I'll admit I'm one of the fans of Spider-Man, both the comic book character and the film franchise, that was a bit ambivalent about Sony Pictures' decision to reboot the series after Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment relative to the first two movies. None of the early pre-production announcements, from the casting of then-relatively unknown Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) as Peter Parker to the selection of Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer) as the film's director, got me particularly excited. Neither, for that matter, did the first few trailers. As the marketing campaign got a bit more aggressive after the release of The Avengers, I started to perk up and take notice. This was a marked departure from Sam Raimi's take on the character that only ended five years ago with the unqualified disaster that was Spider-Man 3, and it appeared that Sony was intent on doing things quite differently this time.
Of course, The Amazing Spider-Man is still the story of high school student Peter Parker (Garfield, in a captivating performance), whose parents (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz) have left him, at a very early age, with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), and never returned. He grows up to be very bright, like his scientist father, but somewhat introverted and more than a little troubled by the fact that his parents have basically abandoned him. He's not quite the stereotypical nerd; he can stand up to school bully Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka) even if it means getting his butt kicked, and he rides around on a skateboard, but he's still very much an outsider. The one person who appears to bring Peter out of his shell is fellow high school student Gwen Stacy (the delectable Emma Stone). One day while tooling around in the basement, Peter happens on an old briefcase belonging to his father, one that happens to contain a picture of his father, who used to work as a geneticist, with an old colleague of his, and some mysterious documents. Uncle Ben identifies the old colleague as Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifans), another geneticist who works at Oscorp. Peter sneaks into a tour of the Oscorp facility, where he meets Dr. Connors, an amputee who is missing his right arm and rather keen to remedy the situation. Peter's curiosity gets the better of him during the tour, and as a result he sneaks into a room where the company appears to be breeding several kinds of exotic spiders which are used to manufacture one of its products, the "bio-cable." One spider bites Peter, and his life changes forever. From kicking bullies' butts to skateboard stunts, Peter finds himself having a ball with his new powers.
The void with his father is still very present, though, and, Peter studies the papers he found in a secret compartment of the briefcase, in particular an equation written on them that seems very important to the cross-species genetics work that Dr. Connors was discussing during the tour. Peter goes to Dr. Connors' home and shares the equation with him, little knowing that, under enormous pressure from his superiors to deliver some kind of wonder serum, and wanting very badly to use the reptilian DNA they've been experimenting with to generate a replacement for his own arm, Connors is ready and willing to shoot himself up with his formula.
When someone important to Peter dies, he uses his powers, at first, to go on a vigilante rampage to catch the killer, a crusade that puts him squarely in the crosshairs of the New York Police Department, headed by Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary) who happens to be Gwen's dad. When Connors' self-experimentation goes horribly awry though, the newly-christened Spider-Man has to put his manhunt on hold for new mission; to save New York from a monster with a horrible agenda.
Comparisons with the Sam Raimi films are inevitable, so I might as well get them out of the way. This film has established a markedly different direction for the character, but the unfortunate reality is that, this close to the first Sam Raimi movie, most of the things that happen in the first hour of the film still feel all too familiar. There are definite tweaks, but the beats remain the same. The bullying, the awkwardness around the object of his affection, the spider bite and the death of a significant family member, all of which remain integral to the character's mythology all play out, as a result the proceedings feel a tad tedious for a spell.
What makes this particular pill easier to swallow are some well-directed and acted performances by all of the lead actors, and wonderful chemistry between Garfield and the other cast members, particularly his chemistry with romantic lead Stone, which was a lot more engaging to watch than the puppy-love exchanges between erstwhile Peter Parker Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson in the first Spider-Man. It's familiar, but incrementally better in many respects, though unfortunately not all of them. The death of a pivotal character that anyone who knows anything about Spider-Man will certainly know does not play out as well here as it did in Raimi's first film, and that hurts the narrative considerably, as does the exclusion, or confusing paraphrasing, of the previous films' signature phrase, "with great power comes great responsibility."
