In my last entry, I mentioned how Marvel Films required studios that bought the film rights to various characters to continue making movies with said characters or else lose the rights to said characters. This is the basic explanation for why the reboot The Amazing Spider-Man exists at all. Efforts to get another trilogy or so out of director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire fell flat so in order to keep the cash cow that is the webslinger, Sony just went for a reboot.
All in all, it isn't a bad movie. It just feels somewhat pointless. Director Marc Webb, new to the genre and not at all named ironically, does a fair job, and new Spider-Man Andrew Garfield does bring both the manic energy of Spider-Man and the lowkey nerdiness of Peter Parker out well. He also looks more like a movie high school student despite being in his mid-twenties. Emma Stone takes over the role her castmate from The Help Bryce Dallas Howard played in the previous series of Gwen Stacy, and we get another take on the Spider-Man origin, complete with a villain Raimi hinted at with brief cameos but never let go full evil, Dr. Curt "The Lizard" Connors.
As always, the true challenge is to make a movie, so close in time to the last Spider-Man film, seem like it is different and unique enough to justify itself to anyone besides a Sony Pictures beancounter. Webb's take is to give us a younger Spider-Man with some kind of corporate espionage backstory. We get to see his parents before he is hustled off to his Aunt May and Uncle Ben's. Then they die in a mysterious plane crash that eventually leads Peter to look up his dad's old partner, Curt Connors (played by Rhys Ifans).
As his aunt and uncle, Sally Field seems largely wasted. She seems to have maybe four or five scenes and while she isn't the frail version as seen by Rosemary Harris, she isn't given much to do besides look upset. Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben seems to be coasting a bit. He does OK, I suppose, but I was never convinced he was the guy who made Peter feel the need to act after he gets shot.
For all that, there is a scene where Spider-Man catches a car thief that I think got more about Spider-Man than any of the other movies. The irreverent clown Spider-Man has been largely absent from the movies, and Garfield seems to be genuinely funny in the role.
A sequel is apparently already in the works, with a teaser at the end with a mysterious man (probably Norman Osbourne) confronting the imprisoned Connors who implores the man to leave Peter alone. We all know that won't happen. The only question is whether or not audiences will do the same.
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