My Review of The Amazing Spider-Man · 7:10pm Sep 17th, 2023
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, everyone. This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing “The Amazing Spider-Man” from 2012. Now, I may not be a huge Marvel fan, but Spider-Man has always been one of my favorite superheroes since childhood. I grew up and adored Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and I never imagined the franchise ever getting a reboot. But when I saw glimpses of the trailer for this movie back at the time, I was a little confused because I realized they didn’t bring back Tobey Maguire and it’s a different Spider-Man. Even my dad was surprised by this and thought, “Are they getting the Green Goblin again now?”
Then when I learned that they’re making a new series, I was disinterested for a very long time. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that I finally decided to check out the movie myself, thanks to “Spider-Man: No Way Home”. As I watched Marc Webb’s first SM movie, I initially enjoyed it. I thought it was a great movie from start to finish.
I haven’t seen the film again since then. So in order to refresh my memory, I decided to re-watch this movie this morning so that I can be ready for my review. To put it simply…I no longer enjoy this movie. I am sad to say that this movie wasn’t as good as I remember.
This film is about young Peter Parker who is left behind by his parents for mysterious reasons. Left at the care of his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, Peter has to grow up without his father looking after him. But as he discovers some information about his father and the work he was doing, he intends to find more answers. That’s where he comes across a radioactive spider at Oscorp. From then on, he learns and adapts to become the amazing Spider-Man.
Huh, more like the amazingly BAD Spider-Man. Now, before I tear this apart, I do want to highlight some few things I liked about it. It has some great action scenes with The Lizard, impressive CGI, decent sound effects, and solid acting. Andrew Garfield honestly had a spectacular performance as the web-slinger himself while doing a decent job as Peter Parker. His version of Spider-Man is more accurate when it comes to making quips and having a more vibrant personality.
He really did his best with the half-assed material he was given. The same can be said for Rhys Ifans and his near-perfect portrayal of The Lizard. The other actors—namely Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, the late Irrfan Khan, and Denis Leary did a great job acting as their respective characters.
Unfortunately, this is where the positives for this film end. It has so many problems that I just don’t know where to begin. I might not have enough room to list out every single flaw, but it’s worth a shot. Let’s start from less worse to the worst:
First off, what in the hell was that whole scene with Peter at Oscorp? The industry has the weakest security I’ve ever seen; Peter walks in and has to disguise himself with someone else’s badge which…results in that other person getting kicked out. How?? Shouldn’t they look into his state ID to prove that he was what he said he was?
Even worse, Peter spies on someone walking into a secret room where all the radioactive spiders are kept, and he just happens to stumble upon the machinery to cause its minor malfunction?? Oh, and one of them crawls on him? That’s just the dumbest adaption of his origin story, in my opinion. It’s like he was purposefully trying to get into an accident without thinking straight.
Moving on, the way Uncle Ben died was hilariously idiotic. He clearly saw that the robber was about to get his gun back, yet he decided to play the hero which got himself killed. In real life, a smarter person would back off and call 911. Don’t do something stupid that will cost your life, folks. The deleted version of his death scene is so much better and makes more sense.
This is a minor nitpick, but it seems like Aunt May stopped being an important character after Uncle Ben’s death. There were at least two scenes between her and Peter talking together throughout the latter half of the movie, but that’s just about it. Those scenes had little impact and didn’t last long enough to make an impression—to make me sympathetic for these characters.
Now here is where things get extremely frustrating. Spider-Man has now become a thing, he’s stopping criminals left and right, and Captain Stacy is not happy about it. That alone makes sense because vigilantism is illegal; but here’s the problem that arises: when the Lizard starts terrorizing people at the bridge and Spider-Man saves their lives—especially saving that kid’s life and bringing him back to his father—Stacy issued an arrest warrant for Spider-Man.
WHAT THE FUCK?! There were a few witnesses who saw Spider-Man save lives and save a CHILD from doom but not a single one of them defended him in public? Shouldn’t there have been protests or dozens of people objecting to the police because of that? Why didn’t that father say something like, “Spider-Man is not a criminal! He saved my son’s life! I saw him with my own eyes!”
And here’s something even more infuriating: Captain Stacy believed that the existence of the Lizard was merely speculation and nothing more…..despite the fact that multiple people ran away from SEEING A GIANT LIZARD attacking them and their vehicles! People would’ve taken out their phones from a safe distance and taken pictures of him! IS CAPTAIN STACY STUPID???
Oh, and why did Spider-Man focus his attention to save a boy yet completely ignore all the other cars dangling by a web thread? Why did that man’s car burn from the spilling gasoline while all the other hanging cars were fine? It makes zero sense.
