THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN - Amazing certainly isn't the word.

The Amazing Spider-man was the second film we saw this weekend. Before it even began I knew it was going to struggle to make an impact on an already flooded superhero market. You've only got to look at Avengers Assemble and The Dark Knight Rises to realise that this will be the third best superhero film of the year. It also doesn't help that only a decade ago Sam Raimi's Spiderman was released, which was actually pretty good. This is my issue with reboots. Only reboot if you are going to make the film better than the last version. Sadly here The Amazing Spider-man is one of those that fails to match up to the original, and ultimately doesn't justify the money and point of rebooting.

For starters we have seen it all before. If you saw the Tobey Maguire version then the opening hour of this film is pointless. As I have seen it I found this opening actually pretty boring. All it was was the same idea just told in a different way, and I actually think the previous version was better. The second half does get slightly better but it is just Spider-man fighting against a different villain in the same way he normally does. It is practically a remake as opposed to a reboot. It boasts that it will tell the untold story but it really doesn't. It is supposed to tell us about the disappearance of his parents, but after twenty minutes this thread disappears and doesn't get resolved. What was the point of it? The only thing keeping it original has been scrapped in the first act. Basically it turns into a generic Spiderman origin story.




This time we are introduced to Dr Curt Connors, who eventually turns into the Lizard. If this was supposed to be a more realistic take on the superhero, in such a way that Batman Begins was for the Batman franchise, than they failed due to the decision with which the villain to use. If Rhys Ifans grew scaly skin due to a, typically, bodged experiment then it may have been believable, but instead he turns into a miniature Godzilla which looks ridiculous. They make the villain look like this but try to make Spidey's web throwing more realistic by having them produced by a device on his wrist. Why do this? It also never explains how Peter Parker is that clever to invent something like that as they never really show him being a geek.

Peter not being much of a geek was an issue for me. Maguire's version made Spiderman look even more impressive as it was the bullied kid saving the day. Here Garfield's Parker is too cocky to have the same character arc. I'm not sure whether this is the direction or the acting but neither his Parker or Spiderman is better than Maguire's. The script probably doesn't help but all of Peter Parker's relationships are glossed over. There isn't much of a connection with Gwen Stacey, Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Curt Connors or Captain Stacey. All of these relationships were explored in the last film, including a best mate and a certain newspaper mogul who is sadly missing from this film.

The film is a bit of a pointless entity really. It has its moments but all the darkness the trailer provided is sadly missing. The previous outings have all been better and it makes you wonder why they felt the need to redo it. Garfield isn't any better than Maguire, and looks way to old. Dunst and Stone play different characters but the love interest all the same and Dunst and Maguire's relationship was much more believable. It was also missing a best friend for Peter to bounce off as Maguire and James Franco's relationship in the previous trilogy was a constant thread which paid off. This film was just lacking in so many areas. We also get very little information into how quickly Curt Connors turns bad and as to what Irrfan Khan's character is really about. All in all a disappointing movie that should never have been done. At least Sam Raimi will be smiling.

Pros: Webb has tried hard and some of the action scenes are impressive.

Cons: It seems really unneeded. Previous films were much better.

6 / 10

Top 10 of 2012 so far:


1. The Hunger Games     8 / 10
2. Snow White And The Huntsman     8 / 10
3. Avengers Assemble     7.5 / 10
4. 21 Jump Street     7.5 / 10
5. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol     7 / 10
6. The Grey     7 / 10
7. Prometheus     6.5 / 10
8. The Amazing Spider-man     6 / 10
9. American Reunion     6 / 10
10. Safe House     6 / 10