The only thing that’s keeping “The Amazing Spider-Man” from the hype it deserves is the fact that it’s just too soon.
The Amazing Spider-Man
Columbia
The abomination of “Spider-Man 3” is a fresh wound that’s not even five years old, and its predecessors were solid films that don’t need rebooting.
Still, the team behind “The Amazing Spider-Man” looks to have repackaged the franchise fittingly for the post-“Dark Knight” world, adding a lot more raw action and a conspicuously darker tone (and the word “vigilante,” in case the comparison just wasn’t clear enough). Andrew Garfield brings his signature sincerity to a high school-aged Peter Parker infatuated with Gwen Stacy (the ironically blonde Emma Stone), as he takes on all of New York City’s criminal baggage, including a promisingly disturbed Rhys Ifans, playing a researcher with connections to Parker’s past.
The movie will also incorporate Spidey’s homemade web slingers from the original Marvel comics, suggesting that the new franchise will benefit from rediscovering its roots in “The Amazing Spider-Man.”