advertisement

'Spider-Man' a truly amazing franchise reboot

Sam Raimi's “Spider-Man 2” still reigns as the supreme Spider-Man movie adventure, but Marc Webb's energized reboot “The Amazing Spider-Man” has its own set of attractive super powers.

Such as the iris-slapping 3-D action sequences riddled with POV shots that allow us to experience what Peter Parker feels as he swings from high-rise to high-rise like Tarzan on a vine made out of synthetic spider webbing.

Such as the crackling chemistry between stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone who almost make us forget Raimi's stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.

Such as Webb's more serious examination of a youth in crisis, and how a high school kid parlays a mistake of science into his life's calling.

Purists might have a few problems with “Amazing Spider-Man” for messing with Stan Lee's original story. Peter no longer becomes a professional wrestler to make money. (He does get inspired to make Spider-Man's mask from a wrestler's disguise.)

Peter no longer works at the local Daily Bugle newspaper as a photographer. (That might be because Peter inexplicably uses an old 35 mm. range-finder camera. Dude, update to digital!)

“The Amazing Spider-Man” portrays Peter (Garfield, co-star of the amazing “Social Network”) as a nerdy underdog, a trait underscored by his late father's glasses that Peter wears in lieu of contact lenses.

Peter's adventure begins when bitten by an experimental spider at the Oscorp Genetic Research lab on a tour guided by his smart and very cute classmate Gwen Stacy (“The Help” star Emma Stone). She's also the daughter of a New York cop (Denis Leary) who will later attempt to capture a mysterious vigilante wearing a spider costume.

The guilt that drives Peter comes along when his beloved uncle Ben (an unmemorable Martin Sheen) falls victim to a killer Peter fails to stop.

Now left with his dear old Aunt May (two-time Oscar winner Sally Field), a sweet and conveniently inattentive woman, Peter comes to grips with his newfound abilities in a crisply executed sequence where he masters his gifts.

The villain comes out of Peter's father's genetics research partner Dr. Connors (Rhys Ifans), a scientist working on a serum that can regrow his missing right arm.

The serum uses lizard DNA. When Connors gives himself too much, he not only grows his arm back, he also turns into Godzilla Junior, a big-tailed beastie that wants to change every New Yorker into a lizard by exploding biotoxin into the atmosphere.

This actually becomes the film's least interesting part.

Be warned that it takes an hour before Spider-Man emerges on screen. But that's OK, because Webb, who directed the underrated romantic gem “(500) Days of Summer,” is more interested in the man than the spider.

Webb's movie also possesses the strongest post-911 personality of the series, in that it shows that a single superhero can't always do everything himself.

New York's workers — construction teams, police and fire fighters — clearly understand the threat to their city and pull out all the stops to support a kid in a spider suit. (And get paid overtime!)

“The Amazing Spider-Man” also fixes the chief defect of Raimi's trilogy by letting Peter invent his own spider webbing that shoots out of canisters strapped to his wrists.

This not only enables Peter to use his smarts to improve upon nature's gifts (a life lesson for all), it avoids the biological silliness of Maguire shooting webs from his wrists.

Real spiders produce webbing from their posteriors.

Who wants to see Spider-Man do that?

As Gwen and Peter, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield create greater sparks on screen than their Sam Raimi-directed counterparts in Marc Webb’s “The Amazing Spider-Man.”
High school kid Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) discovers he possesses super powers while taking a subway ride in Marc Webb's reboot “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

“The Amazing Spider-Man”

★ ★ ★ ½

<b>Starring: </b>Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Sally Field, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Denis Leary

<b>Directed by: </b>Marc Webb

<b>Other: </b>A Columbia Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for violence. 136 minutes. Midnight showing on Monday.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.