Sam Raimi’s three-film Spiderman stint was one of the more ambitious outings to adapt a Marvel comic franchise. The films matched their promise of excitement, but would eventually fade by the third film’s jumbled release which included three antagonists. Music video director Marc Webb, whose only previous full-length feature effort was the 2009 indie-hit (500) Days of Summer has been given the reigns of one of the most beloved comic book franchises in America, and has brought the franchise a new reboot with a new origin story, although a continuation of the previous incarnation would have sufficed.
At a young age, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is taken to his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben’s (Martin Sheen) house to live as his parents must urgently disappear. Now a teenager, Peter stumbles upon his father’s briefcase and some hidden notes, and Uncle Ben tells him that Dr. Conners at Oscorp was a co-worker of his father. Meanwhile at school, Peter is relatively unpopular and is picked on at school by Flash Thompson. Peter gains several uncanny powers after being bitten by a genetically modified spider and begins to stand up to his bullies and crime at-large.
Where Raimi-era films explained the elements that made up Spider-Man’s intrinsic characteristics an essential point for the exposition, Webb merely glides over the same elements in a quicker fashion only to spend more time exploring the relationships and human emotions. Some of the most important aspects of Spider-Man and Peter Parker’s growth are passed by quickly in order to solidify Peter’s struggles at home and school. Peter gets the idea for his character’s mask after falling through a roof and landing in a wrestling ring with a giant luchador poster, and the evolution and invention of the web-shooters are revealed during a montage with other events in Peter’s metamorphosis. The film is far more plot-driven and less action based, which lends itself to be a more accessible film, that is, if audiences are not already tired and driven away from the previous incarnation.
There is still an uneven and unpolished look to much of the CGI effects in the film. Other films have made better use of the technology and The Amazing Spider-Man has a rather lack-luster assemblage of effects. The film however does not rely on special effects and instead is focused on the experience of a new Spider-Man origin story that is supposed to be more loyal to the comic book. Indeed, the film focuses on the human relationships and the mysteries of abandonment, issues that captivate audiences with ease.
Now that Marvel is wholly owned by Disney, we are beginning to see an string of irony and hypocrisy in Pixar and Marvel films. These films typically have a large corporate conglomerate at the heart of the narrative, an organization for the spectator and protagonist to rally against. However, it is Disney themselves that are a conglomerate that is acquiring franchises in order to tell stories that propose secretive corporations as evil.
Despite the film having some obvious improvements over the original three films, the need to return to the origins of the super hero is unnecessary. Seeing the character progress and adjustments made to the storyline would have been just as sufficient, and a whole new reboot is a waste of resources. It was not as if Spider-Man had the same wayward neon-light filmography that had plagued Batman in the 1990s.
The cast and their performances in The Amazing Spider-Man are the best aspects of this reboot. Andrew Garfield has slowly climbed the ranks to be a reliable actor, especially after his role in The Social Network. His casting alongside Emma Stone is a perfect pairing. Rhys Ifans has begun to play more antagonists and his role as The Lizard is sufficient. Martin Sheen and Sally Field are fantastic as Uncle Ben and Aunt May respectively, both evoke the unconditional love that Peter needs as his teenage disenchantment that goes with childhood abandonment and high school life becomes more complex.
While the cast of The Amazing Spider-Man and the story-telling is an improvement, the film itself is not enough of a change to require an all-out reboot of the franchise. The action scenes are not any better than the original, and the film’s villain The Lizard has the same origin story as all the other villains from the Raimi era; A smart scientist is forced to speed up his research and use their under-tested concoction to acquire results quickly, eventually becoming a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This aspect of Spider-Man is tired, but that is where The Amazing Spider-Man excels, the film relies on the relationships between Peter’s family and high school life to create a relatable story that cuts across generations.
