Great Fun, But Not Amazing

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2012)

In 2002 Sam Raimi created the first of his soon to be "Spider-Man" trilogy with "Spider-Man". Apart from "X-Men' there hadn't really been a large superhero film since the classic "Superman" films from the late 70's, early 80's. 2004 came and Raimi built upon the solid foundations of his initial creation with a near perfect, smart film made for all audiences, even those who had no love for superhero films known as "Spider-Man 2". Years later he would go on to make "Spider-Man 3", a heavily flawed but still somewhat enjoyable experience. Now 5 years on from the last incarnation of the web slinger we are presented with director Marc Webb's (Who also directed the fantastic "500 Days of Summer") perception of the masked crusader in "The Amazing Spider-Man".
Starting from the ground up we are re-introduced to Spider-Man with a central performance from Andrew Garfield playing Peter Parker, the high school student who receives extraordinary gifts reminiscent of a spider through a bite of a genetically engineered arachnid. Alongside having to understand his newfound powers he gains a love interest with fellow student Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) and discovering the mysterious disappearance of his parents as a child with the help of one-armed scientist Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) who worked alongside his dad. However Connors is trying to work on a cure for his arm through the DNA of lizards and ends up becoming a monstrosity known as The Lizard in the process. Now it's up to Spider-Man to prevent The Lizard from tearing apart the city.
Marc Webb has taken up this huge task of re-booting the series and has managed to craft a solid piece of summer entertainment, but not without it's flaws. However on the positive side he creates a brilliantly paced blockbuster with the first hour building on the characters and the second hour bringing high-octane action in a constant rhythm without becoming stale. He also manages to capture the character of Spider-Man fantastically bringing the humorous one-liners that he quips from the comic books and adds it to his film without ever over doing it. Along side his great action, pacing and realization of Spider-Man it's backed with a thumping score which breaks into moments of greatness as it reaches different tones, a heavy standout being the horror track that backs a lot of The Lizard scenes. Along with some great direction from Webb showing one or two scenes of true horror making him an interesting choice from a film in that genre.
Its not just Webb's directing that stands out, Garfield creates his own version of Spider-Man and not only captures it but embodies it. It's a role he was born to play and it's evident that he's enjoying every scene he's in playing this character, alongside playing Parker. Being a surprising addition to the cast is Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben who brings a more heartfelt and lovable interpretation to the role that the other films were never able to capture. Ifans is a great choice for Connors as well and dominates the scenes he's in with his strong presence being felt. It's just a shame this is lost when he becomes The Lizard and the CGI creation becomes a cheesy mess with no real threat or character as the computer generate scenes play out. The most disappointing of all however is the character of Gwen Stacey. As strong as Stones performance is the character is not. She feels more like a plot device at times than a genuine love interest for Spider-Man and since their relationship grows so fast it's hard to really grab anything from what you're being given.
The biggest problem with the film however is the script, which Webb manages to keep on top, but not without it's flaws. At times it comes an inconsistent mess, for example in one scene Parker would touch an object which would suddenly stick to his hand and then the next scene he would be able to grab objects with ease, but then after this would go back to the prior problem. There's also some forced narrative choices as well, especially the scene in which Parker comes up with the idea for his suit which felt completely un-natural and a jolt out of the story. Alongside some forced plot ideas were certain plot strands that were left un- resolved, a main one involving Uncle Ben that reaches a crescendo and then never ties it's self up. The whole script feels unfinished and flips between a positive storytelling experience to a completely unpolished one.
However despite these flaws Webb manages to keep the film afloat with some great characters, exciting action and an enjoyable time overall. Audiences should not soon forget though how great Sam Raimi captured Spider-Man in his direction though and the chemistry of the cast, each having their own story arcs. It'll be interesting to see where Webb takes his creation, as there's a lot here to like, just a weak script and some un-polished characters stop it from being the greatness it could have been. With films such as "The Avengers" and "The Dark Knight Rises" being the heavy weight superhero films to storm multiplexes it's hard to see "The Amazing Spider-Man" finding a heavy footing. But it's still worth checking out and will provide an entertaining two hours for audiences. There's still some web left in this spider after all.