Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-man

MOVIE REVIEW: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

It’s been a decade since Sam Raimi first brought everyone’s favorite webslinger to the big screen, setting the bar and forever immortalizing indelible imagery and performances to the audiences’ imaginations. So one must now ask in 2012, after the successful franchise starring Tobey Maguire wrapped in 2007, is it too soon to reboot and reimagine Spider-Man. The answer: It’s not and that’s because while the franchise is being rebooted, it’s being done more as a prequel to the Raimi-Maguire trilogy as opposed to a “reimagination” or “remake.” With Andrew Garfield sliding into the timid, well-mannered, brainiac persona of Peter Parker as easily as he slinks into a Spidey suit that’s way too cool for words, the incomparable Emma Stone entering the picture as Peter’s first love (and the woman who knows his secrets), a captivating Rhys Ifans, grounding and emotional performances by Sally Field and Martin Sheen, all led by director Marc Webb with a script by James Vanderbilt, Oscar-winner Alvin Sargent (who also penned Spider-Man 2) and the man who worked magic with Harry Potter, Steve Kloves, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN spins a web of fun and fantasy to delight young and old alike.

We meet a young Peter Parker at home with his parents. His father Richard, a renowned scientist, has been working on an important project, something important enough to warrant the Parker home being burglarized and Dr. Parker’s office ransacked. Knowing his family is in danger because of his work, Parker packs up young Peter and takes him to his brother Ben and his wife May for safekeeping and protection, while Dr. Parker and his wife Mary head off to face those that are after them. Along with Peter, Richard also leaves his briefcase asking Ben to “keep it safe.”

Fast forward 10 years. Peter is still living with Uncle Ben and Aunt May as his parents were killed in a plane crash not long after he came to live with his aunt and uncle. A seemingly happy, well-adjusted teenager, Peter is now in high school, loves photography, is smarter than smart, polite as the day is long, stands up to bullies and defends those who are bullied, and he has a crush on one, Gwen Stacy. Shy almost to a fault, he gets an adoringly sheepish grin on his face whenever he sees or speaks to Gwen. Yep. A typical teenaged boy. Or is he? Thanks to a broken water pipe at the Parker house, Peter finds his father’s old briefcase. At first blush, the case appears to just be filled with touchstones for Peter - a calculator, eyeglasses, pens, papers, but it all triggers a memory, a memory of his father’s need for secrecy, leading Peter to find a hidden compartment in the briefcase, along with hidden documents and a photo of Dr. Parker and his old partner, Dr. Curt Connors.

Wanting to learn more about his father and his work (especially given Peter’s own penchant for science and technological development and gizmos), Peter sets out to meet Connors, now head researcher at Oscorp since Richard Parker’s death, leading to earth-shattering consequences as it seems that Connors has been continuing with the genetic work and hybridization of man and beast that he and Richard Parker had begun so many years ago. Connors, losing his right arm from the elbow down, believes with all his heart that this cross-breeding can not eradicate disease and cure illness and deformities, but create the perfect man. The problem is that Connors is stymied with his genetic formulation; stymied that is until Peter gets involved.

As comes as no surprise given his already stellar history of delivering strong performances, Andrew Garfield is perfect as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Making his performance amazing from the start is that Garfield is 28 years old but has the innocent and naive look and spirit that allows him to convincingly portray a high school student. Mild-mannered and well-mannered, shy and sheepish, lithe and agile, intelligent without being pompous and filled with a multi-layered palette of emotion, Garfield soars and quite honestly, surpasses the believability and performance of Tobey Maguire in his first turn as the web-slinging hero. At the heart of Garfield’s performance is a haunting gentility and purity that just soars, particularly when he’s on screen with Emma Stone.

It’s easy to see how Stone and Garfield became a real-life couple given their on-screen chemistry. They are magical. A shorthand ease between the two is comfortable, likeable. Peter and Gwen are written as intellectual equals, both with morally grounded upbringing, albeit Gwen is a bit more white-collar than Peter’s blue-collar thanks to her father being the NYC Police Captain, and Garfield and Stone embrace the characters and the star-crossed relationship developing between the two. Unfortunately, a shortcoming in the story and the film as a whole is the under use of Stone. She is a gold mine yet director Webb relegates her to the loose fringes of his directorial web, missing out on adding not only more texture but more adventuresome scenarios and dynamics given the character’s lineage.

