The Amazing Spider-Man

Written at the time of the film's release.

Don't worry. New stuff tomorrow....

Spider-man v. 2.0
or
"With Great Power Comes Sequels, Re-Boots, Etc....(A Spider-man's Work is Never Done)"

It may be a web-strand too soon to be doing a re-boot of the "Spider-man" franchise, but The Amazing Spider-man does do one thing that justifies its existence—it's better than the Tobey McGuire/Sam Raimi first film in the original trilogy, and right off the ledge manages to have the fun, energy, pop-soapishness, and inventiveness of the second film in that series, the one with Dr. Octopus. We have to go through the origin story again (but that's okay, we seem to have to with every "Superman" film, and evidently will with the next one).

The story is basically the same—Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is a smart high school geek with a photog' hobby, and his first encounter with an industrial science lab manages to put the bite on him, arachnidally-speaking, then strange things start happening as he does whatever a spider can, conflicts, conflicts, conflicts (of the physical and angst variety), "with great power comes great responsibility," yadda yadda yadda. But there's a lot of "Spidey"-history to draw on, and the writers (James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent—who added a lot to Spiderman 2—and Steve Kloves—who mentored Harry Potter) have tinkered and brought a lot of missing pieces to the table. 

This time the love interest is Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone, who appears to be the oldest person in school, but that may be part of the appeal of the character, certainly to Parker), daughter of an NYPD captain (Denis Leary, who plays it straight, tough, and with impeccable comic timing), and bowing to the fan-boyish, his web-powers are not so organic—he's got the little web-shooters now, although interestingly, he doesn't develop the web-goo. Oscorp is still around, although we never see its CEO (or do we?), so's the Daily Bugle—but Parker doesn't have a job there yet, so there's no J. Jonah Jameson (how could replace or improve on J.K. Simmons' interpretation?). The villain is another industrial bio-scientist, Curt Connors (played as if was Peter O'Toole by Rhys Ifans and he's terrific), who—not giving anything away here—eventually turns into the Lizard.

What's different is motivation and sub-text. Echoing the Potter series, attention and emphasis is paid to what happened to Peter's parents (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz) that put him in the care of Uncle Ben and Aunt May (Martin Sheen and Sally Field, both extraordinarily good) and indications are that is the story which will run throughout this movie-arc (as well, I suspect, as the consequences of keeping secrets (as I said, there's a lot of history to drawn on). 

What's also different and good is how everybody's perfected the formula, including director Marc Webb (who made the, to me, extraordinarily fine (500) Days of Summer): Garfield's Parker is more in line with the comic character, mood-swinging as well as web-slinging, and his Parker is awkward, stammering, frequently inarticulate and perceived outwardly as something of a jerk, a simp, or worthless* (hey, wow, they got the character of a misunderstood teenager down), and the fights, which in the past have been rushed and often unfollowable, now flow and, frequently—thanks to CGI—in one continuous shot that swoops, loops and parallels Spider-man's flight patterns.

The pace is still there, but thanks to stunt arranger and second-unit director Vic Armstrong (a few of the Bonds and Indiana Jones), it's not all a blur. Also, under Raimi, some of these fights were brutal and sadistic, and, don't get me wrong, these are no less savage, and take more of a toll on the participants.** But the desperation is there, and the "wrong-ness" of the abuse of power, which kept my moral compass (or is it "Spidey"-sense?) from peaking out in the red zone.  

So, yes, it's the same story, but more sure-footed (by having its hero less so), and also intriguing for what it might hold in the future. The first trilogy seemed to be a little wobbly as it went along, searching for story. This one already feels like it knows where its going, and will find the best and most opportune path to get there.***

* And—a nice touch—he's thin and ungainly, not buffed-out, like the typical "strong-man" super-hero, which is the way he was when Steve Ditko first drew him.  Nice.

** This does bring up something that will be difficult to sustain: Parker is frequently shown battered, bruised, and slashed from these fights, which makes his encounters post-fight with Aunt May a little illogical.  And at some point, when will she clamp down on him, or child-protective services step in? 

