“The Amazing Spiderman,” Mark Webb’s latest reboot of the Spiderman franchise, hit theaters this week and raked in an estimated $75 million in just three days. Opinions on the film have swung between being dubbed the best superhero flick to date, to denounced as a total abomination to Marvel Comics, to everything in between. Regardless, “Amazing Spiderman” is a thoroughly entertaining summertime movie offering ample action, a good sense of humor, and believable humans (spider-humans, at least) rather than one-dimensional characters just peeled off of a comic book page.

Use of effects that best justify the price of 3D glasses since “Avatar” don’t hurt, either.

The success of “The Amazing Spiderman” rides on the blue and red suited shoulders of Andrew Garfield, the cute Brit who first touched stardom after his role as Mark Zuckerburg’s buddy in “The Social Network.” Garfield’s interpretation of Parker possesses an unusual charm that brings about an adorable awkwardness unusual to the superhero genre. Never failing to flash a sheepish ear-to-ear grin when embarrassed or stammer at exactly the perfectly wrong moment, Garfield is confused and angsty, but still convincing as a courageous protector of New York.

Garfield’s chemistry with Emma Stone, as babe-with-brains Gwen Stacy, is so natural that the whole human-turned-spider thing often plays second violin to their witty and downright adorable exchanges. This is no doubt thanks to Webb’s “500 Days of Summer” RomCom chops, and it brings an unexpectedly warm touch to the bleak story of Spiderman’s rise. Stacy is anything but a damsel in distress, and Stone’s feisty attitude was not lost with natural red hair dyed blonde. Besides, it’s nearly impossible to look into her giant, twinkling eyes and not swoon at least a little bit.

Stone isn’t the only gem of Webb’s casting; frankly, there wasn’t a role choice that didn’t work. Martin Sheen and Sally Field shine as Uncle Ben and Aunt May, Parker’s guardians after his parents’ untimely evacuation of his life. The two characters may be taken for granted as staples of the Spiderman franchise, but the superb acting should not be overlooked, especially considering the importance of both to Parker’s growth from meek photographer to fearless hero.

Impossible to ignore is the film’s striking visual appeal. It’s an appropriately grungy set, but never so much that the bright reds and blues of Spidey’s costume look like a recently polished action figure left forgotten in a dirty New York City gutter. Webb’s lighting choices create symbolism hidden in shadows, set to an awesome soundtrack never failing to sweep an audience up in a moment. Garfield may not fill out a spandex suit like Scarlett Johansson, but his (or at least his stunt double’s) spider-like limbs are fascinating to watch scuttle up a building or drop in unexpectedly on a bad guy.

As for the storyline, the spider-meets-boy, spider-bites-boy, boy-saves-the-city formula never deviates from the norm. Rhys Ifans’ creepy but sympathetic interpretation as Dr. Connors-turned-Lizard works, but doesn’t bring any heart-stopping dynamism like Heath Ledger’s Joker did in “The Dark Knight.” Action sequences are entertaining but not mind blowing; the conclusion is satisfying but lacking a twist.

It’s the relationships between Peter Parker and his friends/family that make the film most compelling, almost creating two movies within the one: a decent superhero flick on one reel, and a romantic comedy on another. The division can be closed if viewers buy Garfield as Spiderman and enjoy watching his relationships blossom; otherwise, the pacing is slowed by scenes lacking action and an all too familiar story.

Additionally, with the power to control the direction of the Spiderman franchise comes the responsibility to include the following words: “with great power comes great responsibility.” As another Toonari writer pointed out, these words were painfully absent.

This, along with various other script discontinuities (the fate of Parker’s mother is never discussed; the complications of the Lizard’s attack on NYC in the final battle sequence are surprisingly inconsequential) prevents the film from rising to the ranks of other franchise reboots to release in recent years.

But superhero movies always ask us to suspend our disbelief in the air right alongside their gravity-defying protagonists, and though getting into Peter Parker’s spandex suit may require a stretch, believing his story doesn’t.

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Continuing our list, here are Issues #1-5 that can be brought up with Marc Webb’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. Major spoilers ahead so please proceed with caution.

5. The pacing felt rather slow. The story is not stilted at all, but it took a while to get Peter into the suit and started on his crime fighting. The first act takes a lot of time establishing Peter’s lifestyle and relationships, which is good from a writing standpoint, but his life is not terribly interesting so I became impatient to see him web-slinging and making sarcastic comments at crooks.

Once the second act begins, things feel smoother, but then the third act hits and the story seems to hit a plateau. It does not build as well as other superhero films and even though the stakes are high, the Lizard’s ultimate plot to turn everyone into monstrous reptiles like him is a bit silly.

4. The mythos is too self-contained. To my knowledge, there are not any references to other heroes nor to comic books in general. Perhaps we were spoiled by the Marvel universe with ‘The Avengers’ (2012) and its awesome intertwined continuity, but the simple fact that Peter Parker does not pick up a single comic book while designing his suit nor does he read up on how fictional characters handle their responsibilities makes it feel as if the writers of this film did not bother to pick up a Spider-Man comic book themselves.

This is not to say that Spidey needed to borrow things from other heroes or have numerous shout outs to other films, but the only thing he references in his own mythos is the Daily Bugle and Norman Osborn. A re-watch may be needed to spot any other mythology gags related to other Spider-Man stories, but the initial viewing left us empty handed.

3. The plot is rather predictable. The numerous trailers to ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ clue you in to the general events, but seasoned moviegoers will be able to guess nearly all of the events without prior knowledge of the Spider-Man mythos. Connors’ evil plan is predictable, Connors figuring out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man is predictable, and even Captain Stacy’s death is predictable. This may be why the pacing felt slow, because the plotpoints were obvious several minutes before they happened. It is not a deal breaker, but it did dampen the tension and fun that the movie went for.

2. Changes to the origin story. One of the largest changes the film makes is how Uncle Ben dies. This is well done and realistic, however, I did not favor the exclusion of Harry Osborn and Peter’s relationship with Gwen Stacy. One of the best adaptations of Gwen Stacy is in ‘Spectacular Spider-Man’ (2008) where the two are best friends and a romance eventually blossoms between them.

This would have been a good angle to adopt for the film to deepen the relationship between them. For instance, Gwen would start noticing changes in Peter’s behavior and would feel frustrated that he would not let her in. In the film, she is just a crush and a classmate whom Peter does not interact with very often, so the romance does not have the same weight as it would if they were already friends.

In terms of Harry’s exclusion, this is at least understandable, as Marc Webb probably wanted to distance himself from the inevitable comparisons to the Raimi films, but it does leave a huge question of if Harry exists at all in this particular universe. The movie makes no reference to Harry and so we are left to assume he does not exist. It would have been a good idea to at least establish whether or not Harry is present in these stories.

1. No one says, “With great power comes great responsibility.” There are only two lines that are considered mandatory for Spider-Man stories, no matter what the medium: “Who are you?” “I’m Spider-Man,” and “With great power comes great responsibility.” Uncle Ben does not say this. Aunt May does not say this. No one in the entire movie utters these words. As a Spider-Man fan of the comics, cartoons, and movies, I consider this to be sacrilege. This line is what motivated Peter Parker to put aside his selfish desire for revenge and become a true hero.

The fact that it went unsaid irritated me beyond belief. Even if Marc Webb wants to distance himself from the Raimi films, it is still unacceptable to ditch such a powerful line that has layers of meaning for the character of Peter Parker. The film tries to replace the line with a voicemail of Uncle Ben expressing his love and faith in Peter, but his speech is riddled with clichés and does not carry the same weight as the classic line. It is a classic for a reason and should not have been excluded as it creates an air of familiarity with the audience and serves as one of the most recognizable aspects of the Spider-Man universe.

Once again, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ is not a bad film, but this reviewer’s particular tastes left me less amused than expected. We still encourage moviegoers, young and old, nerdy and non-nerdy, to check it out and form their own thoughts on its quality.

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Marc Webb’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ hit theaters July 3, 2012, hoping to reboot the smart-mouthed web-slinger in more modern times. It features a shiny, slick new type of hero and takes a darker perspective on Peter Parker’s life. While the film certainly is not bad by any stretch, there are some issues with the directions it decided to take. Here are the most pressing issues we noted in no particular order. Massive spoilers ahead for the movie so please proceed with caution.

10. Spider-Man’s jokes were not very good. One of the biggest complaints about Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’, mostly from comic book nerds, is that he was not very funny. Spidey is known for cracking jokes and being really good at one liners. It is one of his most distinct character traits because, while Peter Parker is a mild-mannered guy, Spider-Man is sarcastic and mocks his adversaries.

Marc Webb’s Spider-Man attempted to replicate this behavior, but the humor did not live up to promise. Many of the jokes were ruined because they were shown in the trailers, and the others fell flat due to long, awkward pauses. He offers a few zingers to the Lizard throughout the course of their fights, but most are easily forgotten.

9. Difficulty connecting with the characters on a personal level. Parker’s origin story is a compelling one and it is also wrapped in mystery, which the movie emphasizes to a large degree. The mysterious disappearance of Peter’s parents torments him for much of his life and, while it is easy to sympathize with him, you never get a chance to root for him. This is due to Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of the character. He plays Parker as very awkward, which makes sense, but he tends to overdo it with that lopsided grin and stammering dialogue.

It got to the point where I mentally reenacting a running gag from the RiffTrax of the ‘Twilight’ films, where Kevin, Mike, and Bill would say, “Line?” whenever there was a huge awkward pause between Bella and Edward. Peter’s painful awkwardness and angst left me feeling distant rather than connected to him.

8. Illogical decisions from normally intelligent people. There are several moments where characters do something stupid to increase the drama. For instance, Peter notices that the Daily Bugle is offering a reward for photos of the Lizard, so he decides to patrol the sewers and straps his camera to a wall.

