Familiar and contrasting at the same time

Rating: 6/10 (23 July 2012)

The Amazing-Spider Man is clearly a film that wants to bring the character back to roots completely. The problem here is that the story is very familiar given how recent Sam Raimi's films were and bar a couple of characters being replaced with new ones this one feels very familiar still. The difference here is a sort of pseudo realistic approach for the character. It was never going to be a case of Spider- Man being completely realistic as he is a man bitten by a radioactive spider and given superpowers while the villain is a man who's literally turned into a giant lizard. The partly realistic approach comes from the fact that there are explanations made for the suit and the webs are not organic and are now made mechanically by Peter Parker himself. Small details in the origin remain the same such as Uncle Ben, but the film does feel fresh. We do not actually see Spider-Man until a long while into the film and while this is not an unusual tactic for superhero films it simply felt like this may have been better suited to a TV series format as it paved the way for a massive change in shift once the villain storyline in particular got going. Action wise, the film looks amazing. There is great weight to the action scenes and there does feel like tension. All the actors did a good job with a special mention for Andrew Garfield in the title role. He managed to bring back the wit of Spider-Man in a very good way and I felt as if he delivered it well. At least I didn't find him annoying in the way he could have been. All in all the film is enjoyable, it does not blow you away however with more action it could have done. But it provided sterling entertainment and actually made the effort to tell a story without over indulging.