Movie Review: The Amazing Spiderman…is an unnecessary reboot to the franchise

When I first saw the trailers of this reboot of our friendly neighborhood web-slinger (and I am big fan)..there was only one question on my mind..Why?? Why would you plan a reboot for a franchise that had fairly established itself (of course, barring Spiderman 3 which is where things probably started to go wrong). Sam Raimi’s spiderman pretty much captured the essence of the superhero across various dimensions. What was the need for a re-boot? Unfortunately, after seeing the movie..I still ask the same question
If there was one thing about Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, it knew the story it wanted to tell and told it well. In stark contrast, the story development in Amazing Spiderman is horrendously weak. Its almost as if the director wanted to just separate himself from the earlier franchise..by whatever means possible, even if it made no sense. So while Parker is still going to be bit by a spider there’s some unnecessary and unconvincing nonsense around how it happens and how he becomes Spidey. In fact, in the entire first half, the only saving grace is that though they replaced the character of Mary Jane with another girl, we get the much prettier and imminently watchable Emma Stone to play the love interest
Thankfully the movie picks up significantly after that and we get what we really came to see. With Spiderman having discovered who he is, its the Spidey action that really grabs your attention. You see, the thing about Spidey is that he is extremely fast, but with the marvellous camera-work of The Amazing Spiderman, the camera manages to stay on him every single frame so you follow the action to the T.
Andrew Garfield as the new Spidey tries his best to look the part but doesn’t manage to do very well in the end. Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curtis Connors, though, does a really good job and despite a weak villain makes quite an impression. Our own Irrfan Khan is also there, though his dialogues are minimal and he delivers them in his trademark no-nonsense fashion.
If the trailer of this re-boot impressed you, well it was meant to..because there isn’t too much the new Spidey has to offer. However, that 40 odd minutes of Spidey action is about the most immersive and well executed parts of the movie. Its also probably the only time when you notice the 3D. You can pretty much watch the first half of the movie without the glasses altogether, for all the 3D it offers.
All in all, the new age action, camera work and special effects make a new Spiderman movie every bit worth the effort. If only they had done it as Spiderman 4 (in continuation of the franchise) this could have been one kickass movie. As it stands though, there is little that is ‘Amazing’ about the new Spiderman and if you decide to give it a miss, you won’t miss much