The relaunch with Andrew Garfield

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2015)

Let me start this review by saying that I really like the character of Spider-Man. I loved the first movie from the Raimi trilogy and liked films 2 and 3. This is the second time I watched the first movie with Andrew Garfield and all in all, I am satisfied with what I saw. It is not as good as the Maguire vs. Dafoe film, but still a decent movie. Occasionally, some more subtlety would not have hurt like that sick slam dunk scene was really unnecessary. Or what was with that subway scene. If his senses are sharpened, he wakes up when a drop falls on him, but not when somebody puts a bottle on his head? That doesn't make too much sense. Or the handstand on the skyscraper. All a bit too much over the top at times. Ifans (the goofy best friend in "Notting Hill") did a good job as the antagonist and the make-up was top-notch too. He tries to use his chemical knowledge to create a city of lizards, to transform the humans into his kind, but fails the very last second. He survives though, not a given, and ends up in prison where, at the very end, he meets everybody's favorite spider's next main antagonist it seems. Just like in Raimi's movies 1 and 2, Parker goes against a highly intelligent scientist who loses his sanity. Michael Sheen did a fine job as well. And same goes for Emma Stone. I cannot decide if I am team Gwen or Mary Jane, but I easily prefer Emma Stone (Woody Allen's newest muse) over Kirsten Dunst. Stone and Garfield also became a real life couple while shooting this.
This film from roughly three years ago was directed by Marc Webb "(500) Days of Summer". It's obviously an entirely different project compared to everything else he has done before, but I think he did a good job directing. The writers for this movie have worked on Fincher's "Zodiac" before and also on all the Harry Potter films, so quite an exquisite crew here as well. Another difference would be that there is no character like James Franco here (but a main character's dad dies in the end just like his) and they also did without J. Jonah Jameson, probably because nobody could come close to Simmons' portrayal. The human antagonist role that Jameson filled is dealt with for the most part of the film by Gwen Stacy's dad. Also a good acting performance by Denis Leary. All these ingredients made this one of the big box office hits from 2012, but it did not come close to the numbers of Raimi's movies, where films 1 and 3 were the winners of their respective years in terms of money. Another difference compared to the Raimi films would be that Spiderman's true identity comes quickly to Gwen Stacy and her dad as well. Maguire's Spider was more successful in hiding who he really is. The issue of being seen as the good guy and not the bad guy by the city he lives in is a crucial part of this film too and same goes for Raimi's movies.
Last but not least, there is a fun sequence with Stan Lee at the school. Nice cameo here. He is part of a second half that is better than the first half. The way the title character found out about his new powers and managed to live with them could have been handled more convincingly. Sadly the ending had the same nonsense like one of Raimi's movies that his superhero identity forbids him to have a girlfriend. I really wish they would have gone another path. Anyway, I am curious about the second and last movie of Garfield's/Webb's Spider Man trilogy. Just these days, I read that there will be another relaunch soon with Asa Butterfield as the central character. Until we get to watch him, we can still easily do with the old films as they are pretty good and certainly worth a watch. This is one of them. Recommended.