Year : 2012
Running time : 2 hours 16 minutes
Director : Marc Webb
Cast : Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field Irrfan Khan, Rhys Ifans
Kid rating : PG-13
I wasn’t even going to see this film; does one need ANOTHER retelling of Spidey’s story ? As it happened, my alternate plans sank, and I accompanied the family – which included two very excited kids – to the theatre. (What is it about kids and super-heroes anyway ? Every super-hero film is an instant kid-magnet.) And, am I glad I did see the movie – it is the best Spiderman film of all!
At the risk of repeating old folklore – Peter Parker’s story is probably imprinted upon your brain for all I know – I will repeat if for those that have recently climbed out from under a rock : Peter is an orphan, and has been brought up by Uncle Ben and Aunt May following the demise of his parents. One fine day, Peter is bitten by a radioactive spider which gives him his spidey powers. Following an incident when a criminal kills Uncle Ben, Peter gradually adopts his Spiderman identity, complete with red and blue costume and mask, and fights criminals of all shape and form.
This film tweaks and modernizes the story a little. In the film Peter’s father Robert Parker is a scientist researching cross-breeding of species and dies in a plane crash. As a high-school teen with his own issues of loneliness and bullying, Peter finds his dead father’s research notes, and contacts his father’s friend and colleague Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) . Connors now works for big corporation Oscorp, heading the research in cross-breeding, hoping to help humans find regenerative/healing powers. In Connors’s lab Peter is bitten by one of the test spiders, and this gives him superhuman strength and quick reflexes.
Following Uncle Ben’s death, for which Peter blames himself, he begins to use his powers to find Uncle Ben’s killer. Peter’s vendetta doesn’t end once he has found the killer; he begins to fight crime where he sees it, developing a costume to hide his boyish identity, and high-strength webbing from Oscorp research, truly making him the web-slinger of popular lore. Meanwhile Connors has used Robert Parker’s research to develop a formula to help regenerate body parts like the lizard. Under pressure from an ominous villain Rajit Ratha (Irrfan Khan in a 5 minute role) one armed Dr. Connors uses himself as a human guinea-pig hoping that the formula will help re-grow his lost arm. It does, but it also turns Connors into a giant, vicious, power-hungry lizard – a predator so powerful, none seem able to stop him . . .
We’ve had many, many retellings of Peter Parker’s origin tale. While the earlier movies starring Tobey McGuire were good in their own right, they seemed to focus on Spiderman vs. his newest nemesis. In the kerfuffle between the Spiderman brand, the busy, repetitive plotlines and the larger-than-life villains, those films lost Spiderman’s human essence. We forgot who and why Spidey was what he was, and why it was that we were supposed to care what became of him. In contrast, this film focuses on Spiderman’s story, making his troubles personal, his tragedies heartfelt, and his successes all the more resounding. I’ve rooted for this Spiderman as I never have for the others. He is the poor little super-hero; without his superhero persona a scrawny, much bullied high-school nerd, and an orphan to boot. And with such an under-dog (and it is odd, when you think about it, to refer to a super-hero as an under-dog), you want him to win.
Much of my fervor for the film stems from its well-developed characters and excellent acting. Gangly Andrew Garfield at 28, makes for an oldish high-schooler (although he is way more believable than 40-something, paunchy Bollywood heroes playing college boys) but is very appealing as the striving-to-be-responsible superhero. Sally Field makes for a sympathetic Aunt May and Martin Sheen is the epitome of a mature father figure (how did this reasonable looking man spawn Charlie ? 🙂 )
As I said, this film has been loosely adapted from the original comic. The Lizard-man is not a Marvel villain, rather he is a derivative of Doctor Octopus. In the original comic, Gwen Stacy and her father police chief George Stacy (Dennis Leary) appear in the Doctor Octopus episode; here they are worked into the fight against the Lizard-man. Rhys Ifans makes for a compelling villain, straddling the line between personal good and public welfare. Leary is a competent (if unseeing) police chief. Emma Stone plays Peter’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy, and carries off the beauty-with-brains persona very well, and Stone and Garfield have great romantic chemistry.
There are a few oddities given that the Doctor Octopus episode appeared in the 1960s and in this film is set in the 2000s. So, while Peter has a high-tech phone and computer gadgetry in his room, and Oscorp specializes in ground-breaking research with the help of modern technology, Uncle Ben and Aunt May seem to live in a curiously old-fashioned world. Also with the in-your-face, 24×7 news broadcasts of the modern world, it is a little inconceivable that Captain Stacy should still believe that Spidey is the villain. And what to make of Gwen’s style of dressing (miniskirts with thigh-high tights)? A throwback to the 60s or the fashion sense of a teenager?
The Amazing Spiderman comes to us via director Marc Webbs – he of “500 days of summer” fame – a film I didn’t quite like, although it does have its moments. You wouldn’t think that a superhero film would be up his alley, but he does good here. A great mix of super-heroics and good old-fashioned story-telling, this is a must-see film. Highly recommended.
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