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In just five short years, Marvel’s Spider-Man gets the redbooted remake in Marc Webb’s thrilling The Amazing Spider-Man. While, before seeing the picture, one could argue the rationale of such a move on Columbia’s part, the necessity however becomes clear rather quickly as the movie opens. This is a film – a mythology/canvas – that is not going to miss any opportunities. We’re in the wake of The Avengers – a film many thought wouldn’t work – and so a superhero’s whole story must be open to inclusion. Characters – even minor ones – are prepped, studied, and fleshed out and earmarked for future possibilities. Origins are altered ever so slightly and – using the body design of Ultimate Spider-Man - even Spidey’s senses get their tingle on. For these reasons and more The Amazing Spider-Man feels complete.
Written by James Vanderbilt, Steve Kloves, and Alvin Sargent, The Amazing Spider-Man tells the story of one lanky Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) as he struggles with the memory of his parents’ abandonment and what the means for him as he wanders (and rides his skateboard) through the halls of his high school. He's known for his photographic skills, but mainly he just wants to disappear. Bullied by Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka) and befriended by Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), Parker stumbles upon a long-thought missing item from his late and mysterious scientist father’s past that leads him to the biotech laboratory of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) at Oscorp Industries.
Dr. Connors wants to create a world without weakness and, in doing so, discovers a way for humans to regenerate missing limbs through studies in cross-species genetics. Here, sneaking in to Oscorp, Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and … well … you know the rest. He becomes Spider-Man. Connors becomes The Lizard. With a playful sense of humor, Webb examines the daily life of a teenager suddenly granted powers that are certainly unnatural. This time, though, the writers give Parker the comic book-approved web shooters which should please the fans as he takes to the rooftops and fights crime.
Parker, guided by anger/resentment toward a family that abandoned him long ago for no good reason and Uncle Ben’s death, uses his powers to track down the person and people responsible for the tragedy in his life. He comes clean to Gwen and - after finding no love inside the police force and media - continues the search of himself from behind the mask. Spider-Man becomes one side of his nature, but his soul – egged on by Ben’s words and a police captain (Denis Leary) – struggles for release as he battles his way in the streets and skies with a stark-raving madman called The Lizard.
Webb, a longtime music video director, brings the strength of his flashy visuals (which in IMAX are completely legit) and only previous feature film, (500) Days of Summer, to the Spider-Man story and mines the pages and panes of the comic for some additional emotion and a couple of extra shakes of reality. Sure, some of the emotion might seem familiar – the only thing that really remains of Raimi’s movies – but the tenderness and compassion shown by a number of characters is solely on the shoulders of Webb. And, with a mighty arsenal of tech work behind him, only Webb could have some powerfully stirring POV web-slinging shots work so well.
The film’s only sour notes come in the familiarity of the story at certain parts (substituting Gwen Stacey for Mary Jane) and the lacking performances from a consistently teary-eyed Sally Field and the remarkably unmoving Martin Sheen as Parker's surrogate parents, Aunt May and Uncle Ben. In spite of their promise in talent, these two aging stars do nothing to earn their keep as replacements for Rosemary Harris and Cliff Robertson. Still - when Sheen comes close to the now-famous Robertson speech – Webb surprises us with a dismissal. Garfield’s Parker brushes the advice aside with an accusatory “How dare you!” and leaves the audience with a nugget to chew on. Throughout the story, it is these tweaks that save the movie from crossing into too familiar territory.
In what goes down as the best superhero origin movie in quite some time, Webb cleverly slaps moments that ring of pure Americana by borrowing a moment from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom between Parker and Stacey and the original Footloose when Parker discovers his powers and trains...alone…on a dock…surrounded by construction junk. These wink-wink-nudge-nudge moments of cinema copping and name-dropping are fun to find and I suspect – with a poster of Rear Window on the wall of Parker’s bedroom – sprinkled throughout the picture. Webb loses the emotional momentum a bit with song selections from Coldplay and The Shins, but composer James Horner – placing the trumpet at the front of the score – gives us a fairly iconic new Spider-Man theme to attach our hopes upon.
This film might feel less humorous and more serious at times when held next to Raimi's trilogy (read: no dancing), but it’s certainly a lot more fun than what has come before and – much to my surprise for a Columbia/Marvel property – feels completely at home in the established Paramount/Marvel world. Don’t go expecting crossovers or guest appearances just yet, though. This is a one superhero show for now and there’s plenty of him swinging around – with and without mask - to delight fans.
Marc Webb has done Spider-man’s fans and Stan Lee (who has the best cameo yet) a solid favor with an origin film that literally – on all fronts – kicks some major ass. It takes only one film to wipe away most of Sam Raimi’s uneven Spider-Man series and its awful use of CG. In spite of some emotional familiarity, The Amazing Spider-Man is a knockout. Filled with raw power, some serious web-slinging CG work, and a full-throttled villain, Garfield’s spin on Peter Parker/Spider-Man will have you asking "Tobey Maguire who?" in no time.
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