The Forgotten Spider-Man

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2020)

Before anything else, I would like my question to be answered right away: Why was this movie necessary? It's not like we haven't seen Spider-Man in a while, in fact, the last film was in the year 2007, just 5 years from the release date of this movie. Now, I would understand if they would have just continued with the story Sam Raimi had to offer, just like Joel Schumacher did with Batman Forever, following the story of Tim Burton's Batman with a new cast. Not saying Batman Forever was a good movie, but it had something new to offer at least.
Let's start with that. The Amazing Spider-Man starts off with how Peter Parker, the protagonist, is seen picked on, bullied, an outcast basically. He has a crush on this girl named Gwen Stacy, and the two of them have this small connection. His relationship with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May is shown, and after that he goes to Oscorp Industries, gets bitten by a radioactive spider, and lives with it. He continues to discover his new powers, but his actions one-by-one lead to the death of his Uncle Ben. Since this happened, Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man to help stop several crimes in New York, and also a big lizard causing havoc to the city. Now, what exactly differed from Raimi's first Spider-Man, besides the girl, and the villain? Absolutely nothing.
This review however, will not only consist of similarities, but also talk about different plot points in this movie. Let's start with Peter Parker's parents, a new topic in the Spider-Man films. At the start, it is shown that his parents drop Peter off at his uncle and aunt's place because they have some "unfinished business" to attend to. Later on, a reminder is given to Peter about his parents, or his dad mostly, and he starts digging for some clues to find out more about what he did. But, to be honest, there is nothing really important about this part of the story. Meaning to say, it goes nowhere (I'm leaving TASM 2 and treating this as an individual film). I guess what differs with this Spider-Man and Raimi's is that Sam's is straight to the point, sweet and simple. Marc Webb however, feels the need to go through things one at a time for no reason really. Another plot point left out is Peter's search for his uncle's killer. We go through a sequence of Peter searching for his uncle's killer one by one, and in the end where does this go? Nowhere. His problem, or his arc isn't resolved at all.
I would like to then shift into another problem this film has: Peter Parker's motivation. Yes, it's only natural for Peter to want to have revenge for the death of his uncle. But the point of Spider-Man, besides doing what is right, is overcoming your wrongful thoughts and actions. We see his hate for his uncle's killer never resolved, but instead left out like all the other plot points mentioned. He's not stopping those criminals because of their wrongdoing, or out his goodwill, but his taste for revenge. He only hunts down those who look like his uncle's killer and no one else. A proof of his action can be seen in his last interaction with a look-alike. When Spider-Man gets the criminal cornered, he checks if the car thief has a tattoo on his arm. When Peter realizes he does not, he clearly says, "This could've gotten a lot worse," and hands him over to the police.
The police in this film are a also major flaw. Yes, they are a bit engineered in a way to have the same roles as those in the Dark Knight trilogy, which are to arrest the Batman, a vigilante who does not follow the rules or laws entailed to the city. But the police in this movie are upright dumb. There have been literally reports from witnesses of something large, and not human that has caused destruction in the bridge near New York City, and for some reason, they choose to focus on Spider-Man, who although is an outlaw who follows no one, "helps" them arrest criminals. I get why they should arrest him, but what I don't get is the fact they prioritize Spider-Man, who is a much more smaller "threat" than the Lizard. It just doesn't add up.
Despite all this, "The Amazing Spider-Man" isn't without its good parts as well. I'd say the actors in this film were great, although I wouldn't think Andrew Garfield would be ideal for Peter Parker, a nerd and a good kid in nature, but I can live with that casting choice. People seem to like all the scenes with Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, and I would be more okay with this if it didn't take a solid 2-3 minutes trying to talk and settle things down. I also like the fact that Peter Parker helped create the Lizard, seeing as how he helped out Dr. Connors find some formula. Finally, being a superhero movie, as expected the action in the scenes were choreographed well, and they were enjoyable.
But all in all, I personally think this reboot should never have happened if this is how the story would turn out to be, since we are all familiar with this. Thankfully, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man did not go with this familiar setting, but actually bring something fresh to the table.