This is pretty smart. What is not smart is that Peter does not remove his name from the back of the camera while masquerading as a masked vigilante that the police want to apprehend. Why in blue blazes didn’t he scratch his name off of a camera he was using while fighting crime? That is inexcusably stupid and as predicted, the Lizard finds the camera and figures out his secret.

7. The end credits scene. The attentive eye will have recognized the bad guy teased at the end of ‘The Avengers’ (2012). But this end credits scene was infuriating because it was impossible to see Dr. Connors’ visitor. Nothing. No face, no distinctive clothing, no distinctive voice, and no lead up to help piece together who he was or who he was working for. We assume the intention was to get the audience frothing with theories about who he could be, but I felt ripped off because there was no buildup to this mystery man and there were no clues. The scene added nothing to set up a sequel and that is the most disappointing thing of all.

6. Peter Parker’s lack of concern for his mother. Unfortunately, this problem is not limited to ‘the Amazing Spider-Man’. There are a lot of male heroes who tend to focus on the loss of their fathers instead of both parents. This is understandable because boys tend to look up to their fathers, but it was still annoying that Peter did not mention anything about his mother. It felt like she did not matter, despite the fact that she was probably just as loving and nurturing as his father. It would have been nice to see him appreciate her even though she did not work with Dr. Connors.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

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‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and directed by Marc Webb, swings into theaters July 3, 2012 and recently released another full-length trailer online. The franchise reboot offers substantial departures from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, but are these changes improvements or downgrades? Let’s take a look at the three main differences between the two.

First, we have our leading men: Andrew Garfield vs. Tobey Maguire. Tobey Maguire first donned the Spidey mask in 2002 at 27 years of age and played a relatively believable high school nerd. His portrayal of Peter Parker focused on the shy, sweeter side of the character rather than the sarcastic side, which rubbed a portion of the comic book fans the wrong way.

However, Maguire appealed to many audience members who knew Parker by name only and were not avid comic book readers, because he was soft-spoken, timid, and easy to relate to. They did not mind the lack of one-liners because Raimi’s script provided many funny moments besides Spider-Man himself.

Based on the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, age 29, seems to be leaning towards the more snarky, misunderstood side of Peter Parker. We get a few pretty good one-liners from him in the trailer, indicating that his Peter Parker will be closer to the duality shown in the comic books.

Peter Parker is the penultimate mild-mannered guy akin to Clark Kent while Spider-Man is the wisecracking crime fighter. While this appears to be an improvement, it also begs the question if Garfield will be able to show Peter’s kind heart as well.

Second, we have our leading ladies: Emma Stone vs. Kirsten Dunst. Kirsten Dunst is probably the largest complaint about Raimi’s Spider-Man from comic book fans besides Spidey’s lack of one-liners. While she is a lovely actress, Dunst often failed to emit the sharp tongue and fierce independence that Mary Jane Watson has in the comic books.

She played her much softer in the first film and she wasn’t able to participate in any roles other than the love interest, the damsel in distress, and the supportive but troubled girlfriend. Furthermore, Mary Jane was not written up to standards in the widely disliked ‘Spider-Man 3’ (2007) because her complaining about Peter’s success made her seem petty and unlikable.

Emma Stone, however, is a rising star due to her work in comedies like ‘Superbad‘ (2007), ‘Zombieland‘ (2009), and ‘Easy A‘ (2010) where she is incarnates a sarcastic, tough female lead. This has also drawn criticism from Spidey fans because Stone looks like the perfect Mary Jane but director Marc Webb decided to go with the character of Gwen Stacy instead: who is less known to general public and not nearly as strong a personality as Mary Jane Watson.

Thus, casting Emma Stone is an improvement over Kirsten Dunst, but casting her as Gwen Stacy might be a bit of a miscalculation. Third, we have our villains: Willem Dafoe vs. Rhys Ifans. Willem Dafoe’s portrayal of Green Goblin is very well-known and mostly enjoyed by the fans because he showed the slow spiral of the character from a cold, slimy business man to a maniacal super villain.

He showed some hints of sympathy here and there, but for the most part, he was the hardcore bad guy who gave Spider-Man a serious run for his money.

The Amazing Spider-Man has chosen Dr. Curt Connors, aka the Lizard, for its first villain. The choice is very interesting and wise because the Lizard is generally a sympathetic character because he and Peter Parker were friends before the life-changing accident that turned him into a walking reptile.

Dafoe will be a hard act to follow, but the new trailer shows some great potential for action sequences by having the Lizard claw his way through the roofs of cars and sling poor Spidey around with his monstrous tail. However, Rhys Ifans is not as well-known as Willem Dafoe and has not worked on many action films so it will be interesting to see how he handles the role.

Time will show which Spider-Man will ring true with the general public. There are fans on both sides of the fence and some who straddle it, waiting for July to roll around and give them a definite answer. All that can be said is that these two films take different approaches to the beloved web-slinging hero and that no matter who portrays him, Spider-Man fans want a respectful adaptation and plenty of fun along the way.

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