Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

Story: Movie reboot retelling Spider-Man.

Review: When I first heard that Columbia Pictures is doing a reboot of Spider-Man, my first question was, will it be better than the first two films? Will Andrew Garfield be the better Spider-Man than his predecessor?

Spider-Man's first appearance

Spider-Man first appeared in Amazing Fantasy # 15 in August 1962 and was created by Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. Spider-Man was first drawn by the late comics legend, Jack Kirby. According to Stan Lee, the idea came to him when he was conceptualizing new characters and he saw a spider climb up the wall. Spider-Man became Marvel Comics' flagship character.

Five years after the first appearance, the Spider-Man syndicate started entered another medium that was television the first animated series lasted three years(1967-1970). Spider-Man has the most animated series than any other characters or teams.

The first live action Spider-Man was played by Nicholas Hammond in a 2-hour special in 1974 followed by regular series in 1977 with 13 episodes in two seasons. Toei also made their own tokusatsu version of Spider-Man in 1978. But unlike the Marvel Comics, Toei's Spider-Man also uses a robot to fight giant monsters and has his own car and has some deviated abilities. You can compare Supaida-Man, as the Japanese pronounced it, to any Kamen-Rider or Super Sentai action.

Nicholas Hammond, the first live-action Spider-Man

These two versions were not able to do the ideal Spider-Man moves done in the comics and animation because camera effects was very limited. It was only until 2002 that the Spidey's fighting abilities was realized when Sam Raimi directed the first of the Spider-Man trilogy that starred Tobey Maguire.

The Spider-man reboot brings back where it all started and making it more accurate from the Marvel Comics. Unlike the first trilogy, Peter Parker is a teenager and a high school student for the whole duration of the movie. Spider-Man was the first teenage superhero that isn't a sidekick like Robin and Bucky. The Amazing Spider-Man story arc is not as fast-phased as the first trilogy.

 The universe that revolves around Spider-Man also receives an overhaul. Just like in the comic books, Gwen Stacy was really Peter's first love. Emma Stone did well playing the role because she can play whatever the age of the character she portrays within her bracket.

In the last trilogy, Dr. Curtis Connors made some appearances which made me thought he will be the villain in the next movie but appeared instead in a Spider-Man animated series that MTV produced based on the first film. In this new movie, the Lizard is now part of the Spider-Man's movie rogues gallery. I never thought British actor Rhys Ifans can have a serious role because I knew him as a comedian in the previous movies. It is also nice to see that the old web shooters are back on Spider-Man's wrists that was removed in the trilogy.

A fellow fanboy said that we are seeing a new emo-type Peter Parker/Spider-Man and not because he always wear a hoodie but because the story is darker than the trilogy and I agree. The story itself proves to make it a worthwhile watch that it also was way better than Spider-Man 3 so I can say that the new emo-take on Marvel's flagship character is for the new generation of fans. When I watched it on its opening day, only one cinema in the mall is not showing The Amazing-Spider-Man. The local cinemas is probably pretty sure that the success of Marvel's The Avengers will also reflect on this new movie so I am only hopeful. The Amazing Spider-Man is now showing in cinemas and was released and distributed by Columbia Pictures Phils., a Sony Pictures Company.