"Spider-man" is Indeed Amazing

Many people were left scratching their heads when Marvel Entertainment and Columbia Pictures announced a couple years ago that they were rebooting their Spider-Man film franchise.

Considering it's only been five years since the release of the last film in the original trilogy, the obvious question was whether or not we really needed the series restarted so soon. While the quality of 2007's "Spider-Man 3" screams "Yes," the quality of "The Amazing Spider-Man" gives a resounding "eh, maybe."

Don't take that to mean "The Amazing Spider-Man" is a so-so film. Actually, the movie is (pun intended) amazing. The story, the acting and the special effects are all incredibly well done.

Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Image credit: Sony Pictures

The one problem is the film, which sees Andrew Garfield donning the iconic skin tight red and blue suit, is a little too reminiscent of the 2002 "Spider-Man" that starred Tobey Maguire. Both movies show the origin story of Marvel Comic's popular web-slinger Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man, including his life as a nerdy high school kid living with his aunt and uncle, being bitten by a genetically engineered spider and becoming a super-powered costumed vigilante. Both also include a love story between Peter and a female character from the comics. 

"The Amazing Spider-Man" does deviate from the original film in a few important ways. The most notable is that the new movie focuses more on Peter searching for answer's about his dead parents and the secrets his father, scientist Richard Parker, kept before his death. In this version of the story, Peter discovers his father worked on genetic experimentation at the large company, Oscorp.   

Another big difference is the film's love interest is Gwen Stacy--a character more well-known to fans of the comics--rather than Spidey's traditionally known girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. (Fans of the comics also know that Peter dated Gwen before he met Mary Jane.) In addition, the villain is the Lizard, not the most famous Spider-Man adversary, the Green Goblin.

The casting has its ups and downs. Garfield is a convincing Peter Parker, capturing his awkwardness and bringing a little more humor and personality to his Spider-Man persona than the character had in the 2002 film. Emma Stone, who played Gwen, sparkles on screen as always, but I originally thought she would have been more suited to play Mary Jane. Stone excels at playing down-to-Earth, quirky and smart women like Mary Jane. However, in the film, Gwen has all of these same characteristics so all of Stone's talents are put to good use. Garfield and Stone have a natural chemistry on screen that makes the hot girl falling for the school nerd very believable.

Veteran actors Martin Sheen and Sally Field pulled off the roles of Peter's Uncle Ben and Aunt May flawlessly, but didn't quite match the performances of Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris, who made the roles their own in the 2002 film.

As a movie itself, "The Amazing Spider-Man" gives the audience plenty of action along with an engaging story. It does leave a few questions unanswered, but those will undoubtedly be addressed in the sequels.  It is definitely a must see for Spider-Man fans, but unfortunately it doesn't veer far enough from the formula of the original.