Greetings, yes I know this movie came out like two summers ago but after multiple re-watches I've finally come up with my long overdue review for The Amazing Spider-Man. Now, I've always outspokenly supported Raimi's first two films over The Amazing Spider-Man. But with that said, I liked TASM although it does have it's share of flaws. Read on to hear more...
I am truly torn with The Amazing Spider-Man I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. It really boils down to the fact that I really want to LOVE this movie. Because I pretty much love everything Spider-Man related. But on the other hand the film has so many inherent problems and it brings me to my knees debating it all with myself. Yeah the film seems to work overall and it feels good while you are watching it, but there are just so many errancies and so much sloppiness in the storytelling I just find it really, really hard to judge this movie as good or bad. But I suppose I'll try my best to keep a balance between general objectivity as well as my personal opinion. But before I am accused of being a hater or a Sam Raimi fanboy, I have to say I feel incredibly biased TOWARDS this movie and I often overrate it due to my fondness of the title character. I will try not to, although I really want to.
To start with I'll talk about the villain, The Lizard is Spidey's 3rd best villain behind Venom and Green Goblin. However I feel he was handled rather sloppily. First of all his motives are not clearly conveyed within the film. I understood his motives perfectly, because I am a fan of his from the comics and cartoons. But lots of people who I know, that don't read the comics have told me that they get wildly confused and don't have a clue what the {frick} Lizard is exactly up to or why he's doing it. (they, and I have a tendency to forgive it because Lizard and Spider-Man were both really cool but I still have to bring up the issue) In the film his motives are never really conveyed, sure early in the film he talks about the cross species genetics and how it can cure people from sickness. But then after he is fully transformed into Lizard, he attacks Dr. Ratha and then runs into the sewers. After he realizes Peter Parker has been trying to get photos of him he goes after him and it turns into an all out grudge match against Spider-Man in his high school. (great scene by the way) It is during this scene, (which is nearing the end of the film) where we first hear of any type of plot or motive of the villain. Even then it's just mentioned and his motives are never made totally clear until Spidey unveils a video of Conners explaining for the VERY FIRST TIME why he is even a bad guy in the first time. I personally feel the character development of Lizard was handled poorly because his motives are never even conveyed until right before he makes his first move which is right before the end of the movie. That being said, the CGI on Lizard was outstanding and I'd say it was good as the CGI used on Hulk in The Avengers. Though I would've preferred the McFarlane style snouted Lizard this one looked fine. Rhys gave a decent enough performance though to keep it from being terrible.
Now, one particular area where The Amazing Spider-Man excels and honestly beats the Sam Raimi films is the area of casting & performances. The singular problem which plagued Spider-Man 1 & 2 was poor casting. Tobey Maguire is a great actor, but a great Spider-Man...eh not as much. Andrew Garfield was way better suited for the role. Kirsten Dunst has the same problem, she's actually not a bad actress she was just poorly suited for the role. Whereas Emma Stone was dang near perfect for Gwen Stacy. The supporting cast also is very strong and better than the one in the old Spider-Man films. (I'm excluding all the villains of course, that's a no brainier any of the Raimi villains save for Venom mop the floor with Lizard) The Amazing Spider-Man had strong casting all around as well as strong performances from pretty much everyone. The acting gave the film a lot of emotion which leads me to another point. The Score, which was composed by James Horner was actually very good and very underrated in my opinion. I will say that in some (or many) places it doesn't make a lot of sense and is somewhat forgettable. But the score overall, and particularly the climax were very, very strong and added a lot of emotion which was needed to keep this movie from falling apart at the core.
