Spider-Man Reloaded

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2012)

¨We all have secrets: the ones we keep... and the ones that are kept from us.¨
Spider-Man is back with a reboot and although it seemed sort of early for it, Marc Webb did a great job with this film by refreshing the story and the characters. I enjoyed the first three Spider-Man films, although I wasn't a huge fan of them. Webb not only refreshed the series, but he also improved it in my opinion by doing one thing: getting Andrew Garfield to play Peter Parker. Garfield, who I really appreciated in The Social Network despite having flown under the radar in that movie, is excellent as Peter Parker. He has the right amount of charisma and wit that his character needs. I loved his performance much more than Tobey Maguire's. The other great addition to this reboot was the inclusion of Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Peter's original love interest in the comics and who was played by Bryce Dallas Howard in the third film. Emma Stone is one of the greatest young talents on the screen and she is just lovely in this film and had great chemistry with Garfield. Webb had proved in the past that he could make a strong romantic film with his feature film debut, 500 Days of Summer, but I wasn't sure how the action was going to work out in The Amazing Spider-Man. The truth of the matter is that the action scenes were excellently choreographed and the film was visually stunning; I had a great time at the theater. I don't know if a reboot was absolutely necessary at this stage, but I had a fun time nonetheless.
There are a few similarities between the original Spider-Man and this film, but for the most part screenwriters James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves chose a different approach in this version of the superhero story. They focused more on Peter Parker's (Andrew Garfield) troubles in school as a teenager and how he dealt with his parents death. After leaving him with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), his parents never returned so Peter was raised by them with strong moral values. Despite having a great relationship with them, Peter is still hurt about the loss of his biological parents and is trying to deal with it as well as his growing feelings for his classmate Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). While trying to deal with all these normal teenage feelings, Peter discovers a forgotten briefcase of his father which contains some secrets about his past. Peter finds a picture of his father with Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), who used to be his good friend and science partner in Oscorp. That is when Peter decides to visit Oscorp and is bitten by a genetic spider. We all know the result of that spider bite: Peter becomes Spider-Man. As he tries to manage these new special abilities, Peter also befriends Dr. Connors in search for answers about his parents past. Peter deciphers an equation he found from his father's briefcase which allows Dr. Connors to make a huge advance in his genetic experiments, which ultimately leads to him becoming the Lizard, Spider-Man's nemesis.
If you would've told me that the silly guy from Notting Hill would be playing The Lizard I would've thought it was a joke. Rhys Ifans is great in comedies, but I never imagined he could play an important villain with such success. The people behind the casting of this film did a tremendous job because every character seemed to be played by the perfect actor. I mean who better to play Captain Stacy than Denis Leary? Every role just fit perfectly and that was what ultimately made The Amazing Spider-Man such a fun film. Andrew Garfield with his unique wit and charm works almost in the same way that Robert Downey Jr. did as Tony Stark. It was as if these actors were born to play these roles. The entire cast was great in this film, so was the crew behind the special effects department. The film looks really good and is exactly what a summer blockbuster movie is supposed to be. The Amazing Spider-Man might not be as great as The Avengers, but it still was a really entertaining film worth the ticket price. Spider-Man fans will be pleased and I doubt anyone will be missing Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker after this performance, although I still have my reservations over whether or not a reboot of the series was necessary at this early stage.
http://estebueno10.blogspot.com