A Good Start To The New Series, But It Has It's Problems (SPOILERS)

Rating: 6/10 (30 November 2012)

I think firstly it's my duty to say that I haven't seen Sam Raimi's Spidey trilogy fully and completely. As a matter of fact the only film I have seen from that trilogy is about a third of the first one when it was broadcast on ITV2 some 8 or so years ago. As you can probably gather, if an 8 year old me had no interest in the series, then I do have doubts about its credentials. However; I'm not one to hold grudges against films, and I'm sure I'll revisit the series a few years down the line. What I'm trying to say to you is I popped my cherry (metaphorically I assure you, I'm a 16 year old male,) on the Spidey franchise with Marc Webb's 'The Amazing-Spider Man.' Overall, I found the film enjoyable and entertaining, but did have problems that kept it reaching the same high mark for superhero films that 'The Avengers', also out this year, has set.
Undoubtedly the best thing about this film is the performances from the two leads in the film, Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker / Spider-Man) and Emma Stone (Gwen Stacey). It's fair to say that Garfield's performance is not close to surpassing his incredible role as Eduardo in 'The Social Network', but that is certainly not a criticism. His performance is well-rounded, believable, and his ability to play adolescent so perfectly is certainly one of the best in the business right now. Similarly, Emma Stone is again very believable and the pair has a certain dynamic, an on screen connection, which is incredibly satisfying for the audience to watch as the narrative progresses.
The films plot at times does seem to be somewhat formulaic, but the very nature of the Spidey franchise means that some conventions must be followed: i.e. fans would be outraged if the scene in which Peter Parker gains his special abilities via a spider bite isn't shown, or if Peter doesn't have a love interest throughout the film. Despite these conventions, it's ultimately the films plot that is its greatest downfall: it's littered with unanswered and unmentioned plot strings. For instance, (SPOILER) Peter's chase for his uncle's killer is completely left unanswered mid-way through the film, and a shot is shown of the NYPD officers (SPOILER) being covered in slime created by 'The Lizard' which turns people into 'Lizard People.' There is simply one shot of the officers being covered in this slime, and what follows isn't developed whatsoever. Damn, they even have the guts to show the officers transforming back into humans after (SPOILER) Spidery sprays an antidote across the city. Not only does the plot make the film not cohesive and often bewildering for the audience, it undoes the work by Garfield and Stone of making the film so believable for the audience.
The film is visually acceptable. The ending set piece is satisfactory visually, and the audience get just the right amount of POV web-swinging shots to leave them satisfied and not left with motion sickness. The effects on the villain of the film (The Lizard) are often quite plain and standard, but never become a big issue for the film. What does however; is the character himself. The villain, played by Rhys Ifans is simply not interesting and well developed as he should be to become genuine threat to Spider-Man. All we have to look at in comparison is 'The Joker' and 'Bane' in Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight' trilogy to see how lacking this villain really is. This comparison may be unjustified, but that's the nature of what superhero films are becoming nowadays - a well respected genre which is starting to release outstanding films on a yearly basis, and although 'The Amazing-Spider Man' does have many positives, Spidey doesn't quite live up to the standard of other superhero films over the past decade.
3/5.