Review: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’

Posted by plannedbanter on July 5, 2012 · 7 Comments 

I’m going to go ahead and get this out-of-the-way: I didn’t like this movie. I can appreciate the thought that went into parts of it, like the acting, but there wasn’t enough during the whole of The Amazing Spider-Man, that I was able to forget all the things that I hated. I’m not someone who’s going to hold this against the Raimi films, as I had plenty of problems with all three of them, but in my mind there’s no comparison between this and practically any of the recent excellent films in this sub-genre that’s favorable.

That said, I’m going to acknowledge that I’m just completely insane since everybody else really seems to like this. I’ve spent 5 days mulling over what I thought about the film and it’s already clear that I’m way out of alignment with what audiences, and a number of people whose opinions I really respect, saw in this. Because of that, I’m going to split this review into two parts; the first half’s very general and the second (after the image of the teaser poster) is more explicit spoiler-wise.

If this film wasn’t based on Spider-Man, it’d be a much stronger product. It lives under expectations, and in its efforts to subvert or deny them, ends up being more frustrating than it should. It’s a little forgettable in an action sense but if you removed everything that identified it as a Marvel property then you’d have a  better film and one that probably makes a lot more sense. Mark Webb’s sensibilities for romance are actually pretty good but I think what puts the movie over the top in that department comes from Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone together. But while the interactions between Gwen and Peter are the strongest points, they seem like they could be easily transposed to other films ; it’s a weird comment on the state of romance, when the only way to get an intelligent one that can appeal to both genders is to wrap it up inside of a superhero movie. That’s not a new observation, but it becomes a little more apparent with each new origin story we see.

Still, it’s extraordinarily refreshing to see a film with a love story where the two characters are equals; Peter’s not an arrogant chauvinist who needs an intellectual takedown from peppy Gwen, just as much as Gwen isn’t a screechy harpy tolerated by the romantic teflon of Peter as a smooth operator. No men are pigs in this and no girls just have to put up with it. You’d be astounded with how fresh that feels, especially when the idea of a romantic film resonating with both men and women is so radical that it’s mostly contained in the realm of indie product. The fact that you can see why Peter likes this girl so much is a big plus, and her role is actually fleshed out to the degree where she’s distinctly proactive even if one of those scenes plays is a little reminiscent of Aliens or Jurassic Park (which is made weirder when a later scene echoes Terminator 2). You can’t undervalue her high competency and, in some ways, she might end up being consistently more heroic than Peter is. It’s an especially wonderful element that she’s not kidnapped at any point and is only ever in peril because she’s determined and not clueless.

But while Garfield and Stone do have a great sense of give and take over the film’s runtime, it isn’t enough structure to support the entire film. Where the interactions between them excel, other parts flounder and they mostly come in what’s recognizably related to Spider-Man. Peter’s scenes with Curt Connors are engaging enough but they lose a lot once the scientist becomes the Lizard; it’s never entirely clear if the Lizard’s a separate personality or if Connors is just evil from the get-go as opposed to being crazy from Lizard serum influence. There’s too much wiggle room between trying to make him a sympathetic character or evil plotter, and you can never tell if he genuinely cares for Peter or is just manipulating him. The result is we’re cheated from any kind of emotional payoff involving Connors as a friend-gone-bad or the Lizard’s existence as tragic. The one way they succeed with the character is how his evil plot isn’t focused on hurting Peter personally; they look like they’re going in that direction at one point, but Connors randomly changes focus back to the master plan after what ended up being the film’s best fight scene. Rhys Ifans does the best that he can with a role that’s mostly ignored by the movie’s focus, but silly dialogue swinging too far into supervillain 101 undermines his efforts. The Lizard’s design, right down to his voice, is also weak, but I appreciate them trying to make him an antagonist that’s a consistent physical match with Spider-Man.

Those physical aspects are also where Amazing Spider-Man fares best with its comic elements.  Spidey moves in a way that’s convincingly agile and dynamic, making most of his poses and web swinging interesting to watch, while the Lizard, despite looking ridiculous with his crocodile grin, is properly intimidating. The character POV shots are terrible but they’re brief; a small mercy as they’re  an idea where the ambition doesn’t live up to the distracting result. Spider-Man as a physical character stands out uniquely from his cinematic fellows in other Marvel films.

