The Web Sticks, Perfectly

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2012)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how you reboot a franchise within a decade of the original and still make loads of money. There was no particular reason to fire Tobey Maguire and Co. for a new Spidey flick (except that you'd have had to show him with little Spidey-babies next), but boy how supremely pleased we are that it turned out so. The Amazing Spiderman is not necessarily a better movie than its predecessors, but it's bolder, wackier and hell, cooler. You feel a kind of energy that had been on the wane ever since Doctor Octopus had met his doom.
Andrew Garfield is Peter Parker Ver#2, who looks like he could devour the Tobey Maguire-Parker, the shy, nerdy awkward guy with major self- esteem issues, and spit him out. The upgraded Parker is an aggressive being, extrovert, rebellious and sure of himself. He is back to being sixteen here, a regular high school kid with skateboarding skills and an antennae out for the opposite sex. Particularly for one Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), who shares his love for science and breaking rules. Of course, Parker has unresolved parent-issues too, like Batman, and Superman, and Iron-man, and Thor, and Bruce Banner, and Wolverine One fine day, Mary and Richard Parker (Embeth Davidtz and Campbell Scott) pack up their stuff and leave little Peter in the hands of Uncle Ben and Aunt May ("Someday, you'll understand"). Right. So anyway Little Parker grows into Garfield, stumbles upon his father's old suitcase containing some Beautiful Mind-sort of equations, and begins to investigate. You know the deal, he gets bitten by a genetically engineered spider, and pretty soon he's beating up random people in a subway train, scaling walls and leaping and bungee-jumping in tights. His investigation into his parents' disappearance puts him on a head-on collision course with his father's former research partner Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifans), a scientist who seems to carry with him an unhealthy amount of secrets. This guy is one-armed and injects himself with some green-liquid (always a bad idea) thinking it'd sprout back the missing arm. It does, and as a bonus, also gives him a tail, fangs, and for all purposes transforms him into Godzilla's intelligent midget-cousin.
Meanwhile, Spiderman swinging around is generating videos on YouTube, and Captain Stacy (Dennis Leary) of the New York Police Department is not happy about it. He deploys "five-hundred" police officers on Spidey's tail. Guess there had been nothing much for the NYPD to do since Bin Laden died and all. But, what's this? Captain Stacy is Gwen Stacy'sI'll leave out that part. Miss Stacy, of course has by then fallen head over heels in love with Parker for no apparent reason, and the two spend a significant portion of the movie breathing down each other's necks. No upside down smooch-storm in this case though, guess Tobey scores one over Garfield there.
Dr. Connors thinks he'll be awarded the Nobel Prize for Saving Humanity if he upgrades us all into giant lizards. Spidey finds his lair, and deduces what the Good Doctor/Hyperventilating Lizard is up to and races to stop him.
All well and good. Garfield (The Social Network) is the heart and soul of the movie, and gives us a cocksure hero who has no qualms about showing off his superhuman powers in college or venting his anger at the soft-spoken Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen). Nevertheless, his interpretation of Peter Parker is likable and stuffs in enough emotion to make us root for him. Stone has Stacy doing a bit of running around herself even as she plays the damsel-in-distress. The supporting cast comprising of heavyweights Sheen, Leary, Sally Field and Irrfan Khan do a neat job weighing up the story.
The Lizard, well, he is big, mean and has anger-issues, yes, but he doesn't make an entirely menacing villain. Most importantly, his motivations to do all that bad stuff he's doing is not convincing. The movie is not without other flaws too. One-of-the-best-scientific-minds- in-the-city walks calmly into a sealed room that he'd seen a man come out of wearing bio-hazard suit just moments ago. The Oscorp Industries' skyscraper has kindergarten-level security in place that any teenager can break into and walk out with his hands full. Obese crane-operators can operate heavy machinery in a section of the city that has been evacuated by what seems to be the SWAT team. And the movie contradicts itself several times on the issue of 'spider-sense'.
However, I am impressed. The movie looks good, and feels good. The casting is spot-on, and the chemistry between Garfield and Stone is nothing sort of nuclear. Peter's motivation to take up the red-and-blue suit is better explained. He is not a man without flaws of his own, and makes mistakes, inventing Spider-man as he goes along.
Mark Webb (500 Days of Summer) makes sure the movie does not take itself too seriously, and therein lies his success. Like Joss Whedon before him, he wisely stays away from too much realism. It's a good ol' fashioned battle of Good vs. Inexplicably Evil, with just the right dose of humor and teen-romance.
Bottomline: Go see it, if only to satiate your tingling spider-sense. P.S : ListenWhat is it that I hear? A talk of Spidey joining the Avengers?
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