The Amazing Spiderman

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 29th June, 2012
Time : 136 minutes
Director : Marc Webb; Writers : James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, Steve Kloves, based on the Marvel characters created by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko; Music : James Horner
Starring : Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Dennis Leary, Sally Fields, Irrfan Khan

Take the original film. Add few layers of intrigue, some degrees of greyness, reduce dramatically cuteness and finally inject some great action. Voila, I present the Amazing Spiderman

It’s the same, yet its new. He is an orphan, brought up by his uncle & aunt, but there is some intrigue about what his father was doing, the circumstances of his death. He is still bitten by a spider but then comes up with certain stunts on his own. He still does fall for someone but it’s Gwen, not Mary Jane. And there is a villain, Lizard man but to a degree its his fault, in some ways, his own creation.

Andrew Garfield brings something refreshing to the character. He is not all sweet & saccharine but has a look about him, a certain something in his demeanor which suggests there are secrets, a darker side, some hidden abilities to him. And all this without losing the friendliness and the fun. I fell for Emma Stone in Zombieland. Spiderman’s girlfriend always has to play second fiddle but here she manages to infuse it with some steel, showcasing intelligence and feistiness, which make her essential to his life.

Dennis Leary has always been a favourite of mine and here, as the police captain, Gwen’s father, is a treat. Martin Sheen brings some gravitas to the role of Uncle Ben and it’s a delight to watch Irrfan bring his trademark deadpan delivery to a brief but hopefully a role that fleshes out more in the future.

The scene where Andrew gets up in the morning and discovers his strength after having been bitten the previous night, could not be any funnier. The repartee between Emma and Andrew is fun & frothy. And the action sequences are impressive. I’ve always felt that in this era of special effects its becoming progressively tougher to be able to elicit ‘oohs & aahs’ from the audience. After all how much can you show in slow motion, how many cars can you blow up etc. To the credit of the director, he manages to astonish us in a few places with the help of 3D and some well thought out camera angles.

There are some giant tarantula sized holes in the script, lots of very implausible events, things that don’t make sense. Also, somewhere at the back of my head, couldn’t help but feel that it was too soon for a remake, with the original still fresh in my mind. Isn’t ten years too soon to be doing another version ? Having said that, I enjoyed it immensely…