The Amazing Spider-man 

Directed by: Marc Webb


Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans


Plot: Retelling of the spider man series. Peter Parker (Garfield - The actor not the cat) 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 (Ifans), his farther's former partner and his teenage crush Gwen Stacy (Stone).


 Everyone loves spider man. Even those who pretend not to like spider man as they want to look cool, love spider man. Spider man has always been one of, if not the most iconic super hero of all time. Whether you remember spider man from the comics, the tv or the more recent spider man trilogy, spider man is a popular franchise with us all.   Appealing to kids and adult of all ages. Although the franchise was made by the comic books, many people today will remember it from the recent trilogy staring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. 


The originally trilogy was a huge success and apart from the 3rd film, the others were pretty good.  So when Sony announced a re-visioning of spider man to create an amazing spider man film, people were skeptical as to whether it would work or just be another flop like the 3rd film.  As we know sometimes remaking a film or re-imagining a franchise can fail e.g. Rob Zombie's Halloween I and II. However, with the spectacular revising of the batman franchise with the Dark Knight trilogy it shows it can be done. And after all the speculation and negative feel towards the film, I have to say I was very impressed by it and thought it smashed all negativity towards it out of the water and showed that spider man isn't dead.


First of all I wanted to say that although I liked the first two spider man films I never took a liking to Tobey. After Andrew Garfield's performance I'm happy to say, Tobey who?  Garfield was outstanding in his performance of the web slinger himself. This is my nerd side getting out but Spider man in the comics and TV show is well known for his sarcasm and wit making him popular with kids because of his comedic side. When Tobey did his performance it butchered any of the wit of the character and created a wooden teary mess.  However, Garfield's charisma and sheer talent which was proven to us after the social network did the character the correct justice. He added emotional depth to the character when needed.  When in the film Peter Parker was quiet he still managed to show that there was always more to him by the facial expressions and movements he did. He added the comedic side very well and overall was a star performance.  After watching it, I felt it was such a good fit you couldn't imagine anyone else playing Spider man as well as he did. And yes we are all annoyed that ARNIE won't be revisiting the super hero genre after the oscar winning performance of Frost to play spider man but in the mean time Andrew Garfield is an excellent choice.


As well as a class performance from Garfield, Stone and Ifans gave great performances as well. Stone was far more likable and seemed like a more realist love interest in her performance of Gwen Stacey than the Kirsten Dunce performance of Mary Jane.  Stone seemed far more real and down to earth and had real good chemistry with Garfield and will be interesting to see how they progress it further without hopefully doing the whole marriage thing the others did. One thing the original trilogy had, yes even spider man 3, was great performances of the villains.  And this one doesn't disappoint as well.  I thought Ifans gave a good performance as the Lizard/ Dr.Connors. He portrayed one of the most common human faults brilliantly - Obsession.  Dr.Connors is obsessed with re growing his lost arm with lizard DNA and when pressured by the infamous OSCORP to come up with a cure for diseases he uses the serum he creates on himself with disastrous results - obviously. And guess what he turns into using lizard DNA, that's right. He becomes the Green Goblin. I'm kidding, of course he changes to the lizard but was interesting is that when he changed back into human form a few times Ifans showed the change in his character and his obsession in creating the perfect species and getting back what he lost.  Although his obsession made him lose more than his arm, his humanity.  Ifans did a convincing performance and I'm sure we won't be seeing the last of him. NO SPOILERS BUT STAY FOR THE ICONIC MARVEL AFTER CREDIT SCENE.


Speaking about iconic marvel scenes. It wouldn't be a marvel film without a cameo from the daddy him self, STAN LEE. And this cameo doesn't disappoint. This isn't really much of a spoiler so I'm going to say how awesome it was. But it was very awesome, it had Stan Lee as a librarian listening to classical music and sorting out books, not noticing spider man and the lizard being seven spades of shit out of each other behind him - classic.  


