The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Review — A Charming Reboot With Heart

Now that I finished rewatching the Raimi trilogy, I now continue on to the Webb two part series that were the Amazing Spider-Man films. After Sam Raimi left, leading to the mutual choice with Sony to cancel Spider-Man 4, rebooting the Spider-Man series became the only option as Sony felt that Tobey Maguire and the other cast members would be fine not returning. According to some reports, Sony was already working on a reboot script before Sam Raimi left in case his fourth entry felled apart. Certain sets and concept designs from Spider-Man 4 were kept for this reboot as Curt Connors/The Lizard who was going to be one of the intended villains in Spider-Man 4 was gonna be repurposed as the main villain of this new film. While the reboot would revisit the origin story again and retread certain elements from the 2002 film, Sony added in some new elements to help make it more distinct.

First, they would give Peter his mechanical webshooters for the first time on the big screen and second, they would also focus on Peter’s parents who weren’t really touched upon in the Raimi trilogy, outside of them obviously being dead. In the comics, Peter Parker’s parents were agents of SHIELD, a spy organization that’s now more well known to mainstream audiences due to the MCU. Sony couldn’t reference SHIELD as Marvel Studios owned the organization so instead of them being spies, Richard and Mary Parker were scientists who did some shady stuff for Green Goblin’s iconic company, Oscorp. The mystery of Peter’s parents did develop into some interesting ideas and moments in the Amazing Spider-Man films though it did lead to some controversial ideas that certain fans couldn’t accept. This will be touched upon more in my Amazing Spider-Man 2 review as the first Amazing Spider-Man is very vague on the Parker parents outside of a few moments.

But the parents angle does make it a bit more refreshing than the Raimi films, especially as it opens with a young Peter playing hide and go seek with his father, Richard, who panics after realizing someone broke into his home office. They drop Peter off at Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s house that night and it’s a very sad moment as it’s hard for Mary to say goodbye but they have to leave Peter for his safety. While they had a brief conversation with them, Richard and Mary leaving Peter confuses Aunt May and Uncle Ben who feel sorry for Peter, especially when he finds his father’s briefcase as a teen and wants to learn more about Oscorp. Certain Spider-Man supporting characters have always been father like figures to Peter and while this trope was down before in the Raimi films with Norman, making Curt Connors a close friend of Richard, who mentors Peter is a neat idea. It actually works a lot in some scenes and the relationship with Peter and Curt is done so well as Curt missed his friend, Richard, and sees some of him in Peter.

Andrew Garfield does a great job as Peter and he was cast after Sony was impressed with his performance in the Social Network. Tobey Maguire did a great job too but there were certain elements of Spidey he didn’t fully get a chance to nail like one example is that Spider-Man loves to make fun of bad guys and love talking through the fights. There’s more of Peter’s wisecracking side as Spidey in the Amazing Spider-Man that Andrew wonderfully does right. While Andrew’s Spider-Man is great, there are moments it’s hard to believe that his Peter Parker is a “social outcast” at school or anything cause while he is bullied a few times, he’s a rebellious well liked skateboarding hipster before he even becomes Spider-Man. But this does make his Peter feel more believable as a smart teen who feels abandoned by his parents and doesn’t care much for his school life.

Playing Curt Connors is Rhys Ifans who I was already a fan of like with Andrew Garfield and when I found out he was playing the Lizard, I was excited as I saw Rhys Ifans already play an iconic villain before in the 2011 Neverland miniseries as Captain James Hook. In Neverland, Hook was portrayed as a father figure like villain to Peter Pan so I know doing that for Peter Parker would be easy for him. I’m more impressed with his performance as Curt than as the Lizard as I felt certain choices with the Lizard’s design and his face held back some of Rhys' performance. But like with past actors who played Spidey villains, you can tell he’s having fun with it and you definitely buy it. Curt is one of the more human villains in Spidey’s rogue gallery and you do feel sorry for him and what’s happening.

Peter’s love interest in the movie is Gwen Stacy played by Emma Stone and in the comics, she is Peter’s girlfriend before Mary Jane Watson so focusing on the romance with her and Peter helps it stand out from the Raimi films which were all about Peter and Mary Jane. Gwen is a fellow classmate and is smart just like Peter, even being Curt’s assistant at Oscorp and there are some very funny moments when Peter and Gwen happen to bump into each other multiple times before deciding to date. The romantic chemistry between Andrew and Emma is fantastic, especially as they dated each other in real life similar to how Tobey and Kirsten Dunst did in-between their Spidey films and very recently, Tom Holland and Zendaya are dating after starring in the current Spidey films. Gwen feels more involved in the story than MJ was in the Raimi trilogy and the romance does feel better portrayed. Helping make up Peter’s supporting cast is Sally Field as Aunt May, Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben, and Denis Leary as Gwen’s father, Captain George Stacy.

