The Amazing Spider-Man

“The Amazing Spider-Man”, although being a reboot, is primarily for those over 25 years, a cover of that Spider-Man directed by Sam Raimi in 2002, just a decade ago. It is just like to compare, the first "Batman" by Tim Burton, released in 1989, and "The Dark Knight" by Christopher Nolan, in 2008: almost 20 years between the two of them.

This results into a terrible burden to bear, this constant feeling of “déjà vu” that we have during the first hour of its narrative, in which what we already know takes place: an introvert young man, orphan of both his parents,  blessed with certain abilities given by a spider bite in a lab, which will take him to become a masked hero.

But the charm of the "re-makes" is precisely in the subtle differences with the original version, and in this case, the differences are quite interesting. First, we have the protagonist. Despite what they say, the skinny Andrew Garfield, with his 28 years, is believable as a senior in high school, thanks to a grateful face that barely ages over time, and that combination of doubt, shyness and defiance that the actor knows how to impart in the characterThe result is  much closer to the typical teenager of today, than that sort of clumsy simpleton embodied by Tobey Maguire.

The palpable chemistry between him and Emma Stone makes the scenes and dialogues between both of them feel as a fundamental part of history and not as filler before the action sequences. This is also a Marc Webb virtue, the new director of the franchise: he prints on the "human part" of the plot the same sensibility combined with some confidence which gave such good results in his previous film “500 Days of summer”.

The way Parker uses his web launcher to bring Gwen close and kiss her, for example, is as memorable as that kiss with the hero facing down, who became famous in the first trilogy.

Although the special effects are impeccable and the secondary roles are very good (especially Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben) and some scenes are perfect (as the child wearing the red mask in order to get courage), certain weaknesses of the script are irritating: they give the impressiont that the audience is being underestimated, forgetting that even superhero movies need some degree of credibility.

But these are weaknesses that you can forgive in this enjoyable and fun movie.

Director: Marc Webb

Writers: James Vanderbilt (screenplay), Alvin Sargent (screenplay)

Stars: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans