Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field
Director: Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
They call this movie a “re-boot” of the Spider-Man movies and character. So is it completely different than the Tobey Maguire films? Or is it just a different or darker angle on the story similar to the Dark Knight Batman movies?
Find out->
Watch “The Amazing Spider-Man” Now!
Story: The beginning of this movie tells the story of Peter Parker as a child and how his parents abandoned him at a young age to have him be raised by his uncle and aunt. In his quest to find out what happened to his parents, Peter stumbles across a scientist and former colleague of his father’s, gets bitten by the infamous radioactive spider and has his first love.
Going into this movie, I was very curious about how much would overlap with the first “Spider-Man” film from 2002. Actually, much more of that original story was retold than I expected. Of course it had a different spin which made it interesting but perhaps necessary for this movie to stand alone and apart from the other series.
Andrew Garfield does a great job of showing us another side of the Peter Parker/Spider-Man character. He’s a little more vulnerable, emotional, and doesn’t magically have all of those muscles that the previous Spider-Man seemed to get after he was bitten. Emma Stone plays his high school love interest and while many seemed impressed by her, I wouldn’t say she did a lot for me in particular.
By far, the weakness of this movie is the villain, played by Rhys Ifans. He plays a the scientist who Peter befriends in order to ask about his father. Since he is missing one arm, he has been working on an experiment that would help regenerate his limb. Of course, the experiment goes too far and he becomes a giant Lizard who starts to destroy the city. There is no unique quality or characteristic that makes the Lizard stand out; in fact the Lizard quite bored me every time he appeared on screen, especially in the second half of the movie.
Overall, this is a more “honest” version of how Spider-Man might be in the real world but unfortunately it stops short because the vision gets sidetracked by the silly and completely unrealistic character, the Lizard. The action scenes were decent but not extraordinary. Fans of Spider-Man and casual action movies will enjoy it but overall, there are better choices out there.
Score: 5/10
What did YOU think of “The Amazing Spider-Man”?
Please share your thoughts in the Comments below!
Vocabulary for Study:
- re-boot
- to abandon
- to stumble across
- infamous
- radioactive
- to overlap
- vulnerable
- love interest
- in particular
- to befriend
- to regenerate
- to get sidetracked
Study English with “The Amazing Spider-Man” on Blu-Ray DVD!
