"The Amazing Spiderman" (2012)

The Amazing Spiderman

Rated PG-13 (For action sequences and violence)

2 Hours 17 Minutes

Starring

Andrew Garfield

Emma Stone

Rhys Ifans

Dennis Leary

Sally Field

Martin Sheen

Rotten Tomatoes Score:

72%

("A well-chosen cast and sure-handed direction allow The Amazing Spider-Man to thrill, despite revisiting many of the same plot points from 2002's Spider-Man.")

My Grade:

A-

I must admit, I was one of the many people who thought the idea of Hollywood rebooting the Spiderman series ALREADY was the last straw. I mean, Spiderman came to us in 2002 and Spiderman 3 was just back in 2007.  Yes, the third film in the trilogy was an absolute train wreck of a movie, but the first two were excellent films and the whole series made a TON of money world wide. I didn't see the justification for rebooting the series so damn quickly. But I finally got around to watching The Amazing Spiderman, and I think I have to eat my words.

This movie was probably my favorite summer super hero movie of 2012. I know, I will be berated and hated on for saying that given that this was the year of the almighty The Avengers (all hail AVENGERS!). Quite frankly, I thought that movie was incredibly overated. I enjoyed The Avengers, but I didn't go all ape shit over it like all the fan boys. It was a super fun popcorn action flick, but it was seriously nothing more than that to me. But, I still appreciate that millions of other people think that The Avengers is god's gift to earth in 2012.

 That being said, I got more out of The Amazing Spiderman. What I got from it was a well balanced action film, centered around a good, well written story and excellent performances from the whole cast. This was not a shot by shot remake of the first Spiderman, but yeah, I noticed a lot of similarities in the story lines. Yet they also changed a lot, gave us a different villain, a different damsel in distress, and thankfully...a new Peter Parker. No offense to Tobey MaGuire, and I know Peter is supposed to be this nerdy kid and all, but he was just a little to weak and silly to play the role. Andrew Garfield filled the shoes wonderfully, and hey...he was certainly easy on the eyes as well. I never read a comic book in my life, so I have no clue how accurate the characters are or the stories, and I don't care either. I'm watching a movie, and I know that movies usually need to take liberties with their original source material to translate well into a 2 hour flick.

This was a much darker version of the story than any of the previous films. I liked that a lot. I thank Christopher Nolan and his Dark Knight trilogy of kind of inspiring the darker tones to these comic book heroes. See now, with the Avengers, it was more light and fun, but with this film you get a more serious tone. More grounded to reality (even though obviously it's way out of reality). This is an origin story, so it's packed more of storytelling than it is with action sequences. It probably moves a little slower than most action films, but that's OK with me as long as it can grab my attention and it certainly did. When the action occurred, it was fantastic. It was fast paced and it was exciting. It never looked to overly cartoony either. Great visual effects and I also loved the score in this film, it added a lot to the movie than most other super hero films.

Honestly, this was my favorite Spiderman film of all the movies put together. After that horrid third movie, it was going to need some serious kick starting to get back into high gear, and they really succeeded at that. I give them an A+ for finding the perfect Peter Parker/Spiderman in Andrew Garfield who is one of the most talented younger actors surfacing today. Loved him in The Social Network and the guy was robbed of an Oscar Nomination. Emma Stone is one of my favorite actresses working today and while she didn't have a ton to do here, she was also a much needed improvement over Kirsten Dunst (even though she was playing a different character). It's nice to see Dennis Leary getting some good work on the big screen as well. I was very surprised by how well this movie turned out, and honestly I can't wait for the next one.