Spider-Man is reborn for a new generation! Well, actually, it’s probably more like the same generation, only slightly older. But either way, he’s back again, for the first time, in The Amazing Spider-Man.
The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance - leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero. -- (C) Sony
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| The Amazing Spider Man |
The film starts off by giving us some Batman Begins-style scenes with kid Peter (even starting as Begins does with a game of hide and seek), showing us how he came to live with Uncle Ben and Aunt May, his mom and super-scientist dad fleeing into the night after someone tries to steal his super-magic science formula. Something to do with spiders…
This initial intro not only gives us a peek into Peter’s formative years, but also adds some backstory to the science project that creates Spider-Man, and possibly all the other villains in this new series. Making his dad responsible for Peter’s gifts certainly is a traditional way to explore the hero’s journey. Like Superman, or Luke Skywalker or King Arthur, Spider-Man’s powers now come from his father.
Unfortunately, this is probably the only aspect of the origin story that the other films didn’t cover, meaning that once we get to teenage Peter, played by Andrew Garfield, we end up retreading a lot of the same ground. Peter’s relationship with Uncle Ben and Aunt May is virtually blow-for-blow in step with the first Maguire movie, even down to alienating them once he gets his powers and shifts his priorities, causing Ben’s death. Sally Field and Martin Sheen are spectacular, though, and like Garfield, come across as more realistic and grounded than in the other films, feeling more like real people and less like characters in a movie, if that makes any sense.
My only qualm is that Peter’s motivation following Ben’s death was more about revenge and less about responsibility. The driving factor in Spider-Man is that he slipped up just once and acted like a jerk, costing the life of someone he loved. And so he can never afford to be irresponsible again. He’s eternally trying to make up for that one screw-up. But here, Peter seems motivated only by revenge, becoming a violent vigilante to catch the man that killed Ben. And yes, you could argue that the guilt is still there, but it feels like the focus was more on the anger, which is a more fun emotion, than the guilt.
This initial intro not only gives us a peek into Peter’s formative years, but also adds some backstory to the science project that creates Spider-Man, and possibly all the other villains in this new series. Making his dad responsible for Peter’s gifts certainly is a traditional way to explore the hero’s journey. Like Superman, or Luke Skywalker or King Arthur, Spider-Man’s powers now come from his father.
Unfortunately, this is probably the only aspect of the origin story that the other films didn’t cover, meaning that once we get to teenage Peter, played by Andrew Garfield, we end up retreading a lot of the same ground. Peter’s relationship with Uncle Ben and Aunt May is virtually blow-for-blow in step with the first Maguire movie, even down to alienating them once he gets his powers and shifts his priorities, causing Ben’s death. Sally Field and Martin Sheen are spectacular, though, and like Garfield, come across as more realistic and grounded than in the other films, feeling more like real people and less like characters in a movie, if that makes any sense.
My only qualm is that Peter’s motivation following Ben’s death was more about revenge and less about responsibility. The driving factor in Spider-Man is that he slipped up just once and acted like a jerk, costing the life of someone he loved. And so he can never afford to be irresponsible again. He’s eternally trying to make up for that one screw-up. But here, Peter seems motivated only by revenge, becoming a violent vigilante to catch the man that killed Ben. And yes, you could argue that the guilt is still there, but it feels like the focus was more on the anger, which is a more fun emotion, than the guilt.
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| Spider Man special effects |
The film’s main plot, which involves Peter providing his dad’s old partner Curt Conners with the secret formula for creating animal-human hybrids, turning the man into the monstrous Lizard, who then plans to turn the whole world into monsters, is suitably epic and sci-fi-y for a comic movie plot. The film quotes Batman Begins yet again when the ending becomes a race to THE TOWER, in order to stop THE VILLAIN from releasing a toxin that will CHANGE THE WORLD, along the way incorporating the original Spider-Man’s habit of having New York’s citizens pitch in and aid Spidey in his last battle.
Overall, where this film really shines is the special effects. This is a movie that looks like a comic book. Technology has finally allowed us a Spider-Man that leaps, and bends and fights just like he does on the page. The new suit looks somehow more classic than in the other films, in quick shots resembling more of what your subconscious mind pictures when it thinks of Spider-Man.
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| Spider Man love story |
The Amazing Spider-Man may be the first big-ticket, big-budget, big-action-sequence comic-book movie that also doubles as a lilting coming-of-age indie.
—Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly
Directed by Marc Webb
Produced by Avi Arad
Laura Ziskin
Matt Tolmach
Screenplay by James Vanderbilt
Alvin Sargent
Steve Kloves
Story by James Vanderbilt
Based on The Amazing Spider-Man by
Stan Lee
Steve Ditko
Starring Andrew Garfield
Emma Stone
Rhys Ifans
Denis Leary
Campbell Scott
Irrfan Khan
Martin Sheen
Sally Field
Chris Zylka
Produced by Avi Arad
Laura Ziskin
Matt Tolmach
Screenplay by James Vanderbilt
Alvin Sargent
Steve Kloves
Story by James Vanderbilt
Based on The Amazing Spider-Man by
Stan Lee
Steve Ditko
Starring Andrew Garfield
Emma Stone
Rhys Ifans
Denis Leary
Campbell Scott
Irrfan Khan
Martin Sheen
Sally Field
Chris Zylka
Studio Marvel Entertainment
Laura Ziskin Productions
Laura Ziskin Productions
Release date July 3, 2012
Budget $230 million
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