The Amazing
Spider-Man
First of all I'll say the fact that Spider-Man's
origin story didn't need to be remade. I've seen some of the very
decent to mediocre attempts before but what makes this a poor attempt
was that it was a remake that backtracked on all that was good before
it. There was nothing new here. In previous remakes there were
soul, heart, good soundtracks, excellent scores, decent acting,
chemistry between characters, heroism, humour and quotable dialogue.
This film for the most part lacked these core values. This version
even deleted one of the main characters, the often hilarious: J.
Johan Jameson who was a huge part of the comics, animations and even
the main films.
As I watched the film, I tried my best to over
look the obvious first hour or so that inevitably retold the same old
story of Peter Parker, the love interest, the bullies, the Aunt &
Uncle, the spider bite, the transformation and the discovery of his
new powers. I can't even say there are spoilers in this review, as we
all knew that was coming. This is not to say there were no additions
to this new film but there were none that are worth mentioning, it
feels like this film took away the fundamentals that over the years
we have come to know in anything to do with Spider-man while not
replacing these gaps with anything. "The Untold Story" this
is one of the main advertising points used for this film, however I
do very much disagree. The most famous quote in Spider-man was not
even present in this film “With great power, comes great
responsibility”
Most of the action scenes take place at night
and are visually uninteresting as the CGI and night sky don't mix
well with the little lighting that was present. There is one action
scene at day in which you can actually clearly see what is happening
and its in a high school that appears to be no where near where the
film is supposed to be set in New York, unlike its predecessors who
show schools within where Spider Man is set.
What the film is
trying to tell us is that Spider-Man is a self scarifying hero (or as
much as a teenager could be), that he loves Gwen Stacy and that he
also has his own interests and reasons for what he does. However, the
one interest that he made an income from, that makes Peter Parker who
he is to the audience, isn't even present except for one scene in a
sewer and a few hanging pictures. So many story lines began and
either faded or we're given half the explanation, nothing was taken
all the way through, it felt as if the directors were trying to save
money.
Don't get me wrong about this film; I didn't completely
dislike The Amazing Spider-Man. Of the approximately 20 minutes (of
136 minutes) of screen time Spidey was on the screen, his costume was
good although the explanation on how his idea for his costume came to
be was lacking, unlike the previous series of films which dedicate a
whole 20-30 minutes to it. Although Tobey Maguire spun confusing
misleading webs around Andrew Garfield's Parker he still did a good
job. I will even say that Spider-Man's signature sarcasm was funnier
this time around and this film did seem to be more “Up to date”
except this time around instead of a green bad guy from Oscorp being
human, this one had a green bad guy from Oscorp being a CGI Godzilla
offspring. Although Emma Stone portrayed her character Gwen Stacy
well, the character was lifeless compared to Kirsten Dunst's Mary
Jane. Aunt May is written so poorly, that she has nothing to do in
this film, she sits at home and watches TV and screams at Peter when
she sees him. When you compare this to previous films the family
element is missing and it feels like they are trying to make Andrew
Garfield into the next Edward Cullen. There seems to be no conflict
between Peter and his girlfriend at the end of the story, which one
would logically want to assume that she holds out some contempt for
spider-man as Harry did in the original spider-man after Spidey
played a hand in his father's death. Spider-man did play a hand in
the Captain's death, yet the daughter doesn't seem to mind that Peter
was there when he was murdered. There isn't even a small hint of
suspicion, it seems to be irrelevant that it could have been his
fault and they don't even talk about what happened either due to a
promise which is made, and broken. You have to question the emotions
in this film, there are none present, no empathy can be felt for any
of them.
Overall this film does not have you believe in the
setting or characters at all. I simply cannot recommend this film.
Again, of the 136 minutes around 40 minutes were good, but that did
not outweigh the bad lighting, effects or the other 96 slow-paced,
unoriginal minutes of the film.
Overall I rate this film 3/5
Review by Liam Taylor
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