The Amazing Spider-Man: Good Grit

Ten years ago Sam Raimi's Spider-Man was released in theaters to the tune of an eventual gross of about $821 million. Five years ago the series finished up with Spider-Man 3 to the tune of an eventual gross of something like $890 million. Despite making quite significant bank fairly recently on the team of Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire, Sony made the curious decision in early 2010 to reboot the Spider-Man franchise and hand the reins over to Marc Webb, whose only other feature film didn't even flirt with a $10 million dollar budget. Nevertheless, the former music video director with little mainstream exposure got his chance to direct a major tent pole release and entrusted the lead to an actor in Andrew Garfield of whom audiences would be completely unaware if they had missed The Social Network. A bit of a gamble to say the least and a curious one at that, but at the end of the day, it's also a successful one.

 Webb, to his credit, doesn't attempt to fill the shoes of Sam Raimi—who could, after all?—but instead takes the “Zack Snyder Dawn of the Dead” route and makes The Amazing Spider-Man entirely his own. Unlike past iterations of Peter Parker, this one (Garfield) is less an ostracized science nerd and, like a good portion of American teens, more a self-exiled, socially awkward loner. Unsure of how to talk to girls—particularly blonde bombshell Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone)—and frequently too caught up in science experiments of his own making in order to fulfill his household obligations to his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), Peter's behavior is indicative of a young man who's never found a place to fit in.

In an origin story familiar to everyone, Peter, after being bitten by a genetically modified spider, can leap higher, stick to and climb on walls, and beat people up acrobatically. On the down side, he also discovers a newfound hubris that at its peak manifests a negligence that inadvertently leads to the murder of his Uncle Ben. Peter has a focus for his angst and a reason to utilize his powers—to capture the man who killed his father figure. But Peter's increasingly public persona of Spider-Man puts him at odds with Captain Stacy (Denis Leary), Gwen's father and the web-slinger's most vocal detractor, and Dr. Connors whose self-experimentations of mixing reptilian DNA with his own have been far too successful.

Arguments as to the superiority of Raimi's Spider-Man or Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man will undoubtedly be waged for years to come, but which one you prefer will ultimately come down to what approach appeals to you more. While Raimi was more whimsical with his directing and more playfully aware of the nature of adaptation, Webb opts for a more serious approach.

The temptation exists to call it "a gritty reboot," but in a day where that term has almost become a parody, it would be unfair and derisive to do so. Webb takes his subject matter very seriously, taking almost 140 minutes to tell his story and devoting a good chunk of that time to delicately building up interpersonal relationships. But these moments just are'nt as exciting as the spectacular swingings through the vertical peaks of New York City. But at least the great casting and subsequent solid performances of Martin Sheen, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, make the emotional stakes of the film a bit higher, adding a touch more heartache to Uncle Ben's death and a bit more romance to the pairing of Peter and Gwen.

And Andrew Garfield is a much better actor than Tobey Maguire. That's not to say anything ill about Maguire—he was exactly what Raimi required—but in order to tell this story, about an awkward teenager struggling to find his place in the world, Garfield is the absolute perfect choice. I realize that nobody wants to go to the movies to see an angsty teenager complain, but if a tearful Garfield does nothing for you, then perhaps you'll find satisfaction in the innocence and playfulness he exhibits with Stone or the way he takes the time to verbally taunt his opponents in the heat of battle, even when one of them is a 9-foot lizard.

Still, a 140-minute runtime does carry its own baggage, not the least of which is a tendency in The Amazing Spider-Man to forget about what was supposed to set it apart from the original film in the first place. Ad campaigns would paint the film as driven by mystery. While the opening scene certainly thrusts a few mysteries upon us—who was Richard Parker fleeing? Why was he keeping his work from them?—they're largely ignored. A mid end-credits stinger (so don't leave right away) attempts to rekindle the mystery with the appearance of a shadowy figure, but I'm struggling to think of what mystery would be more appealing or more interesting than the Spider-Man story as it already currently exists. In this post-The Avengers world, perhaps there has to be build up to something bigger, hints of something that's still to come, but this film holds up well enough on its own to justify rebooting the franchise, so perhaps the mystery build-up is unnecessary in the end.