As I’m sure most of you will know, The Amazing Spider-Man is based off the comic book series first
published by Marvel comics in the 60’s. In these comic books, Peter Parker is a
high school geek who is inadvertently bitten by a radioactive spider and
develops spider-like super powers. Many people don’t think a reboot of the
Spider-Man franchise is necessary, considering the Sam Raimi trilogy starring
Tobey Maguire as Peter and Kirsten Dunst as his love interest Mary Jane
finished in only 2007. However, I personally felt that Raimi's trilogy was subpar,
so I was excited to see a reboot, despite being more of a DC fan than a Marvel fan.
This film follows the familiar ‘how he became Spider-Man’
story in the first half of the film, which was very well done and more
interesting than in the previous films. Furthermore, there is a scene in a tube
train where Peter discovers some of his powers which is very funny, and was a
much better way of introducing us to his quick reflexes and sticky spider hands
than I have ever seen previously.
There is also a scene which features Stan Lee which made
me laugh - Stan is in the foreground of the shot, in a library, with headphones
on, and we are made privy to his relaxing classical music while Spider-Man and
the Lizard have it out in the background, with dear old Stan completely
oblivious to the mayhem going on behind him! There were numerous funny moments
in the film, which I thought was necessary as I was worried that Marc Webb
might have chosen to take the Spider-Man franchise down a darker, more serious
path like Christopher Nolan did with his Dark Knight trilogy - which I cannot
see working as well for Spider-Man as it has done for Batman - but fortunately although
the film is more serious than previous films, The Amazing Spider-Man manages to keep a fine balance.
Once Peter Parker has evolved into Spider-Man, the latter
part of the film focuses more on the antagonist - the Lizard. Dr. Curtis
Connors is a biochemist with only one arm, who strives to grow his limb back
using mutagenic chemicals, having been inspired by the way lizards have the
ability to sprout new tails if they are removed. Lacking the confidence to test
the formula on other live human subjects, he injects himself with it instead,
and while it successfully grows his arm, it also has one major side effect - it
mutates him into a giant lizard!
I was happy to hear that the Lizard would be the sole
villain in the new film, as the 2007 Spider-Man 3 had no less than three main
villains - the Green Goblin, the Sandman, and Venom, who appeared only right at
the end so his role was largely pointless, and the mix of the three just made
the plot a bit messy and made it seem as though the director wanted to cram as
many villains as he could into one film.
The Lizard is a good villain for a super-hero movie: he’s
very scary, absolutely huge and very cunning, which makes him extremely
threatening. However I’m not sure I liked how he looked very much, and he
reminded me a little of Godzilla - this similarity is even made a joke of in
the film, when Captain Stacy is informed of a giant dinosaur thing wreaking havoc
in the city he responds with ‘Do I look like the Mayor of Tokyo to you?’
The main love interest this time is not Mary Jane Watson
but Gwen Stacy, an intelligent and beautiful student who somehow, at 17 years
of age, has managed to secure a job at Oscorp laboratory, the building in which
Peter is bitten by the spider. This decision by the film-makers renders the
film closer to the original comics, as Gwen was Peter’s first love, before he
began dating Mary Jane. There was a little too much romance for my liking, but
it was not so profound that it deterred from my enjoyment of the film at all.
Another aspect of the film that renders it a more
faithful adaptation is the fact that Peter makes his web shooters. Until
recently and thanks to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, I thought that one of
the powers the spider gives Peter is the web ability, but in the comics he
creates the device, as he does in this film.
The film was visually engaging, and the effects were
really amazing - especially in the scenes where Spider-Man swings through New
York. It was brilliant to watch on the big screen and in 3D, the latter of
which normally hurts my eyes, but it was really smoothly done in The Amazing Spider-Man.
The acting was great too. Rhys Ifans made a brilliant Dr.
Curt Connors, and I liked Sally Field as Aunt May. Andrew Garfield however, was
truly phenomenal and really stole the show with his portrayal of Peter Parker /
Spider-Man. He managed to make Peter very likeable and real as a person, unlike
Maguire’s awkward depiction of the character. I would love to see him in more main
roles in the future as he one of those rare actors who actually has natural
talent; a flair for acting which is exuded plentifully in the British drama Boy A of 2007, in which Garfield plays
an ex-con looking to start anew.
In conclusion, The
Amazing Spider-Man takes the franchise down a slightly more serious path,
but nonetheless maintains a light-hearted overtone that stays true to the comic
books. It was funny, and had a decent story with entertaining characters, great
acting and superb visual effects. There were some jumpy moments too,
particularly during scenes in which the Lizard was involved. It didn’t drag at
any point and I was completely engaged and thoroughly entertained throughout,
and I think this is definitely a film that almost anyone can enjoy.
Rating: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment