Hello folks this is Ace on Deck reviewing “The Amazing Spider-Man” movie featuring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Rhys Ifans, Dennis Leary, and is directed by Marc Webb (major spoiler alert). The story starts off with little Peter Parker innocently playing a game of hide and seek with his father Richard Parker (Campbell Scott). Peter stumbles upon a broken window and scattered material around his father's office. Seeing the widespread damage, Richard Parker quickly grabs his son, taking him away from the scene. He and his wife Mary Parker (Embeth Davidtz) frantically plan to leave, dropping young Peter off with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May (played by Martin Sheen and Sally Field) and are never seen again.
We skip ahead to lanky teen Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) roaming Midtown Science High School with his camera. He can best be described as socially awkward but not to the point that he’s getting wedgies by the high school jocks. Speaking of jocks, he attempts to save a nerd from getting faceplanted into his food by a jock nicknamed “Flash” (Chris Zylka). Peter gets his ass kicked for his troubles but in the process he gets noticed by Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), who convinces Flash to stop beating the living crap out of Peter. From this point on, Gwen begins to notice Peter who also happens to have a crush on her.
Peter is interested in science, following in the footsteps of his father and on top of that, he’s always wondered what happened to his parents. He stumbles upon a leather briefcase with his father's initals and finds out about his father's science partner Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans). He sneaks into Oscorp pretending to be a Hispanic intern and joining a group of interns touring the facility. He bumps into Rajit Ratha (Irrfan Khan) who happens to drop top secret information in Peter's view, which is similar to Richard Parker's research. He follows Ratha to a top secret lab that contains hundreds of spiders. Peter enters the lab and sets off a sensor, letting all the spiders loose. One of these spiders happens to bite him in the back of the neck. He wakes up the next morning with insane abilities of cat like reflexes, disturbingly sticky hands and the strength of a steroid user to the point he destroys his bathroom sink and door. Thus begins Peter’s newfound focus on finding out about his powers and his father's research. He searches for Dr. Connors and gives him the information that was missing from Connors’s research. From the research, they use the DNA of a lizard to test on mice, regrowing their lost limbs. They try endlessly until they’re finally successful in their mission.
Because of the incident that happened with Flash, Uncle Ben would drop Peter off to school and in turn, Peter would go pick up Aunt May. However hanging out with Dr. Connors, Peter forgets to pick up May and Uncle Ben gets pissed at Peter for his irresponsibility. So Peter runs away from home with Uncle Ben in pursuit. After he eludes Ben, Peter goes into a store for milk, but is turned away from the store owner. A would be robber would give Peter the milk who would eventually run into Uncle Ben, shooting him faster than you can make Uncle Ben's minute rice. In a sad scene, Peter tries desperately to save his Uncle Ben but to no avail.
At this point Peter's sole mission is to hunt down and avenge Uncle Ben. He’ll get the idea of his costume after having a run-in with some pimps, leading to a pro wrestling ring. Looking at one of the posters around the ring, Peter would get the idea for his mask. He would gradually build up the idea of his superhero wardrobe by adding spandex, a cool spider design and electronic cartridges of spider threading to his arsenal. And in the end he’ll use his new found abilities to tackle his greatest foe – The Lizard.
I will admit I’m not full-fledged Spider-Man fan – personally I think Peter Parker is a wuss. From the classic cartoon, which I ironically love to watch on Netflix to the below average original movie trilogy which starred Tobey McGuire, Kristen Dunst, and James Franco, Spider-Man was something I could care less for. The plot is thoroughly explained telling the story of why Peter Parker became the web slinger we all know as Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield did a great job considering the fact that I can see him starring in a Twilight flick than this movie. From his geekish mannerisms to telling Gwen Stacy who is the boss, Garfield did a better job in this role than Tobey McGuire ever did. Sally Field and Martin Sheen played their roles perfect. I love the fact the writer didn't give us a Lifetime movie script when it came to their parts. Their roles were the key to Peter Parker's love and support and why he chose to become a superhero. Emma Stone is just one of those actresses, who in my eyes, as long as she doesn't overdue the cutesy stuff then she can do no wrong. I also loved Dennis “I am an asshole” Leary's role as Gwen Stacy's father. He is a simply a badass. I watched many of his roles especially Rescue Me and well he did what he does best - be a badass.
There are a few people that may nitpick on little details like the length of the film, which happened to be over two hours. I honestly didn’t notice it - it was so captivating. The CGI is typical of what you will find in most superhero flick these days. It was cartoony, but not to the point where it is stupid. I would nitpick on this film if I had issues with it, but it was a great movie. If I were to rate The Amazing Spider-Man compared to the Raimi trilogy, this movie would easily beat all three. Is it better than the Avengers or The Dark Knight? Heck No! But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give this great movie a try, which gets 4 out of TOV 5.
