Movie Review: 'The Amazing Spiderman'

Synopsis: As a child, Peter Parker is left to live with his aunt and uncle after a mysterious break in at his house. Years later, teenaged Peter learns that his father worked alongside Dr. Connors, a scientist who's been working on cross-species genetics. While trying to meet Dr. Connors, Peter is bitten by a genetically altered spider, which gives him spider-like powers. The movie essentially shows how Peter goes from being a kid with super-powers to the super-hero, Spiderman.

Review: Since this movie was announced, people have been complaining that “it’s too early to reboot the 'Spiderman' franchise”, especially considering the previous trilogy from director Sam Raimi only ended five years ago. I was a little worried myself that "The Amazing Spiderman" would mostly be a rehash of what we’ve already seen, but I was pleasantly surprised by how different it felt to me, despite some understandably similar plot points. Stylistically, a good part of this movie feels less like a big, epic action movie and more like a small scale indie, complete with songs by The Shins and Coldplay used in the background. While there certainly is action, especially towards the end, overall the movie doesn’t have as much of the quick pacing and thrills one expects from a summer blockbuster. However, it makes up for that with some amazing performances and very well developed characters.

The small scale feel comes as no surprise considering that the only other film on Marc Webb’s director resume is the quirky indie rom-com "500 Days of Summer." He seems to mostly play to his strengths as a former indie director, and the best scenes really are these more personal ones, such as Peter Parker’s first time experimenting with his powers. This version of Spiderman’s origin really takes its time to let us get to know Peter as a character, and what motivates him to go from a somewhat immature teen, to a vengeful masked vigilante, and finally to the hero we all know him as, and Webb really succeeds in showing that.

Of course, those kinds of scenes don’t work too well without good acting to back them up, and that is one area where "The Amazing Spiderman" really triumphs. Going along with this slightly more serious take on Spiderman’s origin, we get a Peter Parker that’s quite different from his previous movie incarnation. This time, while still a nerd, he’s also a bit of a smart-aleck with an arrogant streak. Andrew Garfield, a long time fan of the Spiderman comics himself, is cast perfectly for this role, and seems to easily bring out Peter’s awkwardness, as well as his arrogance, anger and sadness he has over the losses he has suffered, all while still remaining an endearing character. He also works really well with his co-star, Emma Stone, who’s delightful and charming Gwen Stacy was a much cooler character than most girlfriends of superheroes usually are. She actually plays an important supportive role for Peter, rather than just existing to be a damsel in distress.

For all those really great character driven moments, however, this is still a superhero movie, and it seems like you can’t do a superhero movie without a villain and an attack on New York City (seriously, do super villains ever attack anywhere else?). This time, we get Rhys Ifans as the scientist Dr. Connors. Naturally, an experiment he performs on himself doesn’t go over so well, and he turns himself into a monster. Rhys Ifans plays the character well, but at the end of the day, his character is really just there for Peter’s journey to have a climax, and there’s really not much to distinguish him from a lot of other super-villains.

While it lacks the quick pacing and thrills of a typical summer blockbuster, "The Amazing Spiderman" makes up for it with it’s well developed characters and some great performances from its cast. If you think you’ll enjoy a Spiderman movie that really focuses on how and why Peter becomes Spiderman, I think you’ll really enjoy this, but if you prefer something with a little more action, you might be better off saving your money for "The Dark Knight Rises" in a couple weeks.   

My rating: 8/10