I feel I should point out that I was never particularly enamoured with Raimi’s Spider-Man films. The first and second one were OK but nothing more, and the third one was some kind of weird emo comedy musical, as far as I can remember. So you should take this into account when reading my review. If you felt a special affinity to that iteration of the webslinger, then you’ll find the notion of a reboot a mere five years later an affront from the get go.
I, however, quite enjoyed The Amazing Spider-Man. The main problem is that we’ve seen it all before. Hollywood has been educating the general public of late about comic book storytelling, and now that The Avengers made megabucks despite the fact that it was part of a multi-film narrative preceded by five prequels, you’d think that people could appreciate a new take on Spider-Man without having to go back to the beginning again.
Of course, it comes as no surprise that Emma Stone is brilliant here. After handling the masterfully witty teen comedy Easy A, this must have been a walk in the park for the talented actress. Similarly, Andrew Garfield is more than up to the task as Peter Parker. Despite the fact that he’s about 12 years too old for the part, he performs wonderfully in a role that ups both the level of geekiness and wisecracking in comparison to Tobey Maguire’s portrayal.
Most importantly, the chemistry between Peter and Gwen is stunning. Considering Mark Webb’s previous film was (500) Days of Summer, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that it’s the love story aspect of the film where his work really shines. The scenes between our two leads feal really organic, and it’s wonderful to see their attraction grow as the film progresses.
Where the film falls flat is in the supervillain department. I can’t help but feel sorry for Dylan Baker, who played Dr Curt Connors in Spider-Man 2 and 3, effectively waiting in the wings for a transformation that never occurred. Rhys Ifans is more than up to the task and is quite effective in the role up until the CGI takes over, however Connors’ tale is completely uninteresting with zero surprises along the way.
The visual effects are decent, and certainly much better than the awful ones that featured in Raimi’s films. Spidey still looks rubbery when he’s swinging through the streets, however, so I guess it’ll be a while before we see a Spider-Man film that even attempts to approach realism in the realm of VFX. James Horner’s soundtrack has some great moments, with one or two tracks that really stand out.
The Amazing Spider-Man is less than the adjective suggests but is still a decent film. The emotion is palpable and the Gwen/Peter romance is handled skilfully. As with many of the Marvel films (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America), it’s the climactic scenes that fail to impress. It almost made me wish the film didn’t even feature a supervillain.