The Amazing Spider-Man!

You've already forgotten about this movie.

Sometimes I'm a less than perceptive movie-goer. Case-in-point: I laughed for a solid two minutes when a buddy informed me that Dr. Curt Connors from the The Amazing Spider-Man was played by Little Nicky's antagonist Adrian (Rhys Ifans). However, once I thought about it a bit, I realized that this was a good thing and that the film had handily did its job: it captivated me.

The Amazing Spider-Man is technically the fourth Spidey film, but, likely, the start of a new trilogy and comes after Sam Raimi derailed the franchise with the dismal Spider-Man 3 in 2007 (which had about 1.5 too many villains). It's directed by Marc Webb: the asshole that nearly ruined my life with (500) Days of Summer. Still cleaning up the emotional scars left by that one...

Our Peter Parker is played by Andrew Garfield and boy does he play the fuck out of this role. In fact, if TAS did anything right, it was casting. Emma Stone is the perfect Gwen Stacy, Martin Sheen is the perfect Uncle Ben, and Little Nicky's brother Adrian is a wonderful Curt Connors. And, of course, Garfield is Peter Parker. He owns him in a way that Tobey Maguire never quite could in the prior three films. He's more sarcastic, more quip prone, and possesses a smaller, more insect-like frame than Maguire's Spider-Man did. All improvements as far as I'm concerned.

The douche is strong with this one.

The first part of the film will be familiar to anyone who watched the first Spider-Man, but with a few different elements tossed in such as the mysterious circumstances that caused Peter's parents to abandon him in the first place. Circumstances that remain extra mysterious since the film never quite gives us a concrete explanation for what exactly happened. I'm guessing we'll find out in two to three years in The Spectacular Spider-Man, or perhaps Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Anyway, Peter's parents ditch and leave Peter in the care of Uncle Ben and Aunt May (Sally Field... yeah, I was surprised, too). The film picks up years later with Peter a teenager and dealing with teachers, a rude couple dry-humping each other on top of his locker, and familiar high school jock douche-nozzle Flash Thompson. God, I miss high school. After handing our beloved hero an ass kicking for standing up for a kid Flash was bullying, Peter returns home to find a messenger bag left behind by his father. Inside the bag Peter finds lots of odds and ends and eventually uncovers a secret compartment (and the plot): some of his father's work. An equation.

Enter Dr. Curt Connors: the world's foremost expert on, foreshadowing, reptiles. Dr. Connors works at Oscorp, the world's foremost authority on green super-villains, and is interested in cross-species genetics. He's obviously and personally motivated by his missing right forearm. Wouldn't it be just dandy to grow it back? Sure would!

As with the previous Spider-Man films, the big theme is responsibility. Uncle Ben advises Peter about power and responsibility before falling victim to a petty criminal that Peter could have easily mangled if not for his hubris. Once again, it's the same basic formula as the first Sam Raimi film, just shook up a bit. The film drives the point home again by having Parker ultimately responsible for Dr. Connors metamorphosis into the Lizard by sharing with him his father's equation. If it ain't broke, don't fix it I suppose. I've heard a lot of people complain about this approach and I can certainly see why it might annoy. For the first half of the film, it's essentially the same movie (just better). Why not just handle is like The Incredible Hulk did? As same-y as the film is in the beginning, half the fun is seeing how super-heroes become super.

So, that's about it. This post has exhausted me. I have no good way to end it and I've written and deleted entire paragraphs over the course of two days. I guess I'll just end in in the most vanilla way possible: on the whole, The Amazing Spider-Man is an excellent Spider-Man reboot with an extremely strong cast, good visuals, and leaves me with the impression that the next Spidey film will be even better. Kind of like the first one!