The Amazing Spider-Man is a 2012 superhero film directed by Mark Webb and based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man. It is the fourth theatrical Spider-Man film produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Entertainment, a reboot of the series following Sam Raimi's 2002–2007 Spider-Man trilogy, and the first of the two The Amazing Spider-Man films.
Plot[]
Abandoned by his parents and raised by his aunt and uncle, young Peter Parker (AKA Spider-Man) is trying to sort out who he is and exactly what his feelings are for his first crush, Gwen Stacy. When Peter finds a mysterious briefcase that was his father's, he pursues a quest to solve his parents' disappearance. His search takes him to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors, setting him on a collision course with Connors' alter ego, the Lizard.
Why It’s Great[]
- It tries to do things that Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies didn't, such as focusing on Peter's school life and giving us more details about the Spider-Man suit like how can he see from it.
- Great visuals, including the web-swinging scenes and the opening titles.
- Most of the characters were portrayed perfectly or decently, especially Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who is portrayed more accurately to the comics as he's more interesting with better character growth than Tobey Maguire from the Raimi films, and Gwen Stacy, who is much more of an interesting love interest for Peter than Mary Jane from the Raimi films.
- Some of the other characters like Captain Stacy and Flash Thompson were well-portrayed, too, especially Flash, who's more in line with being a jerk with a big heart from the comics as it makes him more realistic, while his other portrayals in media like the 2002 Spider-Man movie and Spider-Man: Homecoming portray him as just another generic bully.
- The idea of Peter trying to uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of his parents is very original and well-written.
- Peter and Gwen’s chemistry has been acclaimed (especially since the actors were actually dating at the time).
- Plenty of connections to the source material. For instance, Peter uses web-shooters like in the comics instead of shooting webs out of his wrists.
- The action scenes are well-shot and well-choreographed.
- Brilliant acting.
- The soundtrack by the late James Horner is very great.
- Solid mix of humor, action, suspense and drama. It also manages to feel like both a realistic and a classic superhero movie.
- Rhys Ifans was an excellent choice to play the Lizard.
- The Lizard has a connection to Peter's parents, building a stronger connection between the two.
- George Stacy telling Peter to leave Gwen out of his battles before dying is a very emotional scene.
- The first-person point of view shots with Spider-Man makes the experience more fun and alive, as it can be seen as making the viewer look through Spider-Man's perspective.
- Like many Marvel movies it has a Stan Lee cameo and it is one of the funniest ones he's done.
- The theme of relationships and sacrifice is strongly represented in this film.
- The great scene on the bridge when Spider-Man gives the mask to a kid trapped in a car to give him hope to climb towards him so he can be saved before the web suspending the car he's in breaks.
Bad Qualities[]
- Has some pacing problems.
- While Andrew Garfield is a good casting choice, he doesn't really look like Peter Parker as a young nerdy high schooler like in the comics and looks more like Peter when he's in college or maybe not even Peter, looking more like a football team captain or James Franco as Harry Osborn. Several critics have even pointed out that he would be a much more fitting casting choice if the events of the film took place when Peter was in college years after he got his powers and lost Uncle Ben.
- Peter can be unlikable at times, such as when he ran away after not picking up Aunt May when he was going to Oscorp to meet with Dr Curt Connors. There's also a weird scene where Peter buys chocolate milk and he tries to steal two pennies from a donation plate. He even stutters everytime in the film.
- It also feels somewhat like a rehash of the 2002 film as it follows some similar aspects to the original, which makes it difficult for this film to stand on its own without making callbacks to the Sam Raimi films.
- Speaking of rehashing the 2002 film, Uncle Ben's death is depicted for the second time, and it's much lamer here where Uncle Ben tries to grab gun from the burglar with a black star tattoo, but ends up getting shot from the burglar.
- Peter disrespecting Captain Stacy's dying wish by still dating his daughter will tick many people off, something the sequel at least improved by really making it a difficult choice.
- The Lizard, while decent, is a bit of a "generic doomsday villain" and his plan (turning all humans into lizards) is pretty ridiculous because of he had a rivalry with another Oscorp scientist and businessman, Rajit Ratha, who thinks Connors' limb regeneration project and Richard Parker's spider project would help save their founder, Norman Osborn from dying, but Connors desire to refused in order to use his limb regeneration project to revive his arm. But his design looks like a Goomba from The Super Mario Bros. movie.
- On top of that, many feel the Lizard is better off as a side villain than a main villain.
- Spider-Man spends sizable portions of the movie with his mask off and unlike Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, he takes the mask off on purpose most of the time.
Reception[]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 334 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10.
Box Office[]
The Amazing Spider-Man earned $262 million in North America and $495.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $757.9 million. It is the 106th highest-grossing film, the seventh highest grossing film of 2012, the 19th highest-grossing superhero film, the fifth grossing Spider-Man film, the sixth highest grossing film distributed by Sony/Columbia, and the highest grossing reboot of all time worldwide.