Thomas Spychalski
It almost seems like the movie world
has gone insane with remakes.
Things from the eighties and nineties
have been harvested of their most special product, to be reworked and
redone. Robocop, Total Recall and of course a new Spider-Man film
just five years after the last Sam Raimi directed film, Spider-Man 3,
in 2007.
Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is of
course at the heart of the Spider-Man universe, which should be no
surprise as he is the title characters secret identity. Parker is
more like a real teen this time around, with both his nerdiness and
teenage angst mixed perfectly
Marvel comics used to think that
radioactivity would change the world like the microchip, which isn't
surprising considering the atomic era was still gaining steam when
Sipdey started swinging in the sixties. It also was when every
science fiction b-movie had radioactivity in it
someplace, be it the cause of the monstrosity that had come to
destroy Humanity or the vehicle of the threats demise.
This was Marvel's scenario of choice
true believers...
Want to be the Human Torch or the
Thing?
Cosmic rays.
Want to get a nice healthy green (gray)
glow and lovely singing voice like the Hulk?
A little gamma radiation will fix you
right up.
The film also intensifies the original
story for Uncle Ben's death, making it a poignant scene depicting the
battle between the light and dark that is not only the start of
Spidey's career (and Batman's for that matter), but a more modern and
realistic take then the criminal who somehow manged tobecome so quickly involved in the life of two family members.
This time the story line really goes out of it's way to show
how badly Peter Parker was affected by his uncle's death. The scene
is given the importance that every Batman movie of the nineties gave
it's 'Bruce's parents deaths' scenes. Only this time it is fresh and
not overused; This is Batman 1989, not Batman and Robin.
We also get the best of those old
Marvel classics as well when we realize the depth that was given to a
lot of familiar faces from the original Spider-Man books. Flash and
Gwen as well as Aunt May are perfect counterparts to their sixties
namesakes. Most of the popular comics have changed over this years
but this is a remix of old and new that actually works.
The one complaint I have is that the
movie is a bit slow at the start in terms of pacing, it drags the
information along at a stale march until we get to the scene where
Peter Parker is bit. This is downside that becomes a boon if watching
the film for the first time but I wonder how it stands up on repeat
viewings.
What I am sure will stand the test of
time is how well Garfield pulls off a perfect, wisecracking Spider-Man against
the car thief, it actually had me laughing and 'marveling' at it's
brilliance.
Of course, no superhero is complete
without his villain, in this case it's The Lizard (Rhys Ifans), who is
surprisingly good considering I sometimes shun CGI heavy creations,
preferring real mask and costuming to computers.
All the cast shines really, from
Sally Field and Martin Sheen to Dennis Leary's surprisingly hilarious
performance as Gwen Stacy's father who also plays Spidey's nemesis as
a police captain out to stop the web slinging vigilante.
Without giving too much more away the
plot continues on to it's climax in fine fashion, with a couple
twists and dips along the way, including an obvious set up for a
sequel.
The Amazing Spider-Man might just be
the superhero movie to beat this Summer, just don't say that to
anyone from Gotham, they never seem to get along too well with New
Yorkers.
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