The film’s conscious of basically everyone in the world knowing Spider-Man’s origin so it doesn’t repeat what we’re familiar with; the origin here is just different enough to avoid retread but seems bizarrely underdeveloped from a logical standpoint. The change for the sake of change tries to make us think this is something different from what we’ve seen before, but it’s too middling in different aspects and they took a weird path with them: not radically altering the familiar elements of Peter’s story (bitten by a spider with special properties, Uncle murdered by criminal that he could have stopped earlier), the film focuses on experimenting with him as a character to some unusual results. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to add a little more dramatic weight to Peter’s experiences and his reactions to them, but some of his behavior is over the line of what I’d call “jerkish” with a few moments veering right into unlikable territory. The latter is a matter of context, as the film glosses over the primary moment I’m thinking of with a veneer of bad boy smoothness, but it still seemed odd to me. Some truly ridiculous moments don’t help, like a mutated rat or an English teacher discussing how “there’s really only one type of story: “Who am I?”” That’s a completely groan inducing line, the rare one that isn’t spat out by the Lizard or even by Spidey himself. Peter being a wise-ass  isn’t really served here either; there’s two decently funny quips in the first scenes of him using his powers, with the rest being moronic lines like “Hey, I’m swingin’ here!” They try, but the funniest lines in the film belong to Denis Leary, and it’s possible that they were ad-libbed. If they weren’t, then every kudos to Leary as he delivers them perfectly though it’s bizarre his Captain Stacy, as both Peter and Spider-Man’s foil, would have the funniest moment in a two-hour and 20 minute movie.

Really this is a film that stands on its acting; everyone’s trying their best, though if you could make that English teacher’s dialogue not sound terrible you’d have to receive an instant Oscar, but some characters end up being shortchanged. That mostly comes up with Sally Field as Aunt May, who has little to do besides be distraught and get upset that Peter’s out late. That seems even more ridiculous when he makes a big production of arriving home instead of just sneaking in and out of his window. A scene where Peter busts through the front door as loudly as possible, seems more stupid than dramatic especially when he’s heading to the sink for some reason. Still, Field’s good with her underwritten role though it had the unintended effect of making me realize how smart it was for Lee and Ditko to come up with all the different ways for Peter to leave the house without his Aunt noticing; it was a huge deal being caught then, but here it happens so much it threatens to become an unintentional running gag, even if the escalation is to nowhere. You miss Martin Sheen’s excellent turn as Uncle Ben even more when you realize it literally left May with nothing to do in the movie but fret over what time Peter’s going to come back home.

Speaking of Sheen, he easily holds his own and at times makes Peter’s sometimes spiteful behavior seem reasonable. That’s a degree of convincing we shouldn’t need but Sheen makes it look easy despite his short screen time. The downside of that is the frustration with how Peter forgets about avenging his Uncle to focus on the unexplored story of his parents’ disappearance by meeting Doctor Connors; they hit the notes we know, time to move on as quickly as possible before people start to get bored.

Of the things the film adds to the mythos that are entirely new is the previously mentioned Captain George Stacy as a minor antagonist; Leary’s interactions with Garfield are a treat and the changes to his role in Peter’s story as a whole help to sell this movie as unique though one moment involving that influence near the end unraveled the film’s impact for me. That only comes as a result of caring so much for George, Gwen, and Peter but it’s also something that I can’t pin down as being a script or direction issue as that bit is very much about tone.

I wasn’t enamored with The Amazing Spider-Man and, believe me, I really wanted to be. I didn’t mind the idea of a fresh start, even if it meant covering some familiar plot points; to me, that’s the nature of comics, as you read and re-read favorite stories or different interpretations of characters all the time. But for me, the film complicates things it could have left simple and steers around things that needed more exploration with more than a few points getting none. There’s some bizarre stuff here, like liquid nitrogen being stored on top of a skyscraper, but it’s not an awful movie; it’s just lacking as one set in a specific universe.

Also, James Horner’s score sounds a lot like Titanic in at least one part.

Now for the nitpicky problems I have which are making me think that I’m losing my mind as people seem to, at the very least, enjoy the film on a “not that bad” level.

First off, Peter’s flirts dangerously with being a terrible person here. At times, he’s incredibly selfish almost to where it removes you from sympathy. He never feels like Uncle Ben being shot is as important to him as his father’s mysterious disappearance; it’s a very blinded way of looking at his situation especially when he barely comforts Aunt May in the immediate aftermath of the death of the man who raised him.  I can’t even imagine how Peter feels about his mother as she’s a completely non-essential factor to the film. The focus is on father figures, and you’d think that with all the different ones here, that element would be explored in some meaningful way. Peter befriending Dr. Connors or coming to understand why George Stacy is so defensive of his daughter reach for that but any time things are possibly swerving that way, the film deflates them either through some jerk action of Peter or by running off for another scene of him and Gwen. Peter’s spiteful and selfish before getting his powers, which is an important part of addressing who he is a character, but he remains that way to the end of the film. In fact, the problem’s worse by the end due to a pair of choices made after the film’s action climax. I understand that Spider-Man isn’t intended as perfect, and that selfishness is invaluable in the character’s core construction, but the interchangeable way Peter makes some of his decisions ends up making him feel slimy, especially during those last scenes. Films can have characters who do immensely unlikable things but if they can’t create any sort of sympathy for them despite those flaws, then you’ve failed at making it a compelling element. Peter veers towards unlikable, no matter how sweet his romance with Gwen is or how brave he is to fight against the Lizard.

