The Amazing Spider-Man delves into part of the Spider-Man story that hadn't been told, previously: the "origin" of Peter Parker, if you will. Sure, most of us know how the gangly youth came to be bitten by a not-so-run-of-the-mill spider and found himself possessing great powers, but not everyone who finds themselves empowered decides to take on the mantle of a superhero, defending the weak and righting the wrongs around him. What led Peter Parker to be the person he needed to be to become Spider-Man? We see that Richard Parker (Campbell Scott), Peter's father, is a loving father and a brilliant geneticist, but when someone tries to steal Richard's research, both of Peter Parker's parents place him with his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and leave "for a while," to be able to move quickly without putting young Peter at risk. Or, so they thought. As it turns out, however, an "accident" keeps them from ever returning from that trip, leaving Peter Parker searching for answers, his father and himself.
One day, fate intervenes in Peter's life, when he is helping his uncle rescue items from a flooded basement and he happens upon his father's old briefcase. Peter pores over the contents of the briefcase and discovers that there's even more than meets the eye - a hidden compartment reveals a folder of information from his father's last bits of research. His investigation leads him to Doctor Curtis Conners (Rhys Ifans), a scientist at Oscorp who had been a close colleague of Richard Parker. Doctor Conners not only worked with Richard Parker, he was still working on the same research project, trying to find a way to successfully introduce cross-species genetics. Conners has a personal drive to succeed in this endeavor; he lost his arm and hopes to create a serum that utilizes lizard DNA and grants the lizard's ability to regrow limbs.
It's on Peter's first attempt to meet Doctor Connors that he ends up having his encounter with a genetically-altered spider and gains his unique wall-crawling ability, heightened senses and total lack of ever stepping foot in a gym. This only redoubles his desire to meet Connors; he now needs answers not only about his father, but about the research, since it appears to have bestowed spidery powers upon him... and he's hoping he's not destined to grow additional hairy arms and eat flies.
It seems that Connor's boss, Norman Osborne (never pictured) is sickly and needs the as-of-yet unobtained fruits of Connor's research. Hastened by pressure and threats from middle-management, and overly hopeful from an apparently successful animal trial thanks to some insightful assistance from Peter Parker, himself, Doctor Connors decides to be the first impromptu human trial for his lizard serum. At first, things look great - he does, in fact, regrow his arm. However, it seems the serum leaves him physically - and mentally - unstable. He mutates into a 6-foot-and-change rampaging lizard, bent on revenge, targeting management. The Lizard, however, suffers from a Jekyl-and-Hyde sort of temperament and when the lizard-form goes away, so does the newly regrown arm. This leads Connors to make big batches of the stuff, with the plan to not only "fix" himself, but the population of Manhattan. The police simply aren't equipped to handle that sort of threat, so, it sounds like a job for everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Yes, this is a superhero movie. However, it was made to be much more than just that. The entire movie is based on Peter Parker's search for his father and what it means to be a man. Oh and, yes... there's the message of "with great power comes great responsibility," but it's never stated in those words, which, it seems, helped to keep the movie more drama and less comic-book camp.
Of course, part of growing up is falling in love. Peter Parker's love interest in The Amazing Spider-Man is Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), since it's set when the web-head was back in high-school. My personal preference in Spidey love-interests in Mary Jane, but since they're focusing on his high-school times, Gwen was it. Still, Emma Stone played a really good Gwen to Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker, so the love interest seemed genuine and interesting.
While we're on the topic, the acting, all around, was fantastic, from Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy to Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Rhys Ifans was nothing less than phenomenal as Dr. Conners / the Lizard, probably, in part, due to the fact that he never thought of the character as a villain, but saw him as someone with strong motivations who thought that he was going to make the world a better place. Denis Leary played Captain Stacey and did a good job with the role and, in the special features, begs that fans write in to demand that he reprise his role in upcoming sequels. Everyone involved seemed genuinely happy to be involved with the project.
Watching the special features, you come to understand just how amazing the film really is. I found that sets that I thought were probably all CG were built to scale, fights scenes I assumed were probably CG were not only actually performed practically, but many of the stunts were actually done by Garfield, himself. The over-the-top things weren't actually Garfield, of course, but stuff I assumed was pure CG was actually done by stunt men. One fight featured CG characters, which I had assumed, but the special features revealed that the entire set was CG and was simply built to look like the practical sets featured in other scenes. This was the last straw for J.R. Nip; he was, well... amazed, if you will. Everything looks quite real, and believe me when I tell you the line between CG, stunt men and actors is blurred to the point that all you can really do is sit back and just enjoy the film. Which, I guess, is just how it should be.
The version I reviewed has Blu-ray+DVD and includes an UltraViolet code to allow you to watch the movie on Apple and Android devices or to stream the movie to computers, tablets or smartphones that support UltraViolet. If you're a Spidey fan, The Amazing Spider-Man is a must-have addition to your collection. If you have a Blui-ray player, I highly recommend the Blu-ray version so you can enjoy the amazing visuals in HD. If you don't have a Blu-ray player, well... buy this version, anyway, and get a Blu-ray player. Until you do, you can watch the DVD version.
