Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father's former partner. Now I know a lot of people were discouraged when they heard that after just 5 years since the mediocre
Spider-Man 3, the apparent "final" film for Tobey Maguire (who played Spidey, duh) that there was gonna be a reboot certainly got many fans of Spidey confused and a bit puzzled why they would reboot the whole franchise with a new Spiderman, new director, etc. And that large amount included me - now don't get me wrong, the trailers for TASM were pretty neat, but I somehow thought for sure that this reboot idea was not going to pay off - and it was only going to make matters worse. But did it actually make it worse? Or was this a fresh much-needed reboot for Spidey? Let's find out.
Marc Webb (Five Hundred Days of Summer), the new director for
The Amazing Spider-Man was a somewhat unknown director (that is of course unless you saw "Five Hundred Days") that hadn't quite proven himself unlike the previous director, Sam Raimi who himself wasn't a "famous" director, but certainly had more experience. But even Raimi, like Webb had never been sitting at the director's chair of a highly anticipated series of films that have tons of expectations and the whole comic book fan world begging for the movie(s) to be good before. "Five Hundred Days" was a independent romantic film while Spiderman is a superhero franchise based off Marvel Comics. I'd say the pressure is on for Webb, did he handle the pressure? Yes, and I mean it. Not only did Webb look like a pro with his first action flick but he also did a great job at making us wonder who the
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT mysterious man at Dr. Curt Conners' prison cell at the end of the film is. I have looked all over Google wondering who this is, but it seems like every source is guessing and Webb isn't telling. Could it be Norman Osborn (who's silhouette is displayed briefly during the film) who Webb has hinted, but hasn't officially announced (Ifans noted that the mysterious man is part of Oscorp in which Norman Osborn founded) so I would have to guess him. But who knows? Webb also noted that the mysterious "villain" may not be in the next Spidey movie, but will play a role in the future. So until I get more clues, I'm thinking Norman Osborn is your "mystery man".
END OF SPOILER ALERT As for the cast, I just knew Andrew Garfield was born to play Peter Parker. With his "young" look (despite being 28 years old playing a high-schooler) and his professional goofball personality, he makes Parker a much more likable, relatable character than Tobey's version who seemed more serious and rather emo. Garfield nailed the role as he is indeed born to play Peter Parker. Gwen Stacy (played by the super-hot talented actress, Emma Stone) plays Peter's love interest this time supposed to Kristen Dunst's Mary Jane Watson is too, a much more likable, goofy, teenager who is easy to like. It doesn't matter what Stone's role in a movie is, she nails each role every time. Rhys Ifans who plays Dr. Curt Conners (who turns into The Lizard) does an excellent job as the one-armed scientist looking to replace his arm - but all goes wrong. Conners is surprisingly a very likable character (especially for a villain) - maybe it's because you feel sorry for him, but at the end of the movie
MINOR SPOILER ALERT you realize that he meant no harm, it was just a failed experiment.
END OF SPOILER ALERT Ifans wasn't the best actor in the film, but I really didn't find too many complaints with him. Sally Field (Aunt May), Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben), Dennis Leary (Captain George Stacy) and the rest of the cast are also well cast. The whole cast is great and well chosen by Webb and his crew.
And the last and most important category of this review is action. Which the trailers maybe showed a tad too much, but didn't show all the action unlike
Battleship leaving some surprises in there. First off, the special effects are very easy to look at. I wasn't particularly fond of the look of The Lizard - he kinda looked more like a crocodile than a lizard, but maybe that was just me. Spiderman's costume is well designed and I found no complaints with it. I found the beginning stages of the movie that followed Peter as a child being curiously left by his parents a little bit slow, and it takes a while for
that scene to come in, but once it does, the excitement reaches new heights and from then on, it really is entertaining throughout. One thing I liked about this reboot was that instead of Spidey developing web-shooters, he had to create the web-shooters himself creating a really neat gadget making it less easy than Maguire had it - I really liked that change. The humor is a lot funnier than the dry humor that Maguire brought with him - I mean, that emo dance? That was a different kind of funny - and that's in a bad way. Overall, the movie is one of the better superhero movies in a while and sets up a very promising sequel. The whole new take on Peter Parker is a fresh start and surprisingly, well worth it.