Movie: The Amazing Spider-Man
Director: Marc Webb
Rating: **1/2
Besides being called the reboot of the original Spiderman series with new cast and some outstanding visual effects, Marc Webb’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ falls short of being called the ‘perfect’ reboot. In an attempt to retell the same story with a new a Spidey, the film in discussion misses out on one very important aspect of marvel legacy – to live up to the expectation set by its predecessors.
Little did young Peter Parker as a boy knew that he would nev
er see his parents again when he bid adieu and moved to stay with his uncle Ben and aunt May. But, later on when Parker stumbles upon his father’s briefcase, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr Curt Connors, his father’s former partner, who’s currently working on cross-species mutation. As Peter transforms in to Spider-Man, he also comes to learn that Dr. Connors with his new found power has transformed himself in to a lizard. To stop the lizard man from turning everybody in the city in to lizards, Spider-Man should come to the rescue.
‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ drastically fails in two departments – characterization and narration. Everything’s left hanging and no closure is given with regards to any character. For a minute all Indian fans were excited to see Irrfan Khan in a Marvel film. I mean that’s big, isn’t it? Well, it most definitely is but not until you’re disappointed and wondering what happened to his character. You don’t get to hear about him not even from the cops. He just disappeared in to thin air. As a matter of fact even the relationship between Peter and Gwen is kind of left hanging, expecting us to fill in the blanks. They were two confused souls wondering whether to love or not.
Too much time was spent to unleash the Spider-Man. I me
an I understand you’re building the story brick by brick but trust me it was boring. The producers assumed Marc Webb would do total justice to the reboot, may be because he’s already got ‘web’ in his name. Hahaha! Jokes apart but Marc is no comparison to Sam Raimi who gloriously spearheaded this series since its inception. I’d rather watch ‘500 Days of Summer’ again.
Andrew was a perfect replacement to Tobey, and he pulled his role with utmost dedication. Andrew and Tobey had one thing in common and both knowingly or unknowingly carried it off superbly – a kind of innocence that you don’t anticipate in a super hero. Thanks for some brilliant computer generated visual sequences that were not just a treat to watch but different in a way. Emma Stone, an actor of lot of potential goes unnoticed because of a role that just wasn’t given the due importance.
What I really like about this film is that Spidey takes off his mask every now and then. It might sound funny but in a way it’s like saying the only thing between cowardice and confidence is a mask called fear. For example: the scene where Spidey saves the kid from a falling car is a classic example to understand my theory. With few such appreciable moments, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ keeps hope alive for sometime however fails to sustain throughout.
In essence; ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ isn’t one of the best reboots of the recent past.
