Sterile

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2014)

When this reboot came out it felt too close to the most recent series of films and generally it looked uninspired so I gave it a skip but the upcoming release of the sequel made me think that maybe it was worth me checking out. In terms of the plot the majority will be familiar to most people since it is not only a famous character but we only really had this same plot a few years ago. The second half of the film has a different villain than the previous film but really it will all feel like very familiar territory – and this is just one of the problems that the film never totally overcomes.
The feeling that the whole film is unnecessary is one that never goes away; it feels superficial and hollow from the very start and even the introductory origin material doesn't scan – it is unconvincing and illogical and this continues all the way to the bite. From here the development into Spiderman is not particularly well done, with a comic tone that isn't warranted or supported by the material. The focus on Peter and Gwen Stacey offers potential but it doesn't come through because it also feels overly superficial and keen to be where it wants to be without actually doing any work to get there on its own. This continues for the remainder of the film as it never really has any heart or any sense of real danger or thrill.
The effects do cover for it and there is a natural flow and movement to the characters who are wholly CGI but to be honest, without any real reason to care about what was going on, all I could think was how little you could get these days for over USD200MM. There isn't any grit to it although the bigger surprise to me was that it really wasn't a lot of fun either. Okay we get the wise-cracking Spiderman of old, but it isn't particularly funny and there isn't any wonder, mischief or fun to the character or the action. The performances are fine but mostly wasted because the material isn't there for them; Garfield is fine but Stone doesn't convince and just feels overly flirty. Ifans fails to bring out the tragedy of his character in the way some of those in the previous series managed.
Generally this film never stops feeling unnecessary. The story is overly familiar and this telling is uninspiring and uninspired; it has the money on the screen in terms of the effects but otherwise it is disappointingly hollow and Corporate, with no edge, no fun, no spark and no real reason for it to really exist beyond the profitability of the character. I was genuinely surprised by how totally sterile the entire film was.