Review Rating: 8

A new imagining on the favored comic book story, Peter Parker finds himself with new spider-related powers, trying to save the mad Dr. Connors from himself!

I liked the first Spider-Man with Toby Maguire, I did. 2 was stretching it a bit, when they came out with the humanizing (oh the irony of the word) of the character, which usually means humiliating them as much as possible. And 3, I’m sorry, I have to agree with most people I know, Spider-Man 3 was just awful, for many varied reasons I’m not going into now. This new version of Spider-Man, I was leery of, having never heard of Andrew Garfield, and why do we need yet another Spider-Man movie anyway? This re-imagining of the story answers that why in a big way: because they did it better. This Spider-Man is truly indeed amazing: he revels in his powers, he cracks jokes as he whips up the bad guys in spider-silk, and did I mention this version of Peter Parker is a total badass and still remains a high school student throughout the entire movie? Oh yes.

Gwen Stacey is the love interest, she’s played by Emma Stone, and I just adore her. It’s also a smart move on the filmmakers’ part: Stacey was Parker’s first love in the comic books after all. Rhys Ifans is Dr. Connors, one-armed scientist who becomes the wayward Lizard sort-of villain, and this version of a villain for Spider-Man is the reluctant and apologetic bad guy, which I’m totally down for. Denis Leary, the mad-mouth-man himself, is Captain Stacey, Gwen’s father, disapproving and stern, and yet helpful when the situation requires it – kind of like real life, if you think about it. The introduction of Sally Field as Aunt May, may have been a bit of a misfire – I always saw Aunt May as much stronger than what they portrayed her as in this movie, but then this is the beginning where she loses her husband and has to find her strength first. And then there’s Uncle Ben, acted by the legendary Martin Sheen – he gets the best one-liners for anyone not mutating in the movie, and I totally felt him in that role.

So Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is a huge science nerd here in high school, and he and Gwen are already dancing around the proverbial bush as far as dating and making out. Fortunately for him, Gwen works as an intern at the Oscorp labs Peter tries to break into, where Dr. Connors takes a shine to him. Dr. Connors starts off as a man with a missing arm and a dream large enough to compensate for it, regeneration, like lizards and the like are capable of. Peter helps him realize that dream after getting bit by those dern super spiders the Doc just happens to have in the lab, and Dr. Connors goes from mild mannered to megalomaniac in a far too easy transition. We all know what happens to Uncle Ben and Parker’s subsequent reaction to it, that’s old news and yes they did include that story, it’s kind of pivotal to Spider-Mans backstory, and that’s fine – it’s not the pivotal plot of the story, and I am glad of it. Rather, Peter wants to use his newfound powers to stop and actually help Dr. Connors refuse the rage of the Lizard-man attempting to overtake him.

This new Spider-Man (who’s hardly a man yet, being in high school through the entire movie, but still) is a total badass who has no conflicts about using his powers to aid his city and the people therein. Gwen Stacey is fully aware of the newfound Spider-Man in this very first movie, and I all kinds of approve of that move, as she does. There is a fair amount of Spidey wandering around without his mask on, which makes me wonder why he bothered with the iconic costume look in the first place, but every time he unmasks it’s for a damn good reason, so I excuse it. The CGI is awesome of course, we all knew it would be, but I was concerned it would be so over the top as to look fake – fear not, loyal viewers, it’s looks spectacular. The fight scenes between the Lizard and Spider-Man are epic and everything, but they didn’t rush through the rest of the movie to get there, nor did they focus too hard on the humane aspects as to make the fight scenes seem limp. I don’t want to give much more away other than that, so please, take Moxies word for it – this new Spider-Man earned the title of Amazing.

Catch a very different take on our beloved web-slinger in The Amazing Spider-Man on Amazon Prime Video now!