The Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

Maybe they should have left “Amazing” out of the title.

“Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father’s former partner.” – [IMDB]

The Review

This Spider-Man reboot doesn’t swing as high as the original.

The Verdict

Rent it – slow at points, and odd at others, the film just doesn’t hold up to the hype, but it is an okay representation of the original Spidey storyline.

The Overview

It would be tough for any superhero movie to follow The Avengers, especially if that superhero movie happens to be a reboot of a series that only ended five years ago. The reboot of Spider-Man into The Amazing Spider-Man had high hopes, taking a bit of a darker and truer look at the origins of the web head, including Peter’s parents and throwing out MJ for the original Gwen Stacy, but it just didn’t work right.

It was nice to see that Peter did in fact have parents, and that his dad was involved in the spider that bit him, in fact I did enjoy how Peter ended up getting bit more than in the original Tobey Maguire one. The story of the villain also directly ties to Peter, where as all the others were never really turned into what they were because of him. That responsibility does lend to the story, but only so far. However there are just problems all over the place beyond those things. His powers manifest extremely fast and almost seem to alter his personality into the snarky Spidey we’ve seen in the cartoons. On top of that there were moments in the film where I just stared in disbelief at what I just saw, and not in a good way.

The problem with a reboot that aims to tell a similar story is the original is that you have to find yourself reviewing the movie in two different ways: one as in how it compares with the original, and one as a stand alone film. The Amazing Spider-Man does not beat out the original, and is an okay film on its own. The action is nice, fluid, and the images are pretty good, but some of the dialogue just doesn’t hit right, nor makes sense as to why this character is suddenly saying this.

Word on the street is Sony is already planning the second film, and this one has been doing well overseas, so expect a sequel, which means you’re going to want to at least see this one once because hopefully they’ll improve it for the second outing. Oh, and another thing, what was with that soundtrack? Change that up please.