There were some great scenes in this film. Two I particularly liked were around Peter Parker learning about his powers. The first was him on the sub way waking up and by removing clothes with his sticky hands (sounds ruder than it is) and knocking people out while apologizing and not meaning to do any of it made for a funny scene of him first learning he has powers . Another scene I liked is rather than the stereotypical jumping roof top from roof top to develop his powers, he was at a shipping dock on his skateboard listening to music while climbing up walls while doing tricks and swinging from chains which I much preferred. Also I preferred that this spider man has to make his own web from OSCORPS strengthened web thread line instead of producing it himself but hey, I'm just a nerd.  However, with every film there are always some scenes that different people will like and won't like. And the one scene I didn't like is before the lizard heads to the OSCORP tower for his master plan he his parading around the city looking very gay with a tiny satchel around him throwing smoke every where like a cheesy terrorist instead of a terrifying lizard. Before people start calling me homophobic I'm not saying that every gay guy is a giant lizard with a satchel, just that every giant lizard with a satchel is gay.


And speaking of funny scenes or funny wholes in the film is that when Peter is getting into OSCORP he steels someone else's name badge and a few minutes later we see security taking the unfortunate kid who had his name stolen out of the building. So it seems that security is very very good in this massive company. Clearly they use the security just at the door as Peter Parker could walk into restricted sections and hacking doors without anyone noticing. Tut Tut. However, karma did bite him in the ass, or should I say in the neck in the form of a spider. That will teach that trouble maker.


While being a bit apprehensive about watching the amazing spider man as not knowing if it would be another flop or not, I knew that the CGI would be amazing - PUN DEFINITELY INTENDED. And it was amazing, some of the shots were incredible including when he was swinging around the streets and the fight scenes, the effects were brilliant.  I did think thou gh there were too many of the same shots, as the first time was awesome then again and again I was thinking "Yes we know they look good but what else can you show us apart from the same shot" and I wasn't a fan of the first person shot that they showed in the trailer that I prayed they wouldn't show in the film as thought it looked cheap and tasteless. I'm not a big fan of 3D as think it was only introduced to make more money and that's why a lot of films convert into 3D when it's not needed but in this film with the special effects it fitted in very well and was very good. Even with my picking, the effects were still great and there was one questionable scene at the end where spider man's misplaced hand was firing "WEB" right at our faces - just plain dodgy.


I liked this film a lot, but there were some points that I didn't like at all. The first thing is ironic considering i'm only a "young en" myself but I found it quite childish . I'm not on about the corny scenes where the public help spider man as I thought they suited the film and I know the target audience is children (and there money bringing parents) but in all of the fights scenes there was this childish pathetic music playing and for me it just lost all intensity and considering that the recent marvel film, Avengers Assemble combined humor and action aimed for all ages, this seemed that it was aiming at one demographic. The main thing in the film that bothered me is that I think they had too many relationships with the main character that none of them were developed enough. As well as Peter dealing with love interest Gwen and friend then for Dr. Connors the film also dealt with relationships with Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Gwen's dad Captain Stacy and school bully Flash. While they will be planning to develop a lot of them, well too late for some of them. I think that the main one they should have included is more with Peter and Dr.Connors as they met a few times and then that was it. Since they had Dr.Connors as Peter's farther's friend who he tracks down they should have played more on that and connecting as when they faced it didn't feel that the characters didn't have enough relationship to create the emotion it needed. And that was the same for Captain Stacy and Uncle Ben and seeing as they are now: SPOILER ALERT; dead it seemed that they tried to shuffle so many relationships around they didn't add depth to the ones that needed it more.


Having said that this film is very entertaining if not alone for the special effects for the outstanding performance of Andrew Garfield who looks to have a very bright and promising career. If your reading this and have kids then take them to see this film as they will love it and love you for ever. And if your reading this and you are a kid, then go see it NOW!!!


The Good: ANDREW GARFIELD 
The Bad: Camp Lizard
The Ugly: A VERY RUDE LAST IMAGE OF SPIDER MAN SHOOTING "WEB" AT THE AUDIENCE

Rating: 4*