*** A couple more things: there's no interpretation of the "Spider-man" theme from the 60's cartoon ("Hey there, there goes the Spider-man!") but James Horner's score is his most inventive in a long time—if a little needlessly bombastic in rare instances; there is a "coda" of sorts, but early in the credits (so you won't be missing anything if you don't stay for the full credit roll); and the Stan Lee cameo actually made me smile and feel affectionate towards the man.  Now, that's amazing.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Oh, Snap!
or
Why Gwen Stacy Wears Such an Ugly Coat

The best of the Tobey Maguire "Spider-man" movies was the second one. It was a nice combination of melodrama, humor, Spidey "tropes" ("I will be Spider-man...no...more!" *Choke!*), some ingenious action sequences, and a great villain in Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus. Credit writers Gough and Millar (the guys behind the "Smallville" TV show) and Michael Chabon and Alvin Sargent for hammering it out and director Sam Raimi for a rather graceful directing job. After the first film took itself so seriously, the second one was like a tonic.

Now, the second of the Andrew Garfield-starring "Spidey" movies is out (The Amazing Spider-man 2) and I thought the first one was a big improvement over the "Tobeys" for a couple reasons: the casting, which made Garfield's Parker thinner, geekier and more neurotic, and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy Garfield's match in awkwardness; also, there was a through-story about the secret behind Oscorp and the disappearance of Peter's parents.  The second film begins with a sequence expanding on that (with some interesting foreshadowing right off the bat) and then as soon as the title hits the screen, it is abandoned in favor of this chapter, featuring Parker's dithering about his promise to the late Captain Stacy (Dennis Leary) about staying away from Gwen, his struggles with his notoriety in New York, and a new villain, Max Dillon aka "Electro" (Jamie Foxx, playing, frankly, a minor villain, and they way they did it caused some wincing over memories of Richard Pryor in Superman 3). Meanwhile, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan, who reminds one of Leo DiCaprio's demented brother) returns to his family home in time to see his father Norman (Chris Cooper), the head of Oscorp, kick the bucket, and promising Harry that he's going to meet the same fate. Gee, thanks, Dad.

W-wow, dude.  That's a lot of back-story!
When do we get to the review?

What makes this one good is what made the first one good—Garfield's scattered Peter Parker has the best comics timing since Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, and he's matched here by Emma Stone spasm for spasm, and even by Sally Field, who does some nice sparking off him.*  There was a danger with this one of being top-heavy with villains—not only is there Electro, but also an appearance by Harry's version of The Green Goblin (much improved, I have to say) and even an appearance by a Spidey villain called The Rhino, which, thankfully, is thrown away for laughs (despite Paul Giamatti's trying to do something with it). The other thing is Garfield tries to make Peter Parker a genuwyne New Yawker, which is a nice touch. These Spider-man films feel more ingrained with The Big Apple than the first trilogy, which is essential in the Marvel Universe, especially with Spider-man.  New York is more than a backdrop (as it was in The Avengers), it's a part of the movie, even the not-so-attractive parts of it.  I like that.

It's also a good mix of comedy and tragedy. Spider-man not only swings between skyscrapers, but between moods as well. The focus on Peter's parents keeps an under-current of sadness throughout, of conflict, and his struggles with the folks in his life (mirrored by the physical altercations with the villains) makes his life a very tangled web, indeed. The gang-ups he participates in on the streets work their way into the hang-ups in his civilian guise.** Yeah, Spidey's always been a weisenheimer super-hero, but like so many of them, their origins are based on tragedy and their efforts to ensure that such things never touch others. Spider-man has the worst luck, though, with friends and family constantly at risk due to his "great power" (and subsequent "great responsibility").

Anybody familiar with the character may have some suspicions about this one, and I won't say anything (other than they already pulled the trick in the very first "Spider-man" movie, and they haven't repeated themselves), but director Webb still manages to build invisible suspense in the film that will set "spider-senses" tingling, and some brilliant execution in the action scenes. We've seen way too many super-fight scenes to get excited about them anymore, but Webb and crew manages to make them easy to follow, whether they're sped-up, slowed-down, "Sherlocked," or bullet-timed. And they're reasonably short, not out-wearing their welcome, as there's too much story to fit in. I did check my watch at one point (in the extended Time Square sequence), but most of the time, I didn't quite care, involved with what was happening on-screen.

* Here's how good Garfield is: he makes a comic cliche funny and surprising.  When Aunt May enters Peter's room—he's still in his Spidey-suit and hiding under the covers, protesting he's naked—she notices his face is grimey from all the crime-fighting he's been doing in the not-too-clean city of New York.  "I-I was cleaning the chimney!" "Peter, we don't HAVE a chimney!" Garfield's shocked and surprised "Whaaaaaaaat?!" is full of "I did all that for NOTHING?"

** BTW, I mentioned in my review of the first "Amazing Spider-man" movie the absence of the "Spider-man song."  It's here—it's Peter's ring-tone when Gwen Stacy calls.  Talk about blowing your secret ID.