The Amazing Spider-Man

Synopsis: Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is… well, you should know the story already. This is a “reboot” of a franchise that kicked off withTobey Maguire back in 2002.

You’re begging for trouble calling your film The Amazing Spider-Man. Is it really that amazing? Well, not quite but it comes pretty damn close. But first a bit of a reprise of what came before. Back in 2002 Sam Raimi’s Spiderman broke box office records and was hailed by many as brilliant. I thought it excellent and saw it twice in the cinema. But there was a bit of serendipity involved with its success. It came out during one of the worst cinema droughts I can remember. Everything was rubbish. Halfway through the Guy Pearce version of The Time Machine my mate turned to me and whispered “Are we ever going to see a good film again?” Spiderman was the answer to our prayers because it was a competently told story, or at least it felt like it at the time. Time has not been kind to it. The first half is an excellent origin story, but once the Green Goblin shows up it falls apart. Spiderman 2 was an inevitability given the box office success, and they hired Michael Chabon to write the script. You can find that script online if you look around, it’s worth a read because unfortunately Alvin Sergeant got to take a pass over it and the end result was a mirror image of Spiderman. The first half was godawful, but the second half was a solid superhero story. Again, it was hailed at the time as the pinnacle of superhero cinema. Spiderman 3 well, that was a disaster of epic proportions. Apparently it makes more sense if you understand it as Raimi venting on how stupid he considers the Venom character (and the whole alien symbiote/black suit thing) to be. It was a turkey that made a mint.

So, whilst The Amazing Spider-Man has a lot of pop-culture baggage burdening it, on a critical level it wouldn’t take much to elevate it beyond what came before. The characters are better drawn, and Garfield’s Peter Parker isn’t just tormented by the death of his uncle, he’s a smartarse as well. There’s a lot less brooding and more a sense of getting things done because it’s the right thing to do. And the film’s story isn’t an abomination of disjointedness.

The plot unfolds fairly organically, as we discover Peter’s father was a scientist working with Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) until the night he left Peter with Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field) and vanished. Parker Snr and Connors were working on cross-species genetics, hoping to cure disease. When Peter learns of the connection he goes to visit the latter, is bitten by a spider and gains his powers. But he also helps Connors complete the research that led to his father’s disappearance. As happens with these things, this leads to Connors turning into a giant mutant lizard bent on making the whole world in his image. Script-wise the fine balance required when you have a villain who is just a decent guy driven mad by experimenting on himself isn’t handled very well. Spiderman 2 did it much better with Alfred Molina’s Dr Octopus. But that complaint aside (although it is a significant one) the plot rocks along quite nicely. There’s a few mawkish moments, especially towards the end, but they’re not entirely groan-inducing. And there are a few neat subversions of the expected formula (which read like subtle digs at the films that came before).

The acting and visuals are excellent and frequently, far better than you would expect from a superhero film. But with actors of the calibre of Garfield and Sheen inhabiting the roles, it’s clear this film is aiming high. If it falls short occasionally it’s nice to see it’s trying hard at least. If you are on a fence, go see it. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than its predecessors, which, according to some people, were amazing.

 

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