The Amazing Spider-Man

[sikmansam]

I'm quite late in posting, but I also caught this at the regional premiere at Greenwich. Sure, the premiere footage was a bit tedious, but I'd relish any chance to see Emma Stone on the big screen! And it was well worth the wait for the film. Garfield and Stone were fantastic in the lead roles, and Webb has managed to make a reboot that wasn't completely redundant. It was so much more hilarious than the original trilogy, but, in a way, i still prefer Spiderman 2. I'd gave this 8/10, heres my review:

[maz4501]

Was not impressed with the film... although cineworld had the new d-box seats installed which were quite nice...

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

I saw this in 2d tonight. It was supposed to be in 3d but they projected the wrong version. Luckily I noticed just a couple of minutes into the film that there was no 3d when there should have been and took my glasses off. So I got my first preference version after all, plus I got 2 free 3d cinema tickets as compensation, yay.

Oh right, the film, sorry. Well I enjoyed it, it offers just about enough to set it apart from Raimi's trilogy but I didnt feel there was anything really outstanding about it. There are no moments in the film which made me go, oh wow. If it was a decade ago, I might have but not today, now that we are saturated with CGI effects movies. It simply moves along amicably with spots of charm, a tiny bit of humour, plenty of teenage angst and a heavy dose of anger all of which is framed within a washed out dark toned colour palette as opposed to the vibrancy and rich colours of Raimi's trilogy.

There are some decent big action set pieces but they lack invention and none of it has the visceral energy and saviness as say Avengers or Raimi's trilogy...oops, you know I did promise myself not to make comparisons to Raimi. But I cant help it. So much of the this film is a retread of 2002 Spider-Man and Spiderman 2 that I simply cant ignore it. You really have to be patient with going through all the blasted exposition again. And not just that but an all too similar journey of Octavia as well, albeit in the form of a Lizard. Having said that, it IS all done well and the perfomances are sincere. Andrew Garfield is born for the role, he is a major reason for watching this film. I always felt the wrong actor won the best actor award in Social Network. Should have been Garfield! But anyway, he nails Peter Parker's flippancy, geekiness, and angst perfectly. His awkwardness and playful relationship with Gwen Stacy are some of the highlights of the movie for me. Emma Stone gives Gwen an attractive spark despite ultimately not differing too much to the Mary Jane of Raimi's films but Gwen has more geekiness in common with Parker and a little more brains too.

One of the areas this film disappoints in is dialogue. Not that its bad, it just lacking some spark. There is a couple of quips from Spiderman but nothing more and if you've seen the trailers, you've heard most of them. Its the only thing I'm actually disappointed with the Spiderman character himself because otherwise I love this version of the web slinger, he is a lot more vulnerable and less all round powerful than Raimi's version. I also see the benefit now of having the separate electronic web slinger narrative wise, as spidey depends on it, if it fails, our hero is in trouble...I like that extra vulnerability, we feel more anxious for Spiderman here, can he really cope with the mighty dangers ahead? That's all done well.

The Lizard is pretty good but all too similar to Octavious in terms of motive and character and the effects are seamless. But I have to make comparisons again. The Dr Connors/Lizard is a paler version of Octavious in Spiderman 2 who was by far the more superior and complex villain. The Connors/Lizard character is a not given enough depth for us to empathise with or even fear for that matter.

The soundtrack is serviceable, there is no standout theme for Spiderman, well there is but its a bit meh, certainly not James Horners best work.

Storywise this film lacks imagination and seems too frightened to take risks somehow. It introduces a mystery but then completely abandons it and only returns to it midway through the end credits! The rest of the story is simply old themes already covered in previous films. The Untold story? More like The Retold Story. Whatever we get of this untold story, is absolutely minimal and I get the feeling its meant to be a story arc which might be spread over perhaps a trilogy of these movies.

I know I've emphasised the film's negative points but I did still enjoy what it had to offer and to be honest, most of you might prefer this to Raimi. If Raimi's spiderman is milk chocolate then this is the dark chocolate version.


I'd still look forward to a sequel but I'll say this, I dont have an urge to see this again. With films such as Avengers, X-Men:FC, Spiderman 1, 2 and yeah even 3, I have an urge to see them again or at least anticipate watching it again on Blu Ray. Unfortunately I have no such urge with this film.

These are my personal comparison ratings for all the Spiderman films in this millenium:

Spider-man 9/10
Spider-man 2: 9/10
Spider-man 3: 7.5/10 (yeah I had blast with this one, to hell with the haters )
The Amazing Spiderman: 7/10

[brettie]

chelicerous

[aruif]

i thought this was supposed to be a reboot - and i guess it kind of was but it still felt kind of cheesy.... what is it about spiderman films that they must all have something cheesy about them. i know they tried (and failed) to go "dark" with spidey in the 3rd film of the last lot but i was holding out for something a little more edgy this time around. i didn't get it.

overall though i really enjoyed it and loved seeing andrew garfield in the role. i love the humour that comes with spidey and this really didn't disappoint. i also, for once, kind of enjoyed Emma Stone (often, i find her a little annoying but not here) although we quietly booed her name at the end, out of jealousy as she has our garfield hahah but it wasn't in a nasty way.

it will be interesting to see what they do with the next one, maybe then we can have a little bit of edge, though somehow i doubt it.

[Jayman]

Just out of curiosity, did everybody HATE Spiderman 3? Beause I thought it was actually really cool (except for emo-Parker).
I actually preferred it to the 2002 movie and this one too.

[aruif]

I know i watched it but i can't remember it and i can't remember if i watched all of it. maybe time to revisit it!

[alameals]

Didn't hate spiderman 3 but didn't feel it was up to much,was so much going on and when Parker went all emo it made me cringe

[TheOnes]

Just out of curiosity, did everybody HATE Spiderman 3? Beause I thought it was actually really cool (except for emo-Parker).
I actually preferred it to the 2002 movie and this one too.

I did. It just ruined and destroyed so much that i loved about the comics and the movies aswell as combining it with more Paint by Numbers BS (ie: Making Sandman being Uncle Ben's killer and making him sympathetic when he should've just been a 2nd rate villain in the symbiote story and the time spent on his development being given to Eddie, Venom's complex motivations and psychological development being tossed out for 5 minutes of "i'm bad, whoop". Mary Jane being kidnapped AGAIN!, Gwen and Captain Stacy being wasted additions and did absolutely nothing for the film. Lots of overdone cheese (moreso than the first films) that was too much to bare (emo peter being a prime example). Contrived and forced "relationship drama" that both came out of nowhere and was painful to watch. It was Just one big disappointment and groanfest after another after looking forward to how dark and complex it could've been and really taken alot of risks considering the subject material

I just hope SM3 and X-men 3 will burn in the very special hell reserved for Murderers and people who talk at the cinema

[austinforever]

Saw this the other day and I just don't get it. It can't even be called a reboot, it's essentially Spider-Man 1 with a different cast and villain. I would have preferred Spider-Man 4 to this and while Garfield is a talented actor, he doesn't have that charm of the normal kid from next door like Maguire had.