Good film on it's own but not the Spider-Man that we were waiting for

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2012)

'The Amazing Spider-Man' is a new take on the origin and early days of hero Spider-Man after teenage genius Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically mutated spider. Peter lives with his aunt and uncle after his parents, who includes Richard Parker in following the "Ultimate" universe in the comics, was a scientist who was working on a secret project with partner Dr. Curt Conners before he leaves Peter with his aunt May and Uncle Ben and disappears. Andrew Garfield is a good actor in general and acts very well with his role as Peter Parker with the exception of some weak jokes he throws out during battle sequences. The main thing I had trouble figuring out was the character of Peter Parker himself. While being famous in comics and media for being a nerd or geek who is at the top of his class, Peter didn't seem so nerdy or even an outcast in general which led to some of the strange amount of bullying he is going through in the film. Garfield seemed a bit too pretty and Parker did not seem as much of an outcast as the film was trying to make him seem. He just seemed like a regular high school teenager who had a huge affection for skateboarding for the first half of the film. Emma Stone plays Gwen Stacy, the love interest and classmate of Peter and fellow science enthusiast; she interns for Dr. Curt Conners at the company Oscorp and has a strange infatuation for Peter. The two grow close in a short period of time and start a relationship rather early in the film. Garfield and Stone have chemistry and pull off a believable couple in the film even if the start of it seemed a bit quick. Emma lives with two little brothers, her mom and her dad, Captain George Stacy, Captain of the NYPD and the man leading the search to arrest Spider-Man. Denis Leary plays George Stacy and perhaps gives one of the best performances of the film with his performance as a tough, wise cracking police officer. Martin Sheen and Sally Field are cast as Ben and May Parker, Peter's aunt and uncle whom he lives with after his parent's disappearance. Both great actors who give Aunt May and Uncle Ben new character work and makes the roles their own. In their house, Peter finds a briefcase that belonged to his father which contains clues to his disappearance and leads Peter straight to Dr. Curt Conners, a scientist at Oscorp who was working on a project with Richard Parker on genetically altered species. While searching for information, Peter is introduced to Connors and receives a life changing spider-bite from a genetically altered test spider. Rhys Ifans plays Connors and plays him well. His performance was well acted and crafted and was shown to progress into madness out of desperation and dedication after he injects himself with a test formula that Peter had corrected from his father's notes to help re grow his lost arm by using DNA from a lizard. The formula fails and turns Connors into a nine foot tall muscular lizard bent on releasing the formula over the streets of NYC to create a new "Super Race" of reptilian creatures. Parts of the film seems to try and make itself more real and darker than the past Spider-Man films and to carry in on the success of 'The Dark Knight' while others seem to try and make the film more teen and hip. The tone is something that shifts throughout the movie a bit too much for my taste and made a lot of scenes much more memorable and just better in general than others. Pacing in the film is another thing that stood out, at many points it seemed as if the film moved a bit fast with things like Peter and Gwen's relationship and the death of Uncle Ben. Many big points of the storyline moved quickly to show the point of them and their effect on Peter. However my biggest problem with the film was character development, in total what really seemed to change with Peter Parker at the end of the film was that he was a little more confident in school. His relationship with Aunt May didn't change and he got a girlfriend while gaining super powers, seeing his Uncle die, and taking down a giant lizard that he was partially responsible for creating. He seemed like the same kid throughout the film and that kind of bothered me even more than the fact the Peter Parker spent so much time looking for Uncle Ben's killer and never finds him in the film. Character development also goes with Peter's transition into Spider-Man, he is never truly a vigilante in the film as stated but rather a kid looking for the guy who killed his Uncle over and over again. His sense of justice and doing the right thing as said by Uncle Ben is never really explored. The furthest it goes is when he saves a child from a car because Curt Conners as the Lizard knocks the car over before it sets into flames. Parker gets a super-hero spandex suit that he designs himself, just to find the man who killed his uncle and later fortunately has it to wear while having to take down Curt Conners. The directing is pretty great in the movie and has a lot of great shots, cinematography, and just some very pretty environment shots. The film in all is well-acted, well directed, has some truly amazing fight sequences and starts a new interesting new beginning to the Spider-Man film franchise but at times just doesn't feel like Spider-Man and has some big issues that really need to be improved upon and fixed in the upcoming sequels.