‘The Amazing Spiderman’… again?

While fanboys contemplated sacrificing their first edition comic books in a preventative prayer to the gods of the Marvel Universe, most of us came to accept the fact that, though the ink has barely dried on Harry Osborn’s obituary in the Daily Bugle, Marvel Entertainment has done the unthinkable and remade the Spidey origin story a mere five years after Sam Raimi’s acclaimed trilogy.

Swopping Tobey Maguire for ‘The Social Network’s’ (2010) Andrew Garfield and replacing Kirsten Dunst’s Mary-Jane with Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, director Marc Webb’s ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ (2012) does the cunning thing of rebooting the franchise for an audience that is conscientiously cooler, edgier and more cynical than its predecessors.The result is… amazing? No. Fun and far better than expected? Yes. While fastidious fans would like to stew in a Green Goblin-esque fury at the minimal mourning period – as opposed to the respectful 19 and nine years observed by the Superman and Batman franchises respectively – the truth is ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ can do without the superlative but it can also premiere safe in the knowledge that it isn’t an abomination of all that is Stan Lee. Nonetheless, with the remake so hot on the wrap-up’s heels, the battle being waged in fanboy brains all over the globe isn’t one between Peter Parker and Doc Ock, Sandman or the Lizard but more incredulously between Spidey… and Spidey. Tobey vs Andy Whether they have to perform on Broadway or at the box-office, originating a role puts an actor in the favourable position of being the definition of a character…unless, of course, they’re Tobey Maguire. Despite having been the first to don the Spidey spandex in Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ (2002), it hasn’t taken audiences very long to hail Garfield as the definitive web-slinger. Working within the confines of the awkward, angsty, self-deprecating though inexplicably cool teenager who has become the staple of celluloid pop culture, Garfield’s wise-cracking Spider-Man is a far swing from Maguire’s garden variety geek whose sporadic flashes of humour and charm seem entirely accidental when juxtaposed against Garfield’s inherent appeal. More cool than cringe-worthy, Garfield’s Spiderman is a smart-alecky, skateboarding superhero suited to a more megalomanic generation than Maguire’s wide-eyed and wimpy pre-Spidey Peter Parker.Undoubtedly a product of the fast-moving times, Garfield’s transition from geek to glory is simply more fluid than Maguire’s whose Spidey seems to have a split in personality whereas Garfield’s Spiderman keeps the cool of his core personality whether or not he’s rocking the spandex. Despite the differences in characterization, the rub of redundancy – less glaring when a long time passes between remakes – is really where the film starts to lose traction. What’s the same? An origin story is an origin story; you can tweak it, you can make it darker but at the end of the day, when people sit down to watch the first instalment in a Spiderman series, they want to see Peter Parker bullied then bitten by a spider that gives him superpowers while he is living with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben whose death he unwittingly sets in motion not before he tries out his enhancements in a series of high jinks which are both humorous and hell-raising. He must then become a masked vigilante, make his Spidey suit, be both loved and hated by the press, public and police force before defeating a super villain, kissing the girl and swinging through the New York city skyline having come to terms with the fact that with great power comes great responsibility. That’s the way it goes and that’s the way it went with some variation.What’s new?Mercifully, Mary-Jane is entirely absent from the film and instead, we meet Peter Parker’s first love Gwen Stacy, played by Stone. Smart and sharp instead of screaming and secondary, Stone’s Stacy is a love interest with some depth and daring when compared to Dunst’s insipid ingénue. Additionally, and due to the fact that there’s more spark in a chemistry set than there was between Dunst/Maguire, Garfield and Stone are cringingly cute in their couplehood. Sometimes rote in its repetition of a story we all know, ‘The Amazing Spiderman’s’ most interesting addition is the back-story of Parker’s parents, portrayed as a scientist father and loving mother who die in a plane crash after frantically fleeing their house with sensitive documents. Expertly linking Parker to the Green Goblin’s Oscorp in Raimi’s films as well as to previously minor character, Dr. Curt Connors through his father’s research and partnership with the soon-to-be super-villain, ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ seems set to present some awesome ‘ah-hah’ moments which streamline the story in Raimi’s originals as well as in comic book lore.What’s the verdict?As vexingly premature as it is pretty good, ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ swings successfully through theatres, buoyed by some excellent effects and the string of its stellar casting; the absence of which left Raimi’s trilogy sorely without sensitivity despite its savvy spectacle. All but named for the job, director Marc Webb infuses his second feature film with the same heartfelt humanity he explored in ‘500 Days of Summer’ (2009) and, despite the fading fury of super fans, succeeds in spinning a promising new yarn made of fifty year old thread. Watch ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ at Ster-Kinekor with showing times available at www.sterkinekor.com