I sat in disbelief watching Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors aka The Lizard. Whoever would have thought that this Welshman, who wowed the world as goofball “Spike” in the wildly successful Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant vehicle “Notting Hill”, would become an actor with the depth, maturity and emotional command that Ifans displays here. Delicately walking a double edged sword as the caring, wounded, one-armed Connors and his genetically altered ego, the city ravaging Lizard, Ifans is at his scene-stealing best while keeping Connors just this side of lunacy.

The moral compass of the film is Martin Sheen. As Uncle Ben, he imparts paternal love, wisdom and kindness that will not only have every kid in the world wishing for Uncle Ben as a father or father-figure, but gives THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN heart, grounding it in goodness and making it more than a big screen comic book. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Sally Field who as Aunt May is left to idly stand by with only one or two quick moments to show any chops. A tragic waste of talent. Hopefully, the character of Aunt May will not only be expanded in the next film but picking up the emotional hammer of Sheen, giving Field a chance to stretch her formidable acting wings.

Adding his own gravitas to the mix is Denis Leary’s Captain Stacy who also provides a warm and strong paternal influence and grounding.

And of course, what would a Marvel comic book movie be without an appearance by the marvelous Stan Lee. The man who has spent decades spinning webs of wonder for all of us, look out for a cameo by Lee in one of the funniest scenes of the film! Another particularly emotional and breathtaking (not to mention, spidey-tingling) sequencing involves C. Thomas Howell, Spider-Man and cranes high atop NYC. It will bring a tear to your eye, a lump in your throat and visually have you holding your breath at its magnificent beauty.

With story credited to James Vanderbilt and screenplay by Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and my fave, Steve Kloves, everything feels as if taken right out of the original early comic books in terms of character creation, sensibilities, moral code and the vulnerability and flawed nature that comes with being a human. With a darker emotional edge, yet filled with sweet sentimentality, the story gives this reboot the legs on which it will stand, and undoubtedly run, with anticipated sequels. While there are moments the script feels like a shaky newborn colt (like with a simply hand-wringing Sally Field), director Marc Webb quickly whisks that feeling away with the intimacy of the story as opposed to flooding the screen with action. The team gives us a basis to support whatever action does occur.

Where Webb excels in his direction is by making THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN a character driven film that is enhanced and complimented by special effects as opposed to being a film with one effect after another and dialogue and character just tossed in to give other people a paycheck. With this in mind, Webb judiciously utilizes action and special effects to its greatest advantage, particularly with his use of 3D and Spidey soaring high atop the City. Key is that much of the action is predicated upon actual human stunts with effects being layered upon those as needed. Also notable is the tacit integration of 21^st century technology into the story in terms of establishing not only character traits of Peter Parker, but also in the progression and development of his alter-ego of Spider-Man. The camera lingers just long enough on tidbits of web creation, sticky fingers, the suit, eye lenses, to give us a sense of our time and Peter’s intelligence at being able to assimilate all of this information and create....yet at the same time, he slings his backpack over his shoulder wherever he goes, just like a regular kid.

Cinematographer John Schwartzman creates an extraordinary visual canvas that seamlessly blends the intimacy of the characters and core story with breathtaking expansiveness and grandeur of intense action and FX sequences. Fueling both the visuals and the story development is the work of editing team Alan Edward Bell, Michael McCusker and Pietro Scalia, who maintain a realistic pacing of life unfolding which then serves to heighten the thrill and intensity when FX action kicks in. J. Michael Riva’s production design stuns with physical contrast that captures the emotional contrast of the characters perfectly.

Also to be appreciated is a sweeping, lush score by James Horner that captures the very essence of both web-slinging heroics and the flawed humanness of man.

Honoring Spider-Man’s roots while contemporizing the story and film, punctuating it with just enough gloss and gasps to satiate even the most die-hard fan, Marc Webb and company have given us not a super hero but a man who is inspired, and who inspires us, to do super things.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is truly amazing.

Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Andrew Garfield

Gwen Stacy - Emma Stone

Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard - Rhys Ifans

Uncle Ben - Martin Sheen

Aunt May - Sally Field

Captain Stacy - Denis Leary

Directed by Marc Webb. Written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves based on a story by James Vanderbilt. Based on the Marvel comic books by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.