I am amazed at how the special effects have evolved over the last ten years. My daughters and I watched the original the night before we went to this new one and the special effects in the 2002 version look cartoony by comparison. This Spidey looks more weighty and affected by gravity rather than the lilting big screen Spidey of days gone by. I also like the way that this Spider-Man has a harder time finding surfaces to swing from, even in New York City. Spidey even needs some help from good, old fashioned, gravity bound humans to save the day. This movie felt like a cross between a Christopher Nolan Batman movie and a Spider-Man movie. It has a darker and more melancholy feel. The music was also a bit of a surprise as James Horner's usage of more of the orchestra and his recognizable style isn't heard a lot in movies as of late. I recognized the music as his part way through the film. Some of his music works and some doesn't seem to suit some of the scenes.
I liked the cast. Garfield makes a great Peter Parker and gives life to the classic comic character's bookish, quiet, geeky scientific personality. I love that he invented the web shooters like the comics instead of the organic webbing of the first three films. The whole thing was that Parker was a genius who could invent web shooters. Gwen Stacey, played by Emma Stone, is a strong and sweet lead female and the way that the writers developed the romance between Peter and Gwen was solid and not sappy. I liked Sally Field as Aunt May and the way that she was strong, and smart. Martin Sheen was good as Uncle Ben and I really didn't want him to die in this one-but it was necessary. Rhys Ifans made a good conflicted villain. I am looking forward to seeing this series' incarnation of J.Jonah Jameson. I think this is the best cameo of Stan Lee in any Marvel Super-Hero film.
I like that the film didn't resolve everything and definitely had a first-chapter feel to it. Spider-Man shows he is human and uses that transparency to save people. He can be bruised and battered and gets a little more realistically beat up than the average super-hero.
If people that like the first three (or at least the first two) can manage to not compare The Amazing Spider-Man to them then I think that they will like this movie. Sam Raimi caught the buoyant nature of Spidey and Peter Parker's problems but Marc Webb has brought Spidey into the Dark Knight era of Super Hero films. I liked it.
8.4 out of 10.
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