Review of The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) by Viral_Vora — 23 Jul 2012

Marc Webb tackles Spiderman in The Amazing Spiderman. A bit presumptuous if you ask me to put the adjective Amazing in the title itself especially when you are basically one film old and taking over from Sam Raimi and have relative new comer Andrew Garfield donning the spandex unitard that Tobey Maguire wore while swinging across New York City. Does Webb rise to the challenge or does he fail. Does Andrew Garfield succeed where Tobey failed (in impressing me as spidey). Does Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey make a more compelling love interest for Spiderman than Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson.

Speaking of Marc Webb, I loved his 500 Days of Summer and his unusual approach to a "not-a-love-story". The comparisons to Sam Raimi are inevitable and there are even those are calling this as Spiderman 4 - It is not. This is Webb's human approach to the Spiderman lore. There is a lot more back story as Webb tries to establish the beginning and even the story before the beginning. Webb and his screenplay writer Vanderbilt have infused the story with a lot of humor and it helps you relate to peter parker/Spiderman that I found lacking in Raimi and Maguire's Spiderman often I felt Maguire came off as insufferable. And for someone whose first movie was a romantic comedy heavily reliant on music Webb packs a punch with the action sequences that would make Nolan proud.

Andrew Garfield as a nerdy geeky bullied Peter Parker is charming and as Spiderman is a hero you feel like cheering for. Garfield tasted success with The social network and makes his mark as the masked vigilante. He transitions seamlessly between being a lost helpless orphan to being a radioactive-spider-bitten swinging super hero, a bullied nerdy geeky high-schooler to Emma Stone kissing teenager. Andrew Garfield makes geek chic and makes the unitard sexy.