Marc Webb’s reboot of the cinematic world of Spider-man takes us back to a time before the popular Mary Jane Watson was ever on the scene, instead thrusting us back into a young Peter Parker’s teenage years, a time when he was still balancing academics, a crush on the popular Gwen Stacy, and just in general dealing with being a bit of an outcast and slightly cleverer than all of those around him at school.
Of course, an accident in the lab involving a spider bite and the subsequent death of his beloved uncle soon sees the birth of our new and unsure hero Spider-man, in the process putting him on a direct collision course with another by-product creation of the very lab that created him – the fearsome, regenerating Lizard!
While the argument could probably be made that there wasn’t really any need to reboot the already strong Spider-man cinematic universe in the first place, I guess the call was made to try and attract a stronger following in the youth market by taking Spider-man a little further back to his roots – and to be fair The Amazing Spider-man certain does achieve this.
Although on a whole the story isn’t going to win any awards for drama or writing, not to mention actually remain a must see memorable comic book movie film, it does introduce a fairly young and very likable Andrew Garfield in the role of Spider-man who does an excellent job of bringing to life a very complicated young man who is struggling to find his identity in the world, a job made even harder by these new found abilities of his.
There is a decent amount of action to be had, a lot of fun swinging around the city Spider-man shots to take in, and a lot of good characterisation to enjoy – and despite one or two silly and downright cheesy moments, the film is actually a good comic book movie watch, and one which certainly entertained me once I finally got around to viewing it.
The actors are all well cast and the music is an excellent addition to the visuals on screen, not to mention just how good the special effects of course are.
Overall this is a polished action movie that comic book fans will certainly enjoy and even more importantly for Sony, makes Spider-man more relatable to the impressionable youth market once again!
That doesn’t necessarily meant that I liked it though.
Related Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Spider-man_(2012_film)