The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

★★★
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man series was doing so well that reports of rebooting the story and starting over a mere ten years after the first installment was crazy talk when it was announced. That was my impression anyway. Could a new crew continue the momentum Raimi had established? The Amazing Spider-Man mostly succeeds. The first half parallels the original film's origin story, but there are subtle changes to ensure that this is not a duplicate. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) visits Oscorp and gets bitten by an experimental spider that grants him superpowers. There is the period of discovery during which Peter embarrasses himself when he can't control his new skills. Like Toby Maguire's Peter Parker trajectory, Garfield's wears improvised disguises before developing his permanent costume. He eventually learns to control his powers and becomes a plucky young crime fighter who appears to have fun teasing criminals while punishing them for breaking the law.

Peter's uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) even gives a variation of the speech about power and responsibility that resonated so strongly in Raimi's film. What I appreciated in new director Marc Webb's version are the major departures. He jettisons Peter's built-in spiderweb glands and re-establishes his inventive genius from the comic books by showing him creating his mechanical web shooters. There is more focus on Peter's family situation. He grows up in an atypical household (being raised by his aunt and uncle), and he challenges Ben at one point about his abandonment (the prologue revealed that Peter's mother and father left him with his aunt and uncle then disappeared). Mary Jane Watson is not present. Instead, Peter's other love interest Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) serves in that capacity, though their friendship is awkward because her father is a police officer (Denis Leary) who labels the red- and blue-clad web slinger a vigilante. A dinner scene at the Stacy residence turns sour when Peter expresses his approval of Spider-Man's actions.

The villain is the Lizard, the mutated alter ego of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans). Dr. Connors was a colleague of Peter's father. Peter pays him a visit after stumbling on an old briefcase in his basement and finds a picture of the two together. In doing so, Peter gives him the final piece of the puzzle for his genetic research to develop a serum that will regrow limbs in humans. Dr. Connors' boss insists on bypassing further research. He says to go straight to experimenting on humans, which the good doctor finds revolting. He injects himself with the serum instead, which gives way to a violent giant lizard who terrorizes the city and gives Spider-Man his first supervillain. In staging the battle scenes and Spider-Man's death-defying jumps and swings high above the streets, Marc Webb gives us thrilling shots that zip up and down and left and right and every direction in between. Though I love Sam Raimi's version, I must acknowledge the technological advances in C.G.I. to make these scenes here far more realistic and therefore more exciting.

The chemistry between Peter and Gwen is strong, though I still prefer Peter and Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson from the earlier film. They don't have an iconic moment together like the upside-down kiss scene, but they have enough material here to convey a budding relationship with all the peaks and valleys that you would expect when one half of that pairing is a superhero. I liked Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy. Superbad wasn't that far back in the rearview mirror, so she had no problem playing an extremely likeable high school student again. On the other hand, life at home is getting tense. After Uncle Ben's death, Peter becomes aloof and stays out until late at night. Aunt May remains home worried. She thinks that he must be getting into all sorts of trouble, which is a reasonable conclusion to draw based on recent events. The emotional distance that develops between them lays the groundwork for a mutual understanding at the conclusion. My hunch: She knows.

The Lizard is the least interesting of Spider-Man's enemies to appear on screen thus far, ranking below Spider-Man 3's Sandman. He has a story similar to the Green Goblin (self-experimentation, overbearing corporate superiors), but there wasn't much beyond him besides his brute strength and penchant for destroying property. Nevertheless, The Amazing Spider-Man is a solid attempt to start over with a new cast and direction. Despite the uninteresting villain, there were enough things done right. Marc Webb, like Sami Raimi, had passion for the project and character. Andrew Garfield capably slips into the spidey suit and displays all the frustration of a teenager who lost his parents and uncle while simultaneously navigating high school romance and his nighttime activities. The special effects are brilliant. The action is splendid. Maybe Webb just needed to spend time resetting our expectations before getting to the good stuff.

© 2025 Silver Screen Reviews