The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Director: Marc Webb

Many in the audience came into this movie already disliking it for being an unnecessary remake of a movie that came out not even ten years ago. Th first and second Sam Raimi/Toby Maguire Spiderman movies were good movies, but it's not like they were perfect and couldn't be improved upon. Which is why I welcomed the re-do, especially with Marc Webb, director of the wonderful (500) Days of Summer at the helm. So is this Spiderman better than the previous ones? I'd say the results are mixed. Story-wise and plot-wise, this movie is a mess. The screenplay seems like it was revised and cut up into smithereens by multiple writers. The conspiracy regarding Peter Parker's parents that's introduced early on is completely forgotten (I guess it's "saved" for a sequel), the main villain Curt Connors is not explored at all, and the genetic swapping is pure contrivance. It's like they filmed using an unfinished screenplay.

But while the plot is mediocre at best, the characters are realized characters and the actors bring their best to the roles. Webb brings the ability he showed in (500) Days of Summer to create real romantic relationships between young people to this film. The moments between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone building their high school romance are endlessly watchable. I'd actually like this movie better if it was just a romance between Garfield and Stone without any superhero business. Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Parker's uncle and aunt also rise to the challenge and elevate the mediocre script into something much more emotional. Even when Parker is Spiderman, the movie does have some great moments. A climactic moment involving cranes, and one great scene involving a boy hanging over a bridge are two scenes in which Webb and Garfield succeeds at establishing the pathos surrounding Spiderman and creating real emotion and tension. This is a movie that has a lot of plot, but instead succeeds at character instead of plot. But because character is a rare aspect in superhero movies, The Amazing Spider-Man is a movie I ultimately value.

Grade: C+