Taking nothing away from the previous Sam Raimi directed Spider-man Trilogy (which did crazily well at the box office and revived the superhero genre somewhat). The (some might say too soon) reboot, is in my opinion, probably the best of all 4 Spider-man movies by Sony so far.
Growing up as a comic fan, Spider-man was one of my favourite super hero. The Sam Raimi shows, fun and exciting as it may be, somehow lacks the heart and passion from the comics. It also paints a more cartoon-ish picture, with the overall feel more bright and colorful, which again was quite different from the Spidey I grew up reading, where some of the story arcs can be downright dark and menacing.
The reboot sees a more gritty and real world feel to the movie, which is almost like how I’d always imagined Spidey in real life would be like. Director Marc Webb’s decision to play more on the life of Peter Parker instead of having Spidey swing all around town from start to finish is also a great move, as we establish the struggles and reasons behind why Peter chose a life of donning the Red and Blue Spandex. The real world feel, also comes with more thought about gravity and how it would affect our hero. Leading to much more believable swings from building to building in the newest movie.
Another gripe I used to have with the old movie, is that Tobey Maguire did not really bring out the feel (although he does have a bit of the looks) of Peter and his alter ego. Maguire (A very very good actor) for some reason, probably had only 5 different expressions throughout movies 1-3 and I blame it on the direction of the film to not give Peter Parker more depth, which is one of the factors that draw readers to the comics in the first place. It’s not all about the swinging and crime fighting ya know.
Even after Peter dons his suit, we don’t see a whole lot of bantering and cheeky moves by Spidey in the previous Trilogy. That was rather perplexing as the humor was a staple of the comic, no matter which era you started from.
The Amazing Spider-man corrected all these, with awesome spins, death defying dodges, fantastic crawling movements and great uses of his web shooters (thanks god they held true to the comics this time) during fights. Add on some wit and humor, and suddenly, how I’d always imagined Sidey fighting is suddenly realizing in front of me, on the big screen.
Oh, and Emma Stone (Smart and kick ass brave) is way hotter than Kirsten Dunst (always the damsel in distress.. yawnnn), as Spidey’s love interest!
