Just five years after director Sam Raimi wrapped up his trilogy that grossed $2.5 billion worldwide at the box office, comic book creator Stan Lee's 50-year-old Marvel flagship character gets a stylish Hollywood reboot. However, as robustly eye-popping and pristine the visual effects shot in IMAX are the film needs more than what director Marc Webb offers. Too much time is wasted on Peter Parker, leaving little to develop his relationships with supporting characters.
28-year-old Andrew Garfield delivers an A+ very believable performance as awkward, shy high school senior and the wise-cracking web-slinging protagonist. Suited up as the wall crawling hero Garfield offers a dead on sarcastic and witty impression of Spidey that exceeds expectation in comparison to Tobey McGuire's dry humor. Emma Stone is equally convincing as 17-year-old high school senior Gwen Stacy, whenever the two are on screen together the frisky chemistry succeeds at nailing a genuinely adolescent teenage love affair.
But as stated before, too little time is left for Peter to develop an on-screen bond with any of the important characters. Sally Field and Martin Sheen who play Spidey's legal guardians Uncle Ben and Aunt May are rarely seen instilling values that are the canon of "The Amazing Spider-Man". Flash Thompson and Parker's interaction comes off very formulaic and contrived. Harry Osborn is but a speck of paint on the wall in this film, as pre-hero Peter addresses Flash by his first name Eugene rescuing Harry from bullying. Just bullet riddled with continuity errors.Ten years after Raimi's 2002 classic, Marc Webb and stunt coordinators Vic and Andy Armstrong set out with one purpose, to make a more realistic Spider-Man. While no one can argue that the visual effects will swat Raimi's CGI attempt like a bug, Raimi's writers Stan Lee and Steve Ditko do a better job with character development than this film does.In 136mins little is revealed about the background of Dr. Curt Connors /The Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and his relationship to Peter's father, there's parts of the story you are literally forced to come to your own conclusions and left guessing. Many characters are used unsparingly and disposed of like actions figures in a Saturday morning cartoon toy commercial. The mysterious boss of Connors, his connection to Norman Osborn and relentless need to deliver the Lizard Serum to Osborn is left in limbo after their meeting on the bridge. If you're not a reader of the comic book you're left confused.
The company invested so much into trying to out-do the past Spider-Man films in comparisons it missed its mark as a classic. I saw the film in a packed Manhattan theater last night in 3-D IMAX , we're all in agreement it's very visually explosive. Spider-Man soars through Manhattan's streets and free falls over acrophobia inducing aerials of the city. 8 foot Lizards that deserve special acknowledgement for its design staying true to its comic book roots as most film adaptations do not. The film simply doesn't live up to its hype. But you wont leave the theater unsatisfied, the film is amazing, well, sort of.