On its own merits, and the aforementioned storytelling shortfalls aside, this is a rock-solid film which works surprisingly well, even if it doesn't always soar. Gone is the whimsical buoyancy of the first two films, but gone as well as the ridiculous "Power Ranger" style fighting and ridiculous dialogue of the first film (one need only look back on the ridiculous rooftop dialogue between Spider-Man and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin to see how bad it could get), as well as some of the goofier aspects of the first three films. In its place is storytelling that isn't so much "darker" as many people have claimed as it is moodier. Garfield's Peter is utterly compelling; he doesn't quite wear his angst out on his sleeve but he isn't some super-cool rebel either, and unlike Maguire he perfectly captures the dichotomy of Spider-Man, shy and withdrawn as himself but completely cocksure when in costume. Emma Stone, more attractive as Gwen than Dunst ever was as MJ, is probably the strongest female character ever featured in the cinematic Spideyverse and it's easy to see why Peter would fall for her; it's a most welcome change from tradition that this Spider-Man does not spend the last few minutes of the movie rescuing her from the clutches of the villain. It's interesting to see if the filmmakers will actually follow Stacy's storyarc in the comic books considering what her character's ultimate fate is. Sheen does excellent work as Uncle Ben, Peter's surrogate father, and his performance is easily on par with that of his predecessor, the late Cliff Robertson, even though the script lets him (and everyone else) down at Ben's most pivotal moment in the film. Field brings Aunt May to life a lot more convincingly than her predecessor Rosemary Harris did. She may not quite look the part but I loved watching her interact with Garfield's Peter. It was right out of the pages of the comics, and considering that Peter's on-page relationship with his Aunt is more enduring than any romantic relationship he has ever had this is critical. Rhys Ifans, as Connors, conveys inner conflict and menace well, but it irks me that he didn't bother to put on an American accent, unlike fellow Brit Garfield who not only put on an American accent but who actually tried to go for a vague Queens accent. All together one can see that collective and individual effort of the cast to make this iteration of Spider-Man's universe their own, and something audiences haven't seen before. They don't always succeed, but that's usually more a function of the first film being too recent in my mind than their own inadequacies.
The crew is similarly diligent. Director of photography John Schwartzman's more nuanced lighting helps the characters explore a rather wider range of emotion than Don Burgess' pastel colors did, or even Bill Pope's often over-saturated orange-y sunsets. The visual effects crew of Sony Pictures Imageworks have striven to craft a Spider-Man who seems that much more gravity-bound than his more obviously digital predecessor. This is helped in large part by efforts to create a lot of the swinging and fighting sequences using stunts and practical effects rather than pushing the CGI button almost every time a fight scene came along, the way Raimi used to do. One technical aspect of this film which conspicuously outshines the Raimi films is the music score, with the soaring melodies of James Horner (Avatar) making far more of an impression than Danny Elfman's admittedly effective scoring did. Spider-Man actually has a THEME now, something I can hum, something the band at the Academy Awards show can actually play if this film wins an Oscar or two. Geek note: when Spider-Man 2 won its visual effects Oscar, the only Oscar a Marvel film has won so far, the band played the execrable "Hero" song of Chad Kroeger, which wasn't even in that film but was played at the end of the first film.
I have to give special mention to the 3-D in this film, which is, all hyperbole aside, the best I've seen since James Cameron's Avatar. It utterly puts the last 3-D film I saw, The Avengers, in the shade. The image was never too dark (which was remarkable considering how much of the film took place at night), and the action basically exploded off the screen during the last twenty five minutes or so of the film. Webb and his crew shot this film in 3-D, taking pointers from Cameron himself, and the attention to detail shows. Coupled with SPI's new-and-improved digital web slinger, the 3-D made for easily the most incredible viewing experience I've had since Jake Sully blasted off for Pandora three years ago. Not only is this film good enough to merit a repeat viewing; it's the first film since Avatar that I've wanted to see again in exclusively in 3-D. The difference between this and The Avengers is the difference between shooting a film in 3-D, as was done with this, and converting one to 3-D, as was done with Marvel's mega-smash.
Yes, this film is flawed and yes, as a reboot it feels like it's happening too soon, but considering that the stink left by Spider-Man 3 left Sony with no choice but to do a reboot and considering that the threat of losing the cash-cow franchise to Disney/Marvel forced them to make the reboot sooner rather than later I am able to look past the whole "reboot" gripe and appreciate this film on its own merits, as hard as that may be.
Score: 4/5
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