The Amazing Spiderman comes across as a plot torn between an urge to rise above the comic book-ish feel of its predecessors and the need to engage with low brow wit. Neither does it have the irreverence of the previous three versions, nor is it sufficiently gritty and dark like the Dark Knight series. End result is a film that is a moderately satisfying outing with one of the most popular comic book hero's of recent times.
Within a decade of the immensely successful trilogy starring Tobby Mcguire, The Amazing Spiderman reboots the series with Andrew Garfield as its new face. The story for most part is setting in the ground work for future sequels in the series, hence there is lot of talking a lot less of actual web slinging fun.
The story is decisively given a more emotional touch and feel. Andrew Garfield's Spidey is vulnerable, vengeful all too boyish unlike Tobby's righteous man. Andrew is an impressive actor with an arresting screen presence, an advantage he utilizes to the hilt. What does disappoint is the fact that we see too much of Peter Parker and too less of Spiderman in the movie. Emma Stone as Gwen is pleasing and much better than Mary Jane of the earlier version.
It is not just the superhuman who is humanized this time, Even Curts as the lizard man is not entirely evil. He comes across as one with a good intent but wrong means, in effect eliminating a lot of the tension that the classic good vs evil showdown should have in a movie like this. The mandatory high octane climax comes far too late in the film to actually dazzle.
The 3D here is utterly unnecessary having very limited effect in enhancing the experience. Irfan Khan disappears as abruptly as he appeared, so much for the Indian connection. Yet despite these shortcomings, it is amazing how the man in red and blue spandex still manages to excite the child in you. One can only hope the sequel packs in enough webs in the plot so as to make us forgive this underwhelming start.
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