The Amazing Spider-man is a reboot of the Spider-man character and franchise, it is also very long. This film is nothing but a warm fart in a Jacuzzi. Watching this film is like looking at a child’s picture game, tying to spot the difference with the original films. The justification for rebooting the Spider-man franchise seems to be to explore the rich amount of story that hasn't been explored yet. However, apart from some minor plot details nothing really has. I don’t think that Peter inventing the web slinging technology is enough to warrant a remake.
We join Peter aged six. His father is a scientist who has been working on some sort of genetic project that has now caused him to leave New York with Peter’s mother for some unknown reason, leaving Peter in the loving care of his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Soon after, they crash and die, grief stricken Bruce wonders alone, exploring the family grounds. He discovers some abandoned caved full of bats… oh wait. Ten years later, Peter is attending high school and not very popular. He has a crush on a girl who doesn't seem to notice him, but luckily they both have a passion for science and happen to both be teen geniuses. Finding out that his father’s lab partner Doctor Conner might know something about his parent’s death, he sneaks in to Conner’s lab in search of answers. He gets bitten by a spider. His uncle gets killed and there’s a villain who wants to do evil things for some reason.
The first thirty minutes you would be forgiven for thinking that you are watching a Twilight film. There is a lot of brooding stares and teenage angst, though Garfield’s six o’clock shadow is a bit of a distraction, he’s supposed to be playing a seventeen year old. The characterisations are completely erratic too. One minute Peter is a bumbling teenager, the next he is a cocky little butt head, then a skater, an amateur photographer, a brilliant scientist, and everything else in between. In an early scene Peter gets told off by a teacher for skating in school, he brushes it off, being too cool for school and all, and then skates off regardless. This is not Peter Parker. Peter Parker is not supposed to be cool. Spider-man yes, Peter no. Peter is an everyday nerd; he’s shy and polite and doesn't really misbehave. He has dandruff and worries about being late for school; basically he’s the opposite of the Peter we see in this film. To this end I think that there is a serious problem with casting Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker; we've seen what happens when Peter is made to be cool, you get that montage in the middle of Spider-man 3 with Toby Maguire dancing down the street. Garfield is simply to cool, he makes a good spider-man but the film is really Peter’s story.
Any opportunity to further explore character relationships in this film are wasted, no more so than between Peter and Uncle Ben. In Reimi’s Spider-man Peter learns a bitter life lesson, with great power comes great responsibility. His negligence costs the life of his Uncle. Although in the Amazing Spider-man the circumstances are slightly different, the point is the same. Except this time Peter doesn't seem to care. There isn't even a funeral scene for his Uncle, nor does he ever comfort his Aunt. In fact he only talks to his Aunt in two other scenes after this. At no point does he seem to really care about his Uncle’s death, or about his Aunt. When Aunt May is being told the news, an officer shows them a sketch of the murderer. Peter asks him if he can keep it. Why does the policeman let him? Other than trying to find and kill him the man, what does he think he’s going to do with it? “Hey Aunt May, I've put this sketch of your husband’s killer in the toilet, so if you ever get constipated just look up into his cold dead eyes.” Characters in this film are irrational and poorly handled.
Peter’s love interest in this film is Gwen Stacey, who seems to be just as flippant as he is when it comes to personality. Again, being Seventeen doesn't seem to stop you being a major mover and shaker in the Marvel universe. Gwen is in high school yet seems to be one of the top research assistants in one of the biggest research companies in the world (Oscorp). Why? Why are there kids running this lab, no wonder Conner has taken so long getting his arm back. I mean she hasn't even left school yet. Hire someone with a degree! The first time we see Gwen she saves Peter from a beating from Flash the school bully (where are all the teachers in this school? and why does no one get in trouble for this kind of thing?). Next we see her talking to Peter in class; she is confident and slightly intimidating for Peter. Suddenly, half way through the film she seems to have forgotten this and turns into a complete wreck. Did Emma Stone just forget who she was playing?
The villain is Jekyll and Hyde inspired Dr. Conner who turns into the Lizard, unfortunately dew to some rather poor CGI he is more similar to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s Jekyll and Hyde (that my friend is the most despicable insult I could think of to describe this character). The lizard looks like the chewed rubber end of a pencil. This incarnation of Conner has no tangible reason for doing anything in this film. He has no real plan and no real reason for trying to do it. I don’t think “because I’m evil” really works in modern superhero films. Here’s a dude, a scientific dude, who wants to better the world with some crazy scheme that hasn't really been properly tested, but because of time constraints and his own hubris, he goes ahead with it. And what do you know, it back fires. Isn't this the back story to both the Green Goblin and Doc. Oc in Sam Reimi’s Spider-man films? Good to know that the filmmakers aren't going over old ground…
The action scenes are just as bad. When you are watching two CGI characters with super powers, fly about, there really isn't a sense of jeopardy. These long action scenes feel very much like set pieces rammed into the story, stuck in the middle of a mundane narrative, and really do nothing to move it along. The films narrative never really starts to build any momentum and just ticks a long, this film is like a suitcase being packed half an hour before you go on holiday; just get anything you can in there and hope that it works out.