After being bitten by a genetically altered spider, Peter Parker's (Andrew Garfield) life is turned upside as he becomes the wall crawling crime fighter Spiderman. All the while he is trying to impress his high school sweet heart Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), whose father is intent on arresting spiderman as a vigilante. Meanwhile crazed scientist Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) is using dangerous scientific experiments that may have disastrous results for Parker, and the rest of Manhattan.
Its amazing, I never knew that The Dark Knight and Twilight made a video game together. I wish I could say that is all this film feels like, but frankly 'media whore' doesn't begin to describe this film. The story and premise are all shamelessly pandering to every demographic, from being tween friendly with an increased amount of high school problems and countless unnamed characters brought in, to being more video gamey with an excessive amount of POV shots from spiderman swinging through the city. Also, as it turns out, this film is one of the only few films made FOR 3D, as if to say 'we have no faith in this film as a story, so lets make it something people will feel sea sick from watching'. One of the saddest things about the story though is seeing just how much Batman Begins has influenced films these days. The spiderman of the comic books is meant to be 'your friendly neighbourhood spiderman', but frankly that idea is thrown out of the window. Spiderman isn't a hunted vigilante hell bent on revenge, and Parker isn't a skulking hoody wearing demi goth. For God sake, they didn't even use the famous 'great power = great responsibility' quote, which is what makes spiderman.
I wish I could say that 'once you get past this, the rest of the film isn't all that bad', but sadly it isn't much of an improvement. But credit where it is due, Amazing Spiderman is more enjoyable than Spiderman 2002. The cast give all around great performances, and Garfield is actually a great spiderman, even if he doesn't quite fit the roll of Peter Parker, even though the chemistry between him and Stone is very believable and fun to watch. McGuire was a better Parker, but Garfield really brought Spiderman to life. The story is good, but it focusses a lot more on how Spiderman develops as a superhero (hence pandering to the twilight feel). This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because Spiderman 2002 felt a little rushed, and the pacing is pretty good here. But the story is let down by the editing: when we aren't being forced into Spiderman's POV, video game feely shots, we are forced to watch a film that has been Visibly cut down to fit the allotted run time. The special effects are decent, especially the transition effects for The Lizard and many of their fight scenes, but those can get a little confusing (be prepared for excess amounts of spinning) but the stunt scenes and super hero battles are all action packed. But once again, there is a problem in that a lot of the wide shots and stunt views are all plastered onto CGI backgrounds.
Honestly, if one sits back and enjoys watching the film, The Amazing Spiderman is a good action film. But to get to that point, there is an inordinate amount of sucking up, that one has to dig through with a shovel.
Stan Lee Spot - ignorant school librarian.