Oh, oh, oh, how can I forget this—before he became Spider-Man…Peter has been swinging around buildings…no mask, no suit yet—where people can easily see him in plain sight. Dude, people are gonna know you’re Spider-Man!! Are you dumb? That defeats the whole anonymous superhero shtick. He clings on walls and climbs through windows where people can see him through their windows by chance. That is both risky, dumb, and irresponsible.
He does this throughout 80% of the movie, yet not once does he ever realize that it is wrong and dangerous. Yet he’s supposed to be the one who fulfills his watchword duty: “With great power comes great responsibility”?
And don’t forget that scene where he accidentally ripped a women’s blouse off in a train and accidentally fought all the men who rightfully thought they were protecting her from seemingly sexual harassment. They would see his face and call the police to look for him. Great idea, Peter Prick.
Lastly, Stacey’s dying promise to Peter has been grossly misunderstood. This is my personal opinion on this, so feel free to disagree, but I think Peter misunderstood what Captain Stacy meant when he told him to “leave Gwen out of it”. I think what he actually meant was “As long as you’re Spider-Man, don’t come near her. But she’ll always be safe around Peter.”
Thankfully, she learned that he’s Spider-Man so she won’t ever feel like he’s holding secrets from her since they’ve become a thing. So whenever Peter has to go out to fight crime as Spider-Man, Gwen will be kept safe from harm so long as she isn’t around him at all. But Peter took it way too seriously to the point where he didn’t attend her father’s funeral and didn’t talk to her. That means she won’t be around Spider-Man and Peter.
That is just pointless, unnecessary drama that didn’t need to happen. If Peter had more than one brain cell working in his frontal lobe, he would have understood the assignment her father gave him.
Lastly, Stacy’s death had zero emotional impact as well. If he wasn’t such an idiot throughout the whole movie, I would have actually liked him, and his involvement to defeat the Lizard would’ve felt earned. Your death isn’t gonna make me like you, Stacy. Nice try, Marc Webb, but you’re gonna have to do a lot better than that.
And why was Curt Conners trying to save Peter right after he lost the battle? Did the antidote give him a sudden change of heart or something? What was that all about?
Wow, guys. This movie is far from terrible, but it’s still bad…like actually bad. This gets a solid 3/10. I honestly can’t tell if the studio executives interfered with the production of this movie or something, but whatever the case is, I can kinda see the passion Marc Webb put into this movie…but it is an illogical dumpster fire. I am hoping that my re-watching of the second movie will prove to be a better overall movie-watching experience.
Peace out.
Personally, I believe that it was exactly that. Executive interference.
Several people have frequently commented on YouTube that the deleted scenes for both this movie and the 2nd film were infinitely better, and they appeared to genuinely showcase Marc Webb’s actual vision for the films.
Why do you think I’ve been campaigning so hard for Sony to release the clearly existing director’s cuts for them in the first place?
And don’t even get me started on Dr. Curt Conners being prevented from having actual character development. Or the numerous amount of plot inconsistencies.
5746872
Yeah, I can see why you’ve been so vocal about it. But I still think these executives won’t even care about releasing the Webb cuts.
Aside from that, do you have any thoughts on all the points I’ve made?
5746877
Maybe. Although, Spider-Man proved to be a particular cash cow for Sony in the past, and with how big of a fanbase the character has, it’s probably become apparent to them that anything Spider-Man related would easily draw them in easy money.
I thought you were very spot-on with the things you noted. As a matter of fact, as I think back on the things mentioned in this review, such as Peter gaining his superpowers and Uncle Ben’s death, it occurred to me that so many things regarding its story felt too plot convenient and forced. Especially when you compare it to how those aspects were done in the first Spider-Man film starring Tobey Maguire.
5746885
Hmm, fair enough, I guess. Best of luck with your petitions, dude. 👍🏼
5746886
Thanks.
5746886
Out of curiosity…
Even though the campaign isn’t something you’re particularly interested in being a part of, would you consider helping me promote the petition? Mainly by sharing a link to it on one of your blogs?
5746897
Sure, go ahead.
5746906
Thank you.
Would you like for me to give you the link to the petition itself? Or the link to the blog post I shared it on recently?
5746907
the petition itself
5746910
Alright.
Here it is then:
https://chng.it/WjmRzBHPJR
The reason why Curt Connors saved Peter was because it was the lizard serum that made him obsessed with giving everyone what he thought was a miracle. When he was cured, he regained his sanity.