The release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is here and for occasions like these, I like to take a look back at the predecessor films. Read on to find out what I thought about the first film in the current Spidey saga.
The Amazing Spider-Man was the first new Spider-Man film in five years. I didn’t feel like enough time had passed since Spider-Man 3, but I was a little tired of the Toby McGuire version, so I was game for the reboot.
The Bad
I watched a couple of the older movies in the past week, and watching this one felt like dejavu for a lot of reasons. The first of them, is that we had to go through the whole origin story again. They changed things up a little here and there, but overall it was pretty much the same. One example of this that in both this movie and Spidey 1, after Peter gets his powers, Flash Thompson is on the receiving end of a Spidey display of strength. In the 2002 film Flash gets punched across the room. In the 2012 one he gets dunked on. In both films Uncle Ben gives him a stern talking to afterwords.
Even the main villain felt like a repeat. Both the Lizard and Doc Oc were scientists with mentor relationships with Peter. They experimented on themselves and turned into monsters. It also seems like there’s always a moment where the city helps Spidey in his battle against his enemy.
The Good
With all that said, I thought the movie was dope. Andrew Garfield is a much better Spider-Man than McGuire was. We finally got all the wisecracks that the character is known for. I know they got a lot of flak for the new costume, but I liked it. They get extra points for having mechanical web-shooters
The action was spectacular. The battles with the Lizard felt more intense and realistic than most of what we saw in the previous trilogy. I was blown away by the fight scene in the school. It was everything I wanted to see in a Spidey fight. Lots of flipping around, landing on walls and making good use of his web. That also had to be the best Stan Lee cameo!
Story-wise, I’m glad they started off using Gwen instead of MJ this time around. Emma Stone was a great casting choice. Her interactions with Peter provided some if the most memorable moments.
Recap
Overall Amazing Spider-man met my expectations, but didn’t exceed them. The positives were the epic action, magnetic Gwen Stacey and spider-man himself, who was spot-on. Basically the important stuff. The big problem for me was how little this differed from the previous trilogy. If they were going to reboot, I felt they should have moved a little further along his career I still recommend giving this a watch if you haven’t already. Let us know what you thought in the comments.