The frustration I have with Peter’s behavior doesn’t seem like a random note when so much of this film feels like it’s too considerate to elements that don’t matter. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a movie that put so much thought into the aesthetic of every single little thing the way The Amazing Spider-Man does. Everything that’s visual feels calculated, from Peter’s clothes to the books that appear on Gwen’s bookshelf, resulting in a kind of fan film type aura rather than a theatrical release. All the thought spent into communicating how hip and relevant it is to current tastes would have been better used on creating something that held together better plot-wise. Peter searches for Uncle Ben’s killer incessantly for 20 or so minutes and it’s promptly forgotten about once Gwen invites him to dinner at her place. It’s something that’s never resolved, which I suppose is more realistic, but Peter literally seeing Ben shot in front of him seems less traumatic when he forgets about it to focus on the mystery of his absentee parents while hanging with Dr. Connors and Gwen. There could have been an attempt at Gwen helping him to accept his grief and move past it but the film doesn’t have time for that with so much focus being on their romance and her entrance into Peter’s world after he unmasks for her.

If people can rip on other movies this year for minor elements that compromise logic for moving the story along, then I’m not sure what they’re missing in here as there’s more than a few major ones. Lizards follow the Lizard into the sewer because… they follow him into the sewer. Other than possibly being a lazy reference to the Lizard’s ability to control other reptiles, the mass lizard migration never comes up as anything other than a way for Peter to realize “Of course! The Lizard is hiding in the sewers!”  There’s a similarly sloppy moment where the Lizard spills an airborne variation of his serum into the faces of attacking police officers, who then choke and start showing scaly skin and tongues. The danger of that is moot as apparently the other major effect of the serum is instant unconsciousness; the officers are never seen doing anything else other than being cured and, other than showing us that the gas makes Lizard-people, the scenes serve no purpose. We already what the formula does, since Connors has run around in Lizard mode for around an hour and has had at least three separate encounters with Peter along with numerous scenes where we see him changing from human form. That isn’t even getting picky enough to analyze how the serum was only a gas when distributed through the airborne distribution device Peter’s dad invented; if it could be just rolled down the street like tear gas then why bother getting to the top of the most conspicuous building in the city, when you could send it through on subway cars?

The storytelling problems don’t stop there as, while Peter does invent his webshooters, in a scene that’s so brief it seems really be there to say “hey, we did the webshooters like the comic, leave us alone”, but where does he get the web fluid? It’s invented by Oscorp, and we see Peter reading about it on their website, but if it’s powerful enough to pull an airplane without snapping, I don’t know if it’s something he could just buy in a store. It’s possible he stole it, which the film seems to imply with its pre-justification by way of showing that the fluid’s derived from Richard Parker’s notes. Not even considering that even if Peter bought it online from Oscorp, someone there would eventually notice some house in Queens (or wherever the Parkers live in the movie) getting tons of the stuff shipped to it. When an obvious tail to your character’s homestead is the preferable option, you’ve left in one too many unknown elements especially since you’d think Peter would never even consider stealing something after Ben’s death. Taking it further, does Oscorp’s industrial formula dissolve in an hour like the comics? That may seem like an odd thing to think on, but it becomes pretty important when, after saving a kid from a car he suspended with a web that later catches on fire, Spidey swings away from a bridge with several others cars left behind. It’s indicative of the movie’s major problem: it thinks very hard about being dynamic and different, but only follows each of those disciplines to the halfway point. Even the obvious sequel setup is non-commital with the unresolved mystery of Peter’s parents being dangled in front of us in the film’s mid-credit stinger. A shadowy man appears in Connors’ cell to talk about if Peter knows “the truth about his parents”, only to disappear when it’s confirmed that he doesn’t. It’s cheesy and the complete and total vagueness of the unseen character definitely feels more like them having no clue who the next villain will be (since it’s been confirmed it’s not the-mysteriously-dying-from-something-we’re-not-told-about Norman Osborn) than a talking point to create audience excitement.

There’s half of a decently good movie in here but that half isn’t anything involving superheroics.  Gwen being the only thing keeping Peter from behaving like a jerk could have been an interesting avenue to interpret the characters but the thematic stuff otherwise doesn’t serve that purpose. Even if the themes had gone that way, they’d have been overturned at the very end, where Peter promises George Stacy, during the man’s dying breaths, that he’ll leave Gwen out of his life for her safety; he stays away from Gwen only long enough for her to stop grieving over her father’s death. After she’s more angry at him than she is sad for her dad being gone, he sweeps back into her life with a line about how promises you can’t keep “are the most fun to break.” That’s completely reprehensible to me, a choice made to sell Peter as a fun badboy than a teenager coming to grips with a life that’s marked by tragedy despite his unique gifts. The charm of the two leads is wonderful but it can only carry the final product so far and The Amazing Spider-Man ends up feeling like it focuses fully on only one element at the cost of all the others coming across successfully.

Filed under Movies, The Amazing Spider-Man · Tagged with Marvel, Movie review, Movies, Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man