villain was great, The girl who played Aunt May was good in the few scenes she was in. Not a weak link in the bunch.

So I've done nothing but praise this film so far, so why is it still behind Spider-man 2 in my books? Well the film does have flaw, mainly two. One it's rushed, the only one who really pays for it being rushed is the villain who only gets one line of dialogue to explain his motives and even then we're not sure why he's doing that. The second flaw is that it doesn't have this big epic feel that Spider-man 2 had, it doesn't feel like it was made to be a big summer blockbuster, instead it was made to be an Indy film with a big budget....although maybe that's why I liked it so much, it focuses more on characters than action.....hurm.....I'm still on the fence with that last one.

The Amazing Spider-man is a good film. It avoids most if not all clichés, it's fresh, it's interesting, it's got characters you love to see and actually feel for played by fantastic actors, it's a great Spider-man film and it's sad that a lot of fans seem to be hating it right now. I honestly can't see what's to hate.

Good film, go see it.....oh by the way.....I wouldn't recommend seeing it in 3D, there are a few moments where you're like "Whoa cool" but not much.