The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) or, The New and Unimproved Spidey

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An entirely animated poster for Marc Webb's The Amazing Spiderman

 

Peter Parker's parents died in a plane crash, and his uncle dies, because he neglects to stop a shop-robber. With his superpowers, Parker has to save New York from a mad lizard-doctor!

 
That is the story of The Amazing Spider-Man, a premature reboot of the beloved Marvel character following Sam Raimi's spectacular Spider-Man trilogy (2002-07). It is written by James Vanderbilt (Darkness Falls (2003)), Alvin Sargent (Paper Moon (1973)) and Steve Kloves (Wonder Boys (2000)) and directed by great Indianan filmmaker Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer (2009)).
The film starts with indications that it will bring some more realism to the franchise than we got from Raimi films, but then it later ends in a pudding sea of sentimental twaddle.
Andrew Garfield (Boy A (2007)) is pretty cute as a new, swearing Parker, (though I still prefer the coupling of Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, as well as the later Parker, Tom Holland); Rhys Ifans (Chromophobia (2005)) makes a fine reptilian villain, CGI-animated to make one's eyes pop; and finally Dennis Leary (The Moodys (2019, TV-series)) is good as police captain, SPOILER only why does he also have to die? (Many key characters die in the film.)
The Amazing Spider-Man feels anonymous and overlong, (it runs excessive 136 minutes). The action and sound work is top notch, but the entertainment value just so-so.

Related posts:

Marc Webb: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) - Webb's Spidey sequel squanders time and money in boring blind alleys 
The Amazing Spiderman (2012) or, The New and Unimproved Spidey
(500) Days of Summer (2009) or, Cute & Cuter

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 200-230 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 752.9 mil. $
= Box office success/big hit (returned between 3.27 - 3.76 times its cost)

[The Amazing Spider-Man premiered 13 June (Tokyo) and runs 136 minutes. Raimi left the franchise and plans for a 4th Spider-Man film once he realized he could not meet the schedule plans and retain creative control, in light of not having a good enough story yet also. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in New York from December 2010 - May 2011. The film opened #1 to a 62 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 2 weekends (#2-#3) and grossed 262 mil. $ (34.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 48.8 mil. $ (6.5 %) and the UK with 40.2 mil. $ (5.3 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Spider-Man returned in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), again with Garfield, which ended the reboot. This was also Webb and Garfield's next film. Emma Stone (Aloha (2015)) returned in iCarly (2012, TV-series) and theatrically in Movie 43 (2013); Ifans in The Corrections (2012, TV-movie)), Playhouse Presents (2013, TV-series)) and theatrically in Another Me (2013). The Amazing Spider-Man is certified fresh at 72 % with a 6.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What did you think of The Amazing Spiderman?