A new director and an interesting vision for the franchise, with a cast unquestionable, and with well done and exciting action scenes, it's opened a space for future sequels

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2020)

It is undeniable that Spider-Man is one of the most popular and beloved Marvel world. Since its emergence in the early 60s, its creators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, with the idealized characteristics make more humanized among other comics characters of the same era. With the various impasses, Columbia Pictures chose to dispense with Sam Raimi and decided to reboot the franchise from the beginning, showing Peter Parker in high school, being bitten and learning to be Spider-Man. The studio called Marc Webb and the screenplay was written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves, based on a story by James Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt had the thriller Zodiac (2007) directed by David Fincher as their most outstanding work so far, Sargent has had experience in the Spider-Man franchise was scripted as the second and third films of the hero, and Kloves was responsible for almost all adaptations of the Harry Potter books to theaters. In this new script would be the villain Dr. Kurt Connors / Lizard, who was present in the three previous films, played by Dylan Baker, but always as an extra. Marc Webb also wanted to give greater prominence to the story involving the parents of Peter Parker. Finally, it would be the first film involving the hero also released in 3D format.
Andrew Garfield - who had been prominent in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) Terry Gilliam and The Social Network (2010) David Fincher - was chosen as the new Peter Parker / Spider-Man after being released that several actors were quoted to interpret the character. Josh Hutcherson, Jamie Bell, Michael Angarano, Alden Ehrenreich, Aaron Johnson, Logan Lerman and Anton Yelchin were some of these names. Here it is for the role of Gwen Stacy were listed Mia Wasikowska, Teresa Palmer, Diana Agron, Emma Roberts, Imogen Poots, Lindsay Lohan, Lily Collins, Ophelia Lovibond, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Georgina Haig and Dominique McElligott Hilary Duff, but in the end was Emma Stone, one of the highlights in recent years in Hollywood in films like Zombieland (2009), Easy A (2010) and Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), which was chosen to live The First girlfriend of Peter Parker. Here it is to live the villainous Lizard, Rhys Ifans British overcame the likes of Michael Fassbender and Christoph Waltz, winning the role. With a generous budget of about $ 220 million, filming finally began in December 2010 in various locations in the state of California, as Immanuel Presbyterian Church, St. John Bosco High School, and Taft High School in Los Angeles, and Also in New York.
Marc Webb made some changes in his version, trying to make Peter Parker more realistic, we can say that this film uses assumptions similar to what Christopher Nolan did his hundred Batman Begins. The saga of a teenage Peter Parker more (even if you compare with Tobey Maguire who completed 37 years at the time of release of this film) is much more conducive to further exploration humorous superhero school and uncles home. Beyond the humor, you can also highlight the mood changes relevant to age, rage and conflicts arising from their newfound identity.
The producers clearly more humanized the character, and the proof is that Peter Parker has more prominence than Spider-Man. Webb wanted to drive something more grounded in reality and it affecting the emotion of the scenes, the physical action and the clothes. Hence we have a deepening relationships of the characters, further exploration of the past of Peter with his parents, and a more paupável that it develops its technological apparatus, behaves, and is inspired to produce their clothing hero. The paths traced are less based on Steve Ditko world and probably closer visually and more influenced by the Ultimate universe, but also quite a world of our own creation. The director also made other changes in this new version, like the fact that Peter skating and taking the traditional glasses Peter Parker in many scenes, giving contact lenses to the boy. In fact, since the character was created by Stan Lee, moved very concept of the "nerd" in recent decades, and these changes are incorporated in the current reality and understandable. The most important story was kept as Peter being a kid excluded and lonely by choice, being hard to get close to him because it has been abandoned and did not want that to happen again.
Another change is a greater emphasis on the genius of Peter. In this film we see their direct participation in the creation of the formula that gives the appearance of villain - what planet infect an entire city making them become reptiles - in addition to equipment scattered his room as the lock on the door, and especially in creating the web-slinger as soon as he decides to fight crime with the alter-ego Spider-Man - though here he uses material from Oscorp to enable your weapon / means of locomotion. Many fans criticized the release of Sam Raimi in which the webs leave directly from their hands as a result of genetic change occurred by the bite of the spider, as here, the webs are created by a device invented by Peter, following the history of comics and highlighting the genius of the young. Another most striking feature is the sense of humor of Spider-Man, which as in the comics, every time he encountered his enemies and villains possessed a mood much more acidic and fun. Bringing to the present day, it is as if Peter was the anonymity of the internet into that uniform and could be more sarcastic.
Known peo photography work on director Michael Bay movies like The Rock (1995), Armageddon (1998) and Pearl Harbor (2001) and other blockbusters like Night at the Museum 2 (2009) and The Green Hornet (2011) John Schwartzman probably realize your best work to portray the most realistic and dramatic side desired by Marc Webb. Schwartzman was facing the challenge to film entirely in 3D without any conversion, putting the viewer in the place of Spiderman in action scenes. All outdoor scenes and capture the most dangerous side of New York, a darker side and dark city.
Even the indoor scenes, whether in home environments uncles Peter at school Midtown, in the sewers of New York or within the laboratories of Oscorp, the climate darker and bluish scenes amplify the threat of the villain or villains of the city. It is important to say that not all the footage actually occurred in New York, as some outdoor scenes and studio also occurred in Los Angeles.
The production designer of the late J. Michael Riva - also responsible for the first two films in the franchise Iron Man - does a great job of riding the school where Peter studied by giving the modern technological environment in Oscorp laboratories by dangerous sets of sewage, and creativity in building every room in the house of his uncles Ben and May, especially in Peter's room, where we see several of his idols, tastes and passions, from his love of science and inventions (which lead to the creation of the trigger webs, but not fluid in web itself, the work of his father), his passion for photography and even your taste in movies and series, with "Rear Window" and "Community" gaining places on their wall.
More than essential in action movies, the soundtrack is composed by this time 2 time Oscar winner James Horner. Responsible for soundtracks to films like Titanic (1997), A Beautiful Mind (2001), House of Sand and Fog (2003), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) and Avatar (2009), Horner easily transforms the work into something grand and exciting, even bringing strong remnants of his compositions for "Titanic", helps create moments of excitement and tension. Even being a soundtrack of personality and very versatile, is lower than the track from Danny Elfman in the first two films of Sam Raimi.
Marc Webb confirms the intention of leaving everything including the real consequences of the actions of Peter. Peter actually shows quite bruised after fights, and his movement resembles the practice of "le parkour", with action poses referring directly to the stage character designed by Todd McFarlane. Adding to the mood during the fighting, the Spider is nicer than shown in the versions of Sam Raimi. The action scenes are also very well directed and realistic as the scene of the discovery of the powers in the subway, darkest death of Uncle Ben, the development of powers skate tricks, all the fights with Spider Lizard in the sewer, in high school and Oscorp tower. The presentation of the interior of the laboratories of Oscorp and Gwen's house, as well as the dialogues are very positive overall. The famous scene from the film Sam Raimi's kiss with Peter and Mary Jane upside-reversed, is replaced by the scene in which Peter grabs Gwen to the web and pulls on the balcony of his apartment building.
The Amazing Spider-Man had the challenge of proving its existence being launched just 10 years ago the original film and 5 years of the end of the first trilogy, and managed to justify their existence. With a new director and an interesting vision for the franchise, with a cast unquestionable, with a technical finesse evident and well done and exciting action scenes, the franchise is renewed and open space for future sequels. A top notch entertainment and more faithful to the comics than with a longer expected expansion of this universe and this without the weight until the release of this new version, the expectation is even better future films.