Next, I plan to examine all the major complaints about The Amazing Spider-Man and speak of their validity or invalidity. The first of which is general sloppiness of the story writing which results in gaping plot holes. One such example is the scene where Lizard throws multiple cars off the bridge and then Spider-Man goes to save the little boy named Jack who's trapped in a car. Spidey goes down to try and help him, he unbuckles the boy's seatbelt and then tries to help him out. Then the car slips a bit and Spidey gives Jack his mask to wear as a symbol of power to inspire him to climb out. But when the car catches fire and slips through Spidey's fingers, Spidey simply webs the boy up and rescues him. So....why didn't he just web him in the first place?? Don't ask me I'm still scratching my head. While this scene had a ton of emotional weight and power behind it, the literal events don't make a lot of sense he could've saved Jack with a web the first time and it would have been way easier. After that though, we see dozens of other cars hanging off the bridge where Spidey webbed them. After he saved Jack, Spidey just leaves the rest of them hanging...so, did they just die? You could argue there was no people in those cars but we specifically see Dr. Ratha inside the car when it's falling. I've heard the argument that Ratha was a bad guy and that's why Spider-Man didn't choose to rescue him. But you gotta understand that nobody save for Lizard knows Dr. Ratha is a badguy. To Spidey he is just another innocent civilian trapped in a car. Hence that argument is invalid. Another one is that when Conners video tapes himself explaining his serum he then throws the camera on the ground breaking it...why?? Why make the video if you are going to destroy it? Another one is when Gwen is hiding in the closet with the Ganali device and Lizard breaks in and takes it he doesn't even attempt to do anything to her he just leaves her there. You could argue he doesn't want to kill her, but you forget he attempted to kill her at the school. He even shouted her name and took a swing at her with full intention of killing her. But now he seems like he doesn't even care, it's been argued that because she blasted him with fire he stayed away but the fire seemed to have no effect on him so I don't see the validity in that. One thing that plagues this movie is sloppiness in storytelling. However there are other complaints still. One other complaint is Peter Parker's bad case of douche-itis that we see through out the film, but that's forgivable because he SUPPOSEDLY gets over that near the end with his character arc...which leads me to my next point, the school scene at the end made me sick almost. This scene pretty much contradicts and almost cancels out Peter Parker's strong emotional character arc we have been watching. Let it be known that this scene means a lot and although the movie was flawed in other ways I would've rated The Amazing Spider-Man as good as Spider-Man from 2002 had it not included this final school scene. This scene would be like of at the end of Iron Man 1 Tony decides to begin rebuilding his weapons and allowing them to be sold to terrorists again. It makes no sense and it contradicts the character arc of the whole film. Peter who has learned his lesson in responsibility through out the journey that is the movie and now has accepted the responsibility all of a sudden decides to break his promise to a dying man and reject the responsibility. Whose boneheaded idea was it to add that scene? It contradicts the whole fricking movie. The last major complaint I've heard is that the movie is "twilight-esque" to tell the truth it's nowhere even close to Twilight-esque and I don't know where people got that from. So Peter is a sort of Skateboarder and he likes a girl at school, yeah that sounds EXACTLY like Twilight to me. (sarcasm) Personally I don't care about the skating hipster Spider-Man it's just a younger Spidey for a different generation. However if they follow through on this bisexual Spider-Man idea I'll be pretty upset.
Well, I've bagged on this movie quite enough there are more positives to it. A major positive is that if we elect to ignore the final school scene Peter Parker really does have a strong emotional character arc which starts with him feeling abandoned by his parents and rebellious towards his uncle and aunt. He then gains his powers but doesn't really care to use them for any real purpose until his lack of responsibility causes his uncle to get shot. At which he sees his suit and begins coming after people who look like his uncle's killer in order to find the man who did it. However, at the dinner table scene with Captain Stacy he realizes during their conversation that he wasn't being a hero like he thought he was, he realized he wasn't seeking out justice but he was seeking revenge and decides to stop. After giving the decay rate algorithm to Conners in an attempt to gain him as a father figure. Conners uses it to make a regrowth serum based off Lizards and uses it on himself which backfires turning him into an insaniac Lizard. Peter realizes later that his lack of responsibility has literally created a monster and he chooses to try and stop it. All of this is of course, nixed by the final school scene but I like to think that scene never happened. The film carries a lot of emotion and heart with the arc. Moving on to another positive, action was pretty good although there are only 3 action scenes 2 of them are really good. The school fight scene was very well done and we got to see Spidey throw a quip for the first time. But the climax is my favorite. In order to explain why, I need to give a bit of backstory. Hulk, Batman and Spider-Man are my 3 favorite superheroes and watching each one of them evokes different emotions inside me. Watching films like 2008's The Incredible Hulk or Hulk in the Avengers make me feel like I wanna act like a big macho man or a tough guy. Watching films like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight or Batman Returns give me a sense of mystery and provoke interesting thoughts. Watching Spider-Man though has always given me a feeling of child-likeness and I always feel in awe of Spidey. The climax of The Amazing Spider-Man, starting from when the helicopter shines the light over him and he seals up his wound and then begins running across the buildings and ending with the defeat of the Lizard. This scene, the combination of the emotion built up to this scene and the score in it's strongest point and the effects at their best. This part evokes a sense of child like awe inside me that I hadn't felt since I saw Spidey stop a train back in 2004. I'll give it to you the school fight was good but to me the climax was down right amazing. I also dug the homage paid to Raimi's films with the American flag during the crane scene and it reminded me of the first Spider-Man in 2002. It reminded of the symbolism and how the current movie reflected it in the same way that New Yorkers were standing united against a threat underneath the American flag. The symbolism is still there it's just not as direct.
In summarizing, I wish I could love this movie but sadly I am forced to just really like it. I wish I could erase the "but those are the best kind" scene off of the DVD but alas, I cannot. That and multiple other minor flaws are what keep TASM from being truly great. However, I am willing to see past these flaws and sit back and enjoy a dang good Spidey movie with some truly great moments...particularly the climax of the film. It is a good Marvel movie, not as good Spider-Man 1 & 2, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk or X2. But I'd say better than Captain America, Avengers or The Wolverine all of which are perfectly fine CBMs. If I was gonna make a list of the best Marvel movies only I'd place The Amazing Spider-Man 6th behind the 5 I already mentioned.
Overall rating: 8/10