Monday, July 9, 2012

Movie Review: The Amazing Spiderman

I never understood the reason for rebooting a series within 5 years after the previous one ended. Most of the superhero comics have many villains that a movie based on a comic is never going to run out of antagonists. For a successful movie, it is not the only antagonist that matters but also on how the story is narrated. Peter Parker's life was changed by two events - the spider bite and uncle Ben's violent death. There is not much you can do to change the beginnings.

In the reboot, there is Peter Parker(Andrew Garfield) growing up with Uncle Ben(Martin Sheen) and Aunt May(Sally Field). While wondering up about the sudden disappearance of his parents when he was really young, he grows up to be a shy young man who is good with camera and stays away from trouble. Ironically, staying away also means refraining from expressing his love to Gwen Stacy(Emma Stone). One day, he ventures into OsCorp to meet his dad's colleague Dr Curt Connors(Rhys Ifans). There, he gets bitten by a spider changing his life forever. A new life also means losing Uncle Ben immediately after an outburst and also putting him in confrontational mode with Captain George Stacy(Denis Leary), Gwen's dad. When a new villain emerges in the form of The Lizard, Spiderman is put to test.

Marc Webb, who is at the helm of this reboot, fails to give us anything more than what was offered in the first installment of Tobey Maguire-Sam Raimi edition. Like I mentioned earlier, there is very little to that can be done while narrating the genesis of Spiderman. As he has cast veterans in the supporting roles, Marc is able to sustain our interest intermittently. Apart from this, what stands out in the movie is the high school romance and the stunts. The high school romance brings out the best moments and many funny one-liners between Peter Paker and Gwen Stacy. The stunts stand out because CG has evolved many fold over the years and use of stunt doubles instead of reverting to full blown CG for a swinging Spiderman. Unfortunately, these factors aren't enough to sustain our interests.

The lead pair looks good together. They act well too. But the script is reminiscent of the earlier ones, you drift into boredom too soon to notice either their histrionic capabilities or the onscreen chemistry. The veterans make you sit back and notice them for we haven't seen them in a long while.

Skip this. If you loved Tobey Maguire-Sam Raimi version, don't even look for this on DVD. Instead wait for the sequels. I am pretty sure there will be sequels and I seriously hope they are much better than the first part.

Language: English

Genre: Action

Rating: **

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