I have mixed feelings about the Spider-Man films directed by Sam Raimi.  I was 100 hundred percent behind Columbia pictures decision to reboot the series and have someone else play Peter Parker because I always felt Tobey Maguire was miscast and so was Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson.   THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is another origin story told in a different way exploring old ground and making it fresh.   As a result, the casting, writing and character development is better than anything in those Sam Raimi films which ends up with the best Spider-Man film so far.  It is fun and exciting even though the 3D doesn't feature up front as in other 3D movies.

Andrew Garfield is Peter Parker, who was abandoned by his parents at a young age and left to live with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May.   He finds his father's old briefcase which starts the chain of events that leads Peter to become Spider-Man after getting bitten by a genetically alternated spider in a visit to OsCorp to find answers to what work his father did.  Peter loses his father to a gun shot by a robber Peter could have stopped, gets a girlfriend (Gwen Stacy played by the beautiful and charming Emma Stone), fights the Lizard (caused by a formula of his father's that Peter gives to his father's former colleague, Dr. Curt Connors), and end up on the most wanted list by the police led by Captain George Stacy.   

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is the start of a mythology you see the seeds being laid down (The Daily Bugle, Peter trying to take pictures for proof of the Lizard, Oscorp, and talk of Norman Osborn dying) in what is supposed to be the first in a new trilogy.   I love that the web shooters are in this new movie and that Spider-Man is the joker I know of in the comics and animated series.   Andrew Garfield is the better choice for Peter Parker- he seems to embody the character of the comics much more. I loved the relationship that is growing between Peter and Gwen.  It is awkward and yet so touching.   I'm waiting to see what happens to Gwen Stacy next (I know of her ultimate fate since I have read the comics and I wonder whether that story will be in the sequel or the third film).    THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is one of the films I enjoyed as much as THE AVENGERS and I can't wait to see the sequel.  My faith has been renewed in the SPIDER-MAN movies.

this movie review is (c)7-4-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com