The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans
I
don't blame Marc Webb for this. And I don't blame Andrew Garfield
either. I think they probably did the best with what they were given.
They were probably very excited to make a Spider-Man movie. But
this was a bad idea from the start for a variety of reasons. I'm not a
hardcore comic book fan by any means, but even I know that there are
tons of comic book titles out there that have yet to be adapted into
movies, and would not doubt have been much more interesting than Amazing Spider-Man. Unfortunately however, there are few comic book franchises as prominent and recognizable as Spider-Man. With that said, we have to recognize and accept Amazing Spider-Man for what it is: a blatant (and very successful) money grab by Marvel Entertainment.
If
anyone reading this is able-minded enough to think back to the far-away
world of the 00s, they may remember that there were 3 highly successful
Spider-Man movies directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire
released between 2002 and 2007. The 3 movies received varying degrees
of acclaim. It's my opinion that the first movie in that series was
good, the second was better than the first but not great, and the third
was terrible. But whatever you think about the quality of the Sam Raimi
Spider-Man movies, there is no denying their lasting pop culture
significance. Spider-Man was released at the onset of the comic book movie wave along with X-Men. It gave us some truly iconic moments (remember all those upside down kiss scene parodies?).
And
more importantly from the perspective of a movie executive, the movies
made a boatload of money. Well over $2 billion worldwide. And that's
not mentioning the innumerable marketing tie-ins. So when Sam Raimi
walked away from the Spider-Man franchise after Spider-Man 3, the
Spider-Man property would not be allowed to lay dormant for long. This
is despite the fact that we are, in 2012, only 5 years removed from the
final entry in the Raimi series. A series which will probably always
be the most iconic cinematic depiction of Spider-Man. Even now, after The Anazing Spider-Man,
when people think of Spider-Man, they think of Tobey Maguire. I don't
think that's because Tobey Maguire did an incredible job in the role,
although he was fine. It's because we just spent nearly 10 years of our
lives having Maguire Spider-Man movies shoved down our
collective throats. And judging by the box office numbers, nearly
everyone with a functioning pair of eyeballs went to see those movies.
I've
taken a while to get to it, but my point is this: The Raimi movies were
far from perfect, but taken as a whole, the trilogy was quality-wise
very solid. And everyone saw them. Just 5 years ago. For those
reasons, a new entry in the same series would have been acceptable. A
reboot, on the other hand, would only be acceptable under one
circumstance: if the new series was dramatically different from the
Raimi one. With that said, if the goal with Amazing Spider-Man
was to make a lot of money, then Marvel Entertainment has succeeded.
However, if the goal was to create a new franchise that would make us
forget the Raimi movies or even not question why a reboot was necessary
in the first place, then they have failed miserably.
I
would like to clarify now that this movie is not terrible. It's just
really, really mediocre. Throughout the movie, I frequently found
myself just questioning the necessity of it all. The movie wants to be a
reboot, but visually it looks just like the Raimi movies. The
web-slinging scenes are the same. The protagonist is yet again a white,
brown-haired baby-faced young man. And I don't want to criticize
Andrew Garfield. He simply failed to distinguish himself in this role
in any meaningful way. There was a grassroots campaign to cast Donald
Glover from Community as Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man, and I wondered why the producers didn't give it a try. At least then something
would have been different about these movies. One faint bit of praise I
will offer is that the fight scenes are pretty distinguishable from the
Raimi movies, and are probably actually better-choreographed. In
particular, Spider-Man's fight with the Lizard at the school was
entertaining. The scene made good use of Spidey's powers and of the
space they were fighting in as well.
There
are some other differences between Marc Webb's Spidey origin story and
Raimi's version. But they are mostly superficial. The web shooters are
man-made this time around. Uncle Ben actually sticks around for a few
scenes before kicking the bucket (a decision which only lessened the
emotional impact of his inevitable(and thus predictable) death, because
he came off as kind of a dick in the few scenes he did have). In the
end, I get the feeling Marvel Entertainment was afraid to change too
much for this new movie out of fear of losing some of the massive market
built up from the Raimi ones. Which is a really unfortunate decision.
Because this movie could have been much more provocative and
interesting than it is. I'm a big fan of Marc Webb's work on (500) Days of Summer,
so I know he's capable of much more than this lazy effort. Ultimately,
the best decision may have been to lay off this franchise for a few
years and come back down the line with a stronger effort. Of course,
that would have meant risking lesser box office returns, something
Hollywood is not exactly famous for doing.
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