The Amazing Spider-man Movie, Hollywood Got You Again Didn’t They

The Amazing Spider-man movie reboot is just another film franchise in a long line of franchises rebooted over the last decade. I have watched the film and while it is alright in it’s own way I don’t understand the reboot title being placed on this film. I was a reader and fan of Spider-man growing up and own a large collection of Spider-man comics.

In my opinion in no way is this film superior to the original released in 2002. The entire Sam and Tobey franchise had a soul to it I guess can only be felt by true Spider-man fans. I know plenty of negative reviews abound over this trilogy but it was still a highly successful franchise. I will be upset if Andrew Garfield as Spider-man some how best Tobey as Spider-man. Pleas people everything new is not always better, please don’t let hype take money from your wallet in 2012. Tobey as Spider-man in 2002 made $821.71 million worldwide, and is one of the highest grossing film of all time, beat that Andrew Garfield.

Why do we need another origin story told again for such a well known character the world over ? If you know anything about the Spider-man characters, I felt this was more of a combination of Spider-man 2099 and The Scarlet Spider. The Spider-man outfit in this movie does nothing to make the character look heroic, it looked like a water resistant swim suit combined into something a Olympic cyclist would wear for wind resistance.Sally Field of all people as Aunt May, come on seriously ? It brings me back to my original point of the “soul” that was in the original cast that can’t be replaced. Sally Field just felt like she was his mom, not his Aunt imparting wise intelligent words that only Aunt May could. Aunt May and Uncle Ben often were the “conscience” in the back of Peter’s mind in the comics or the cartoons. They served as a back of Peter’s mind voice of reason that Sally Field just doesn’t capture here, she doesn’t even look the part. In my opinion only Emma Stone fits the look of Spider-mans first love Gwen Stacy, while the rest of the cast is all wrong.

Tobey had physical size and a screen presence under the mask, remember the train scene when the passengers agree not to tell his identity. That scene is just classic, you could just hear and see the hero worship coming from the two children. Andrew Garfield is too skinny, he’s just not believable as the famous Spider-man. I thought several times in the movie the Lizard was going to break him in half and maybe he should have so we don’t have to see a sequel to this nonsense.

The two Spider-men, 2012 Andrew on the left and 2002 Tobey on the right, who is better ?

I warned in a previous article that 2012 would be a year in which big movies studios like Disney which owns Marvel would do whatever it takes to get money out of your pockets. I got to say I’m so tired of the heavy use of CGI in films today, but I know Spider-mans web swinging would be virtually impossible without it. I just know when I watched this film it felt too much like a highlight reel, as if every web swing was exaggerated. The director purposely tried to emulate almost all the most famous web swings that occurred in the original series and you will know them when you see them in this film. It came across like a “look what we can do because CGI”, even the Lizard is entirely CGI, why no practical effects. I’m getting tired of having my brain trained to believe in something not there that’s more fake than the film itself. The Stan Lee guest appearances every Marvel film are getting old, sorry for the spoiler. Stan manages to make another “comedic” appearance in The Amazing Spider-man for know other reason but to simply make a cameo as a character on screen. What happens when Stan passes away he is getting really old ? Do his constant cameos really do anything for the films his in, do they progress the story in any way ? The answer is no, makes me think when he dies directors will put his corpse on screen just so fan-boys don’t forget.

Finally in my opinion Hollywood has clearly run out of ideas most reboots being unnecessary. If Tobey didn’t want to come back it’s understandable seeing how the last film in his series was done. Grace as Venom pissed me off and still does to this day, I was a huge Venom fan, that was just wrong. This is what should have been done picking up at the end of Spider-man three.

Peter and Mary Jane were getting back together so the fourth film should have been several years after this. I’m saying start the film with a older Peter still as Spider-man, any veteran actor who is not too old and in great shape could have been cast for this. Look at the original Batman franchise and how many guys played Bruce Wayne. The film doesn’t need a Aunt May so she could pass away in the first few minutes. Give us a good bad guy this time or maybe even a team up, anyone whose read the comics knows Spider-man is famous for his team ups. I don’t know just give us something, anything but another origin story or more New York. Spider-man has been plenty of other places in the comics than just staying in New York. Hollywood only speaks the language of money and if you spend too much on this we will get another sequel so please don’t. This movie gets a 5/10 it’s just nothing “amazing” and more of the same, plus stuff that shouldn’t have happened at all. Spoiler alert, the basketball bully scene between Parker and Flash added nothing to the movie and took nothing away it kinda just is. Why would I be excited about this, Peter with Spider powers could have whooped the entire team in a pickup game. What was the point, anyway thanks for reading my rant as a comic-book nerd, bye.