Lifestyle: My review on "The Amazing Spider-Man"...

Last Sunday, I was tasked to review the film  "The Amazing Spider-Man". It is the untold story of Peter Parker (played by Andrew Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance - leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.


The british actor Andrew Garfield makes for a better Spider-Man than Tobey Maguire. He is oozing with sex appeal on screen. He makes for a twitchy and charming Spidey, but Garfield's Peter Parker is ever-so-slightly outdone by Maguire's. The Aunt Mays and Uncle Bens are comparable, however Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy is far more enjoyable to watch than Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane (MJ) Watson. The comparisons demand to be made as Sony's bringing the franchise back to life with new blood a mere five years after Spider-Man 3, and casting-wise this new Spider-Man has the edge overall.


The film does manage to be entertaining. The relationship between Peter and Gwen is genuine and sweet. They click on screen, and they are both fun to watch. Denis Leary is terrific as Captain Stacy. The Spidey swinging effects and the webslinging look pretty decent. However, I can say that this Amazing Spider-Man is infinitely more entertaining than Spider-Man 3. Unfortunately, Raimi's first Spider-Man is still the better 'origin' movie. It needed to really wow us because of the fact it's revisiting a story we've basically seen on screen before.


The Amazing Spider-Man was directed by Marc Webb and is rated PG-13 for sequences of action and violence. It runs 2 hours and 17 minutes. The film was written by Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, and James Vanderbilt.


4 ****out of 5 Stars