Once upon a time, Ben Parker said, “With great power comes great responsibility.†Director Marc Webb take on the Spider-Man series never forgets that.
But The Amazing Spider-Man takes an interesting spin on our beloved hero. It feels like a mesh of the Amazing Spider-man and Ultimate Spider-man comics. Sure, it’s still the same story with a few slight changes.
Uncle Ben never actually says, “With great power comes great responsibility,†but he doesn’t have to. While the movie is different from what people are used to, any true fan the famous web slinger would appreciate this slightly-altered origin story.
Andrew Garfield is not the typical Peter Parker as seen on TV and the other movies. Fidgety, he accepts his role as the nerd most of the time- except when he sees others in trouble. Only at home does he wear his traditional nerdy Peter Parker glasses. At home, Peter’s life is not perfect. He is haunted by the memories of his parents leaving him with Aunt May and Uncle Ben when he was very young. The ghost of his father haunts him more as he finds an old briefcase filled with his father’s work.
At school, Peter suffers from his bully Flash Thompson who is more like the flash from the ultimate Spider-man comics. He is disrespectful rude and mean to Peter just like any flash Thompson would be.
Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) is cheerful and extremely sarcastic thought he entire film. She slowly develops feelings for Peter after she embarrasses flash for beating on Peter in the schoolyard.
Parker’s transformation to Spider-Man happened in a different way from the comics and the TV shows. He awakens on the train and discovers his powers and has no idea how to use them. Unlike the traditional spider sense, which only warns Spider-man of danger, this hero’s spider sense warns him of envy thing from a harmless fly to the lizard about to take a swing at him. It’s a little too sensitive at the beginning of the movie.
Doctor Connors (Rhys Ifans) is pretty much the same. He is obsessed with using Lizard D.N.A to regrow his arm. The only difference would be that he is now a scientist that works for Oscorp and is being funded to heal a very sick Norman Osborn who is mentioned throughout the movie. Doctor Connor’s is portrayed well in the movie except for the fact that there is no mention of his wife and son, whatsoever. After becoming the lizard, Connor’s quickly losses his mind and decides to make everyone into what he is seeing himself as an evolved human.
Aside from the villains, there are other aspects in the story worth mentioning. The costume is by far one of the worst Spidey costumes ever created. While the golden eyes can be looked past, this costume comes with strange sneakers, not to mention the fact that it looks like pajamas. Does Spider-man go jogging in the park after he stops a bank robbery? While wearing the terrible suit, Spider-man becomes a witty crime fighter who taunts criminals. His constant jokes are a different style of comedy than the other Spider-men of the world, but still leave you feeling the satisfaction of a well-placed spider-man joke.
In this case, it makes up for the wacky costume.
The Amazing Spider-man is a well thought out action romp. It provides the same satisfaction as reading a Spidey comic or watching the movies, “Spider-man 3†excluded, of course.
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