The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) [Movie Review]

Spider-Man has been reinvented for this incarnation of The Amazing Spider-Man. In this story, the story focuses a lot more on Peter Parker's (Andrew Garfield) parents. Well, not really this movie, but the trilogy is supposed to focus heavily on his parents, at least. 

So, the story of this particular film opens with Peter at age 4, playing a game of hide-and-seek with his father. Suddenly, a loud noise comes from Richard Parker's (Campbell Scott) office, in which case he frantically gathers his belongings and brings Peter to live with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). Flash forward, Peter is now 17, while digging around in the basement, he finds his dad's old briefcase, and inside are pictures of Richard and a Doctor Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) and some science information. Peter then sets out to find Dr. Connors, and learns that one of his classmates, Gwen Stacy (played by the lovely Emma Stone) just so happens to also work with Dr. Connors. Peter and Gwen start to hang out a lot, eventually learning that Gwen's dad is the police captain; who is also trying to hunt down Spider-Man. On top of that, Peter helps Connors with his work, inadvertently creating The Lizard. From then on, it's mostly just Peter doing his best to stop The Lizard.

Overall, this one film is better than the entire Raimi trilogy. Though the casting in the original was near-perfect appearance-wise, the acting was sub-par. But with this one, we get a cast that may not look exactly like their comic-book counterpart, but know how to act the part. Now, I'm the kind of person who will accept changes in source material, which may be one of the reasons I enjoy this film so much.  But even so, many elements from the comics are present in this film. My favorite of which being the return of the mechanical web-shooters. I wouldn't say this is a must watch, but if you're a fan of comic book movies, or Spider-Man, it's definitely worth a view.

Rating: 9/10

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Discussion topic: At the end of the film, Captain Stacy makes Peter promise that he will stay away from Gwen, for her safety. Would you be able to avoid the person you love for their safety?