Defending The Amazing Spider-Man

I recently saw The Amazing Spider-Man in theatres (IMAX, which I highly recommend for this particular type of film) and absolutely loved it. I was a big fan of the Raimi Spider-Man films (Part 3 not withstanding) but I felt this one just blew those other ones away. And then I went online and saw that I was in a bit of a minority and a large section of critics and fans seem to hate this flick. Well now I am going to tell these people why they are wrong. If you have not seen the film, I am about to spoil everything so stop reading, go out and see it and then continue reading this blog.

First off the bat, Andrew Garfield is a better Peter Parker than Tobey Maguire. Peter Parker was a tiny, nerdy and awkward kid before he gained his super powers. I never felt that sense of awkwardness when I was watching Tobey. But Andrew? I bought this kid hated life in High School. And that’s supposed to be part of the appeal of Spider-Man. While the life of the Wall Crawler is exciting and fun, being Peter Parker just plain old sucks. Andrew Garfield looked like a miserable kid and that falls more in line with the Peter Parker of the comics than the previous version. This Spider-Man was more of a wise ass and quick with a quip or joke which is again, what makes the character so appealing.

Second point, mechanical web shooters. I understand why Sam Raimi chose to give Spider-Man organic web shooters in his film. It takes time and energy to explain and that takes away from the story. But without the mechanical web shooters you are missing out on an import fact about Spider-Man. He’s smart. Peter Parker is a mechanical whiz kid. The Raimi films never truly established that. They tried by showing him talking with Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius, but they never showed him applying any sort of mechanical knowledge. It actually saddens me to see many people asking “Why did they give him mechanical web shooters?” They should have been asking why he never had them to begin with in the Raimi films.

Third point, I actually cared about Uncle Ben’s death. If you didn’t know Uncle Ben was going to die stop reading this right now. Seriously. I don’t want you reading this. I spit on you. But seriously, I felt more pain when Martin Sheen’s Uncle Ben died than when the previous Uncle Ben, Cliff Robertson (RIP) did. Not to take anything away from Mr. Robertson’s performance but there didn’t seem to be any emotional connection between Cliff and Tobey. The death of Uncle Ben is supposed to be the driving force that makes Spider-Man want to be a hero. He could have stopped the crook who killed his uncle but he didn’t. Now in the previous version, Uncle Ben is killed when he gets carjacked. But in this version Uncle Ben is killed when he actually tries to stop the criminal from getting away. So not only did his Uncle die when Peter failed to act, but he died because he ACTED when Peter didn’t. That to me seems much more traumatic and Andrew Garfield's emotional crying over his dead uncle was much more emotional than Tobey cradling the dying Cliff Robertson.

Fourth point, there was actual romantic chemistry between Peter and Gwen Stacy in this film. Part of that may be attributed to the fact that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are actually dating, but their on screen relationship felt much more believable to me than that of Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire. And I love that. Because since the love interest in these films is Gwen Stacy as opposed to Mary Jane Watson, we know that there is tragedy in store for Mr. Parker. Sorry to spoil it for you folks but in the comics Gwen Stacy dies and these films seem to be keeping with the comics very closely. This actually goes for all the characters in this film. I felt a much closer interaction between the characters in this film than in the original. I especially loved the dynamic between Peter Parker and Flash Thompson in this version. In the Raimi version Flash was a one note bully who quickly disappeared once the film got into the second act. In this version he starts off as a bully but ends up as a close friend to Peter, even offering his condolences to Peter about his dead uncle, which again falls in more with the comics.

Now just so I don’t seem like a complete gushing fanboy I will say there were a few things in this film I didn’t like. The post credits scene where they try to set up a looming threat in Spider-Man’s future didn’t seem like much of a tease to me. Also there are several scenes where Peter comes home bloodied and bruised in front of Aunt May and she doesn’t seem to show enough concern. That bothered me a bit. If anything the one thing that truly bothered me about this film was not the film but the marketing. All the posters, billboards and cardboard standees kept saying “The Untold Story.” The thing is, Spider-Man’s origin is probably the MOST retold story in comics ever. There was the original, the revamp in the 90s, the Ultimate version, the 60s TV series, the 70s cartoon show, the 90s cartoon show, the Raimi film, the MTV cartoon show, the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon show, the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon show and I’m sure I’m leaving one out. We all know the origin story. Peter Parker gets bitten by a spider and then his Uncle Ben dies and he decides to fight crime. That's all you need to know. 

But now that the origin story is out of the way I look forward to the direction this new franchise is headed. Since establishing genetic engineering in this film with the Lizard I look forward to seeing all sorts of different villains from the comics (I cross my fingers for Sinister Six). Also since we have established Norman Osborn is in this universe (we didn’t see him in the film but he was mentioned by name several times) AND Gwen Stacy is in this film I am sure we will be seeing the death of Gwen Stacy storyline (and hopefully not the J. Michael Straczynkski version of events where Gwen and Norman sleep together. That was just creepy).


To sum it up simply, The Amazing Spider-Man feels closer to the source material than the previous films. There is a reason why Spider-Man is such a loved character and one of the most successful comics of all time. And there is little need to change those things we love when moving to a different medium. What we love in the comics we should love in the films as well. Don't fix what ain't broke. Sadly, Raimi broke the franchise with the third film so this reboot was needed.