The Amazing Spider-Man: movie review (+trailer)

( PG-13 ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

The best thing in the movie is the relationship between Spider-Man and his high school sweetheart Gwen Stacy.

|
Jaimie Trueblood/Columbia Sony Pictures/AP
'Amazing Spider-Man' star Andrew Garfield is a more surly Peter Parker than former franchise star Tobey Maguire.

Since Tobey Maguire didn’t want to appear in another “Spider-Man” movie, welcome to “The Amazing Spider-Man” starring Andrew Garfield in what Marvel is rather disingenuously calling a “reboot.” There isn’t any particular reason, besides the obvious commercial one, why we needed to re-up this franchise. Still, it could have been worse. Fanboys will flock.

Less blatantly comic bookish than Sam Raimi’s 2002 “Spider-Man,” and shot in 3-D IMAX, this latest arachnid in Marvel’s cinematic terrarium fills in the back story of the pre-Spidey Peter Parker, placing heavy emphasis on his orphan status.

Raised by his kindly aunt and uncle (Sally Field and Martin Sheen) after his parents mysteriously vamoosed in the dead of night, Peter is a superbright supernerd who ends up infiltrating the scary headquarters of cross-breed citadel OsCorp, where he’s bitten by a spider and things rapidly become stickier and stickier. OsCorp’s chief scientist, Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), was once partnered with Peter’s dad (Campbell Scott), and the overhanging question – is he a good guy or a bad guy? – is sort of answered when he morphs into his Lizard Man alter ego.

From a strictly CGI perspective, Lizard Man is kind of cheesy, and his punch-outs with Spider-Man that occupy a large swath of the film’s second half are nothing special. What makes this film work is the human, or quasi-human, touches. Garfield is a very different Peter Parker. Maguire played the role too insularly, I thought, and even though his dweebishness may have helped him connect with his fanboy audience, he wasn’t a terribly exciting presence even when he leapt into costumed action.

Garfield, by contrast, is surly and rebellious and twitchy (he reminded me a little of the young Anthony Perkins), and this contrasts smartly with his high school sweetie Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), who is all smiles and wiles. Director Marc Webb, working from a script by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves, wisely keeps this duo front and center, although kids expecting nonstop action from the get-go are going to be disappointed. The whiz-bang stuff doesn’t kick in until the Peter-Gwen relationship (which is the best thing in the movie) is firmly established.

An end-credits kicker sets up the sequel – the re-re-boot? Here we go again. Grade: B (Rated PG-13 for sequences of action and violence.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to The Amazing Spider-Man: movie review (+trailer)
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2012/0702/The-Amazing-Spider-Man-movie-review-trailer
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe