Let's admit it now and get it out of the way, shall we? This summer is all about one superhero, and that is our pointy-headed chum in the Dark Knight series. If not him, then the attention has been all over (and rightly so) The Avengers earlier in the year. Furthermore, the Spider-Man 3 was a great big, steamy pile of Spider-Plop. It crucified an iconic Spidey villain, and decided that the best way to keep people entertained was to make the already slightly irritating Tobey Maguire make faces like this:
Or even worse, we were supposed to feel sympathy for Spider-Man, whilst he pulled faces like this:
So it would be fair to say that the masses had sort of given up on Spider-Man. After all, we now have a fully functional Iron Man, Thor, Incredible Hulk, Captain America and friends to turn to, do we really need to go back to the story we saw unfold just ten years ago? But think about it, the conclusion of Sam Raimi's trilogy killed the franchise, it needed an injection of a little more tongue-in-cheek realism with the wise cracking Spidey we all wanted. Plus, lots and lots of cool "hey look at these amazing new powers" scenes, and less of the "I must be a bit evil now, because I have emo hair". So yes, yes we did need a new Spider-Man, even at the expense of the first two movies, anything to wipe out the memory of the last one will do.
The plot is essentially a re-hashing of the basic Spider-Man origin story, but with a lot more thought put into Peter Parker's parents. Peter is left in the care of his Uncle Ben and Aunt May while his parents mysteriously disappear after the burglary of Richard Parker's study. The Parkers are killed in the plane crash, and neither Peter nor Ben or May know exactly what secret documents they were trying to protect, or who from. All grown up, Peter stumbled upon said documents in a hidden compartment in his father's briefcase and tracks down his dad's former partner, Dr. Curt Connors, who was working on cross-species gene splicing, inspired by the loss of his own right arm. Peter, a brilliant scientific mind, figures out his father's work and offers it to Dr. Connors, but is bitten by one of the gene-spliced spiders bred by Richard: voila, a Spider-Man. The work produces a formula which transforms Connors into the Lizard and rampages follow. It's not exactly The Shawshank Redemption, but it's a good, solid one.
The most notably impressive performance from the cast is of course Spider-Man himself, Andrew Garfield. He simply nails the slight awkward confidence of Peter Parker, and resembles exactly the sort of superhero that inspired the non-superhero in Kickass; wise-cracking and bad-guy catching. Even in moments where all that is required of him is a geeky grin Garfield excels, simply put, the franchise would be more mad than a sackful of Tom Cruises to replace him in any sequels. Then there's Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Peter's love interest. Her character is one of quiet strength, she doesn't tend to actually say that much in the film, but whenever she does, she's relevant and not "THAT WAS A DEFINITE PLOT MOVING DEVICE", which is always good. Furthermore, the chemistry between Stone and Garfield is brilliant and believable, the whole awkward teen thing down to an art. Rhys Ifans plays Dr. Connors/Lizard, and is basically what you expect from him: energetic, fully committed and just a hint of slightly deranged for the perfect can-you-trust-him sort of good guy/bad guy. Unfortunately, his character is a little more obvious, and a you tend to find yourself thinking he only says things that are there to make sure everyone in the audience fully follows what's going on. And of course, there's a good support from the naturally flawless Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben and ever-pleasing Sally Field as Aunt May, just what you'd expect. I know he's been acting for ages now, but I still love seeing Denis Leary turn up on screen, and this time he's Captain George Stacy, head of the police and Gwen's dad, and he does exactly what's needed, and definitely doesn't sing about being an a-hole. Oh, and naturally, Stan Lee has a cameo again, and it hits the mark once more.
All round the effects are very good, if a little guilty of being too inclined towards looking spiffy in 3D. The scenes of Spidey swinging his way through New York are even more impressive than those in the previous films, which, despite the years that have passed, is still an achievement. The Lizard on large is pretty good too, never looking obviously out of place like oh so many CGI monsters in the past, though you can't help but think (as most of the internet now does), that he has an uncanny resemblance to Goomba, from that awful Mario Brothers film...
There is one moment involving Freddie the three-legged lab mouse that unfortunately nearly ruins the credibility of the entire movie, thanks to a mixture of SFX and the actual idea itself. The mouse becomes a tiny version of Dr Connor's new form, and well...it's just ridiculous. Yes it less Peter Parker know what's going on...but I mean...seriously? Okay so maybe I thought about it too much, but it really is a little stupid.
But all in all, that's the only massive complaint I had about the entire film, which is nice, given that I'd already admitted I was prepared for the worst going into it. It's not on the same plane of existence as the recent Batman films, but then again, it's not supposed to be, it's a light-hearted superhero movie with the occasional moments of brooding emotion, not the other way around. And what's much more, it makes you actually struggle to remember that in a previous film Spider-Man fought with becoming Venom by dancing down the street like a pimp...
3.5/5 - I don't really like giving decimal ratings, it's a bit of a cop out, I know. But I'm still torn a little. It's definitely a good film, and it's very much better than probably two of the previous trilogy. Yet there were just a couple of things that grated on me and left it lacking. The aforementioned wobbles with the Connors/Lizard character, and the ridiculous lab mouse scene were negative points, and there seemed to be moments where the flow of the film was disrupted by oddly timed cuts of scenes. However, this is a Spider-Man movie more in the spirit of the comic, and whilst it may not be 100% brilliant, it is a little bit amazing (sorry) in places. Very enjoyable.
P.S.
Stick around after credits! Yours truly forgot it was a Marvel film and didn't observe the rule of "sit till something mysterious has happened".
