Review of Spider-Man (1977) by Megan W — 12 Apr 2016

The Amazing Spider-Man was okay. I personally wasn't very emotionally invested with this film as much as I was with the Raimi trilogy. For me I felt that this film was pretty soulless. I'm gonna go into some positives first then I'll go into negatives.

First off I do think the cast is very good. Andrew Garfield I think is really good as Spider-Man but I don't buy him as Peter Parker. I just don't see him as this dork, in real life with that persona he'd be rolling it with the cool kids. But as Spider-Man he's really good, he's on par if not better than Tobey Maguire's portrayal as Spider-Man. Martin Sheen does a really good job as Uncle Ben, Sally Field is good as Aunt May even though I feel she doesn't have much to do, Emma Stone is great as Gwen Stacy even though she is pretty underdeveloped. And Rhys Ifans even though being the most underdeveloped character in this film he is excellently portrayed.

Another positive was the visuals and cinematography. This movie has a slick clean look to it. Also the fight scenes are fun as hell, one of my favourite aspects of the film. However this film is messy and I'm gonna go into it now.

Here are my negatives; Again I didn't like Andrew Garfield's portrayal as Peter Parker, I thought he was too cool and handsome that I just couldn't buy him as that character. Another negative is the lack of development of Gwen Stacy, she has some romance with Peter and helps him in the end with the antidote, that's it... another negative I have is that once Curt Connors turns into The Lizard he wants to turn all of New York City into Lizards, that is terrible writing for a villain. Most villains want revenge, destroy the world, rob something, those are plans I can get behind with legit motivation, but his plan is terrible. Also Uncle Ben's death set up was so sloppy and poorly handled. In the first Spider-Man movie Uncle Ben's death was set up properly and you understand. Here it just felt so forced, I also hated the fact that the clerk is such an a**hole and gives Peter a hard time over 2 cents. In real life a clerk would let you off the hook for that, but here its so unrealistic and terrible. After Uncle Ben dies, Peter tries to find the killer. Unfortunately he isn't able to find him, but then the subplot is never mentioned again or resolved. Lazy writing right there. Last but not least I didn't like the set up of Peter getting his powers, he just slips into a room without any surveillance and then like an idiot goes into the biocable with the spiders all over the place. I honestly thought Peter getting his powers in the first movie was a lot better, here it doesn't make much logical sense to me. There are also other inconsistencies I can go on and on about, but those are the main ones that bugged me.

Overall The Amazing Spider-Man is an okay film. It has a a lot of problems but it is still a pretty enjoyable film, it has a likable main character and some pretty cool set pieces. I don't hate this movie, it was just disappointing, I honestly expected something amazing like the title suggested but I was honestly let down. I didn't hype up or set my expectations too high, I was honestly disappointed. If you are a fan of Spider-Man you might like this movie or possibly dislike it. But if you are critical about film there is a lot to nitpick with this movie.