By THOMAS BOND
The last Spider-Man movie was 5 years ago, and here we are at a reboot?
Who cares! Marc Webb’s (his name suggests that this film was his destiny, no?) “The Amazing Spider-Man” has enough freshness in it to make this latest blockbuster worth the watch. Although Spidey’s origin tale is basically the same, Webb takes more time here than his predecessor to develop the characters and establish more motivation for the story to take place. Acted with gusto by the likes of Rhys Ifans, Sally Field, Denis Leary and Martin Sheen, especially notable are the performances of Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Emma Stone as his sweetheart Gwen Stacey, a resourceful firecracker who can take care of herself if need be. The chemistry between the two leads will stick to your heart like a whole web-ball of warmth and charisma. The nuances that all of the actors bring to their characters ring of such truth that we are swept up into the fantastic elements of the story as easily as Parker swings from web to web. Most surprisingly, the RomCom based Webb directs the action superbly, using 3D well and staging everything where we can see and understand what’s going on, making the battles all the more exciting and intense. And what a villain he’s brought to the screen in The Lizard, Dr. Curt Conners’ biologically created alter-ego. He’s brutally strong, exceptionally fast, and still has his wits about him even when he’s all scaled out!
For all of the feelings of sameness and repetitiveness, this “Spider-Man” earns its name. It’s nothing short of…Amazing!
And on a closing note, I was surprised to see that this film was shot digitally, on a RED camera. I would be lying if I said that this film didn’t look great, and you could have fooled me. I suppose if Marty Scorsese is ready to embrace digital, then I can at least acknowledge that digital film-making may finally be getting somewhere respectable. (sighs…)
Movie info from IMDb.com
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