Review of Spider-Man (1977) by Stephen Z — 07 Aug 2014

Before walking into the theater, I thought "a Spider-Man movie without Tobey Maguire? Absurd!" But I walked out of that theater impressed with what I saw. "The Amazing Spider-Man" is a definite improvement over "Spider-Man 3", and on par with the original "Spider-Man". While Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy was about the love story, "TASM" focuses more on Peter's sense of humor and his struggle to find himself.

This film takes us to a world that is very closely based on the source material. But it's the one major change from the comics that makes the film great. The decision to depict Peter as a loner/outsider/hipster is a nice change from the stereotypical smart guy. What better way to make a modern interpretation of Spider-Man than to make Parker an outsider with a smart mouth, rather than a nerd?

And speaking of Parker, Andrew Garfield's portrayal of Peter is great (though a bit awkward), but he is "amazing" as Spidey. Sally Field (Aunt May) and Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben) both give solid performances, but not quite as good as the originals. Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy) and Denis Leary (Captain Stacy) give the strongest performances of the film, paying great homage to their respective comic book characters. On the other hand, Rhys Ifans (Curt Connors/The Lizard) is the one sour note of this film. Part of it is Ifans's performance, and part of it is the cheesy way he is written, but I just didn't enjoy Connors in this film.

To wrap this up and put a web on it, "The Amazing Spider-Man" is an exciting step in the right direction, and I can't wait for the sequel. This film does have its minor quirks, but anyone who is a fan of the comics will love it. Even if you're disappointed that Spidey got rebooted, I highly recommend you give "The Amazing Spider-Man" a chance.