Solid re-boot that finds a deeper focus of Parker's distress

Rating: 6/10 (19 September 2012)

After Sam Raimi departing from a fourth Spider-Man project, the news of a "reboot" of the franchise was met with cries of anger from the plebeian fanboys. Only ten years after Spider-Man (2002) was released, and five years since the debacle that was Spider-Man 3 (2007), it did seem like a project that would be a bit too soon for comfort. But as these angry diatribes filled blogs and chat rooms on the inter-web, I considered these conditions. After all, the fanboys that are so very antagonised at such things, are the same bedroom boys who lap up everything that the comic book world has to offer - including the many, many, many "reboots" of comic book characters over the decades by the major comic book publishers. So I asked myself, is this really such a major issue? Now that Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy has finished there will be no doubt that Warner Bros. (owners of DC comics and all of its "contents") will be "rebooting" the Batman franchise, and it seems that The Man of Steel may tread a similar path at reinvigorating a character.
Of course, because of the success of the Dark Knight triptych, the prerequisite focus from those idiot executives would have been that this new film will ultimately need to be "darker" - a tone that has been used in the media since the early '90's, but which has been actually realised in the first decade of the 21st century. I have no issue with the "darker" approach, but often it is simply a synonym for violence. In The Amazing Spider-Man however, story/co-screenwriter, James Vanderbilt, - whose previous Zodiac (2007) script was a revelation - has managed to instil this concept of dark into the protagonists anguish at discovering insidious science from his long-dead parents. The Spider-Man origin story is a very well-known, and well trodden story arc, but Vanderbilt (along with co-writers Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves), and director Marc Webb have dug deep into the mythos and found a deeper focus of Peter Parker's distress, and a more interesting and probable path into his arachnid genetic future.
Living with his aunt and uncle (Sally Field and Martin Sheen), Parker (Andrew Garfield) discovers a leather suitcase containing secret scientific papers owned by his dead father (played by Campbell Scott), a scientist working in Marvel universes science corporation, Oscorp. It's contents suggest a project involving cross-species genetics, and leads Parker to the offices where his fathers partner, Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), whose arm was severed and he searches for a cure using reptilian genetic splicing. On his first visit, Parker is bitten by a spider (obviously), in a scene flooded with blue colour, and one that has more visual drama than the accidental approach in 2002's origin story. Parker's obsession with the science work of his father leads to an equation that solves issues with the experiment, and he offers this to Connors - an action that is later regretful.
In high school Peter's persona is slightly less dorky than the Tobey Maguire incarnation. He still has bully issues from the Flash Thompson character (Chris Zylka), but he is more intense, aggravated, and intelligent. His lack of knowledge of his parents demise, and his isolation gives the character more depth. Deleting the Mary-Jane and replacing with Gwen Stacey (the always electrifying Emma Stone) is a slight, but alternative change, but their relationship becomes more engrossing - and one which becomes more exquisite on discovering that her father, Captain Stacey (Denis Leary), is the police chief pursuing the spider-dude.
In the first major set-piece involving Spider-Man and Connors' later genetic manifestation, The Lizard, they don't actually clash, but creates a tender and beautiful moment as Spider-Man rescues a child trapped in a car dangling from the Brooklyn bridge. In this reboot, Parker never seems too reluctant to take the mask off, and offers it to the young boy as a placebo to move his terrified body into action. The father of the son later gets the opportunity to give back to the wall crawler, in another touching moment, and one that reflects the New Yorker united moments of Raimi's trilogy.
Of course, Parker is pushed into his crime fighting ways due to the murder of his Uncle Ben, and the screenwriters attempt to write the same message but without stating "with great power comes great responsibility" which is tackled rather well, if a little convoluted. Ifans' Connors is often wooden, and seems too villainous, when in fact he shouldn't be - in other words his villainous attitude does come on a bit too fast. The CGI Lizard's characterisation and face was unsatisfactory and could have done with being more fantastical than reptilian-realism. But these are minor infractions to an interesting, exciting, and character driven re-start to a franchise. I would have preferred more screen time for Stone's Gwen - Stone's comic acting is excellent, and should be used here more often (in a scene where she attempts to hide Parker in her bedroom from her father, sees this comedic acting, but could have been so much more. I actually look forward to seeing where a sequel may go, and hope that the screen writing duties go to Vanderbilt again - he certainly knows how to write characters, and since the bar for superhero movies has been set so high this year by The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers, it is intelligent writing that the genre so dearly needs.
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