The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

The Amazing Spider-Man is of course a super hero movie starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and it was directed by Marc Webb. Seriously with a last name like that it has to be good. The film is about Parker’s origin story of how he got his powers and how the disappearance of his father and THEN the death of his uncle affects him. This is the second movie that Webb directed, the first being (500) Days of Summer which is a critically acclaimed independent romance film.

                First let me talk about the characters. Garfield portrayed Spider-Man/Peter Parker materfully. When he is Peter he is a shy, outcast type kid but when he is Spider-Man he acts like he is immortal. He takes advantage of the mask in front of him. With the mask on he has no consequences. You immediately identify with him. If you had a secret identity and super powers, I think we would all humiliate and play with criminals. When his uncle (played by Martin Sheen) is shot you can really feel the emotion he is through. I mean he has no fricken clue about his father and suddenly loses his present “father.” During the scenes of him mourning his loss, you buy it, and I’ll admit I got a few body chills during that scene. You also see how it really affected him. In the Sam Reimi films you saw Toby Maguire doing his terrible crying face and then it cuts to the next scene. In this one the flesh it out a lot more. Garfield is a great crier in this movie. That might sound weird but remember Toby Maguire's crying, did you ever buy it??? In this film you definitely do. Emma Stone’s character, Gwen Stacy, is a great character.  She actually does stuff and not just get captured by the bad dude. She is unlike most female characters. She isn't just a prize for Spider-Man after she gets kidnapped. She has layers. Future filmmakers, listen up! This is what female characters have to be like. And of course the romance is great and completely believable. I mean it’s from the dude who made (500) Days of Summer.

                The villain in the movie is Dr. Connors who I gotta say is one of the few problems with the film. When I was watching the movie I had no clue why he was doing what he was doing. They should have fleshed him out more and they also should have had a scene where he was with his family. Something else that could have been better was Peter’s parents. They should have shown more of them. That would have been awesome but I’m reviewing the movie for what it is and not what I want it to be. The editing is also something that bothered me. Scenes went away way to fast and about one or two times I couldn’t keep up with what was happening. I can kind of agree why he did that, because we saw it 10 years ago, but at sometimes it seems that ten sub-plots are going at once. But on the upside, the first-person views in the film were great.

                If you can’t tell by this review I completely recommend this movie. Some people might say that a re-boot is unnecessary but I completely disagree. After what Spider-Man 3 left us, we needed to redo the story. Also some people thought that it was unneeded. I don't think that they should give it a low score just because of that. Also Marc Webb didn't copy exactly what Sam Reimi did in his movies. The scenarios change and are quite different. All in all I thought this was a fantastic movie and it was a hell of a lot of fun.  And be sure to expect a sequel as they almost completely drop the story about Peter’s parents. As the title suggest it is The Amazing Spider-Man and amazing it is.

9/10