The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

So I just finished watching The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) yesterday. It had been the first time I had watched it its entirety since it came out almost a decade ago. And part of the reason I wanted to revisit it was because I just saw Spider-Man: No Way Home which of course reunites previous incarnations of the character of Spider-Man Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire with the current version played by Tom Holland and having really enjoyed the latest one I thought it would be interesting to revisit this second incarnation which stars Andrew Garfield in the main role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and see how it held up. And much to my surprise, I found myself enjoying it far more than I did when I first saw it back in 2012.

For those who need a recap, The Amazing Spider-Man was a reboot or alternate universe-version of the iconic Marvel Comics character Spider-Man that was marvelously played by Tobey Maguire in the Sam Raimi-directed trilogy from 2002-07 and a fourth film starring Tobey Maguire was planned but both Raimi and Maguire opted to drop out because they felt they couldn’t get a script they were satisfied with and shoot a film in the timeframe that Sony wanted so Sony decided to go with a reboot (this was before Disney and Sony would work out a deal to incorporate Spider-Man in the MCU. So here we have The Amazing Spider-Man which starred British actor Andrew Garfield of course as Spider-Man, Emma Stone as his love interest Gwen Stacy, and Rhys Ifans as Dr Curt Connors who becomes the villain the Lizard in the main roles. The general plot of the movie is the familiar origin story of how awkward high schooler Peter Parker gets bitten by a genetically-engineered spider, gains Spider-like superpowers, and decides to use his newfound powers to fight crime after the murder of his Uncle Ben. And alongside the way, he has to balance his double-life as a high school student with that of his secret life as a costumed superhero while battling an eccentric assortment of supervillains.

As far as the storytelling and tone goes, it’s a little bit uneven, the film attempts to be a more gritty and reality-grounded take on the Spider-Man character than the Sam Raimi-directed versions while at the same time balancing out the more fantastical elements of the character mythos so sometimes the film feels whimsical like a typical comic book film but then it goes to more serious character drama and that transition can be a bit jarring. Now I admit I’m not too familiar with the Spider-Man comics but from my understanding, this Marc Webb take uses inspiration from the later alternate incarnations of Spider-Man comics and graphic novels written in the 90’s and 2000’s which are more modern and science-fiction oriented while the Raimi movies take more inspiration from the older Spider-Man comics from the early 60’s and 70’s which are more light-hearted and fantasy-oriented. However, the strengths of this film are really in the performances of the main leads in particular by Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. Garfield plays Spider-Man in a very nuanced manner with a lot more subtlety than Tobey Maguire’s version but he does so in a way that makes his suited version of Spider-Man all the more interesting and idiosyncratic. He’s very convincing in distinguishing the jokey, wisecracking Spider-Man from his regular identity of the brooding, sullen teenager Peter Parker. In fact Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in many ways resembles Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the original Tim Burton version of Batman from 1989 while Tobey Maguire’s version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man has much more in common with Christian Bale’s version of Batman as well as Christopher Reeve’s version of Superman. While Tobey Maguire is still incredible as Spider-Man, the key difference between Tobey’s and Andrew’s portrayal is that Tobey has a much more fleshed-out and intimate psychological portrayal of Peter Parker and how he deals with being Spider-Man while Andrew plays him in a far more subtle and enigmatic manner that evokes Keaton’s Batman. Both portrayals are very strong and memorable in their own right, so in terms of determining who is better, I guess it all depends on your preference. However the common consensus seems to be that Tobey Maguire is a better Peter Parker while Andrew Garfield is the better Spider-Man.

Regardless of which portrayal you prefer, one element that can’t be overlooked is the strong direction particularly where the actors are concerned. Marc Webb (last name being Webb I’m sure is just a funny coincidence but what the hell do I know lol) comes from an indie film background and was best known before this take on Spider-Man for directing the indie romantic comedy-drama (500) Days of Summer starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel and his strength for directing quirky but endearing performances really shows here. The romantic scenes between Garfield and Emma Stone are very strong and both characters are very likeable and have awesome chemistry (which is not that much of a surprise given that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone ended up dating in real life). And while the action scenes may come off as a bit standard, the rest of the supporting cast are very good; veteran acting heavy weights like Martin Sheen and Sally Field do a good job as Peter’s Aunt May and Uncle Ben respectively and provide the typical parental mentor influence to Peter and comedian Dennis Leary in particular is very entertaining as the sarcastic but determined police Captain Stacy who is also the father of Gwen Stacy in the film and has some very funny moments with good snappy dialogue similar to the J Jonah James news editor character in the Raimi films.

So overall, The Amazing Spider-Man is a mixed bag that doesn’t always feel cohesive but the strong performances, with Andrew Garfield in particular as the lead role, make the movie worth watching at least once. I didn’t care for it much when it first came out almost a decade ago in part because of how pointless I thought it would be to rehash the Spider-Man origin story so soon after the original trilogy and maybe this movie would have been better if they had just gone a James Bond-type route of different actors portraying the same character in a different set of films set in a different canon or something. But now that Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire are both part of the same MCU multiverse and having both iterations of the character act alongside the latest version of Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home played by Tom Holland was so enjoyable for me, I guess I’m able to enjoy it a lot more now upon a second viewing. So that’s my take on The Amazing Spider-Man from 2012. Go ahead and check the movie out!