Sally Field admitted in some interviews that she resented playing Aunt May and the only reason she accepted the role is that one of her friends, Laura Ziskin who worked on the Amazing Spider-Man as a producer, convinced her to take the role. Unfortunately, Laura died in 2011 and Sally kept her promise to her friend by giving a great performance as Aunt May. While Sally felt that Aunt May was written to be one dimensional in the Amazing Spider-Man films, ironically enough, in some scenes, she felt more like a character than Rosemary Harris’s Aunt May in the Raimi films. Especially in this great moment when Peter comes home with bruises on his face from being Spider-Man and she confronts him a bit. As her husband, Martin Sheen does a nice job as Uncle Ben and he’s more in lined with the Ultimate Universe version of Uncle Ben who’s more confrontational with Peter as he makes mistakes.

There’s even some subtle moments as he sees his brother, Richard in Peter and wants him to be a responsible man like Richard which offends Peter as he only remembers his Dad as someone who left. This leads to a great argument between them before Uncle Ben dies and Marc Webb who directed the Amazing Spider-Man, love to soak in the emotion, similar to what Spider-Man films before and after this did and you feel it like you do in other Spidey films. There are some very real moments that you can’t help but feel moved by. After Uncle Ben dies and Peter goes to school, everyone looks at him cause they heard the news and Peter’s bully, Flash goes to talk to him. Peter tells him “Not today, Flash" before grabbing and pinning him to his locker, thinking Flash is gonna bully him again before Flash says he’s sorry for what happened to Uncle Ben.

Human moments like that are sprinkled throughout and I love those parts. Now Denis Leary as Captain Stacy kinda surprised me cause Denis Leary often played rough raggedy guys with a sense of humor so him playing a cop was kinda weird but he is great as Gwen’s Dad who’s a big overprotective type who’s a softie for Gwen. As the choice was made not to feature the Daily Bugle setting or J. Jonah Jameson, Captain Stacy kinda fills the role Jonah usually has which is the bitter guy who always nags about Spider-Man. They do some great stuff with George, especially in the third act as he becomes an ally to Peter. A lot of people have often said that Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins was a big influence on this film and you do see some of that aesthetically with some choices in the film.

There’s a lot of grounding in the film as Marc Webb made the Amazing Spider-Man almost a serious thriller in some parts. Spider-Man is mostly featured at night in most of the action scenes and they really focus on him being a vigilante. A lot of the marketing for this movie, especially the first teaser trailer felt Nolan like. George Stacy is used similar to Commissioner Gordon in Batman and in Batman Begins, the villains require deploying this gas for their plan and Lizard is trying his own chemical gas too for different reasons. Outside of certain tropes, it’s not a Christopher Nolan rip off or some dark formulaic movie that happens to have Spider-Man in it. Like other Spidey films, it becomes a film with a lot of heart and it tackles a lot of emotional beats.

I know some found the scaled down action in here to be a bit disappointing but there are moments it works as this is a rookie Spider-Man and you do feel the danger. There’s a moment I’m surprised they included but they kept in the school shooter allegory from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics. In Ultimate Spider-Man, Green Goblin attacks Peter’s school and they mimic that moment here with the Lizard attacking the school and the image of terrified students fleeing a villain that might kill them, green monster or not, is still an impacting moment. The allegory works a little too well in some parts but I applaud they went there. While the Amazing Spider-Man can be gloomy in some parts, it remembers to have hope and fun and happiness.

I know the Amazing Spider-Man is not for every Spidey fan but to me, it’s a great Spidey fan that had a different spin on it but with some familiar beats. Certain scenes of them redoing the origin might be annoying but they do enough to keep it fresh. There are elements I think they do better than some of the Raimi films and with my rating, I’ll give it the same rating I gave the 2002 film which is 4 out of 5 stars. To me, the 2002 Spider-Man is the best of the Raimi trilogy and I think the Amazing Spider-Man is on par with that film. I do think it’s a bit better in some ways like the effects or with how they handle Peter’s transformation into Spidey but I feel like some flaws with the action and the Lizard’s design holds some of the Amazing Spider-Man back a bit.

In the comics, the Lizard has a giant snout and is more green looking. I always found his design in the Amazing Spider-Man to be lacking a bit but the CGI is great and he is still a fun villain in some parts. Besides that, I still loved the Amazing Spider-Man and if you feel like checking it out, go ahead. It’s a charming reboot with a lot of heart and you might have a lot of fun with it like I did.