Recently, Latino Review had the opportunity to have some of the producers of The Amazing Spider-Man over for an interview, while the entire interview can be seen over at the site, here are some of the more notable excerpts:
Spoilers follow the break:
*If you do not want key moments of the movie ruined for you, do not read any further.*
Although it has been only 10 years since the first Spider-Man movie debuted in theaters, Sony Pictures felt the need to reboot the franchise. The news came as a shock to fans of the Sam Raimi trilogy. On one hand you had a trilogy that helped redefine the superhero genre, and gave audiences something they had never seen before, but on the other hand, you had a trilogy that some felt made fun of Spider-man. That picked and choose what they liked and didn’t like about Spider-man, changed characters (They turned Gwen Stacy into Mary Jane. And vice versa), and with the mixed feelings about the 3rd movie, it made sense that they wanted to go another way with the character.
Production had already begun on the 4th Spider-Man movie, which when it first was announced, they announced that it was going to star the Vulture as the villain, and John Malkovich was announced to be the Vulture.
But the idea was scrapped. Production halted. And Sony decided it was time for a reboot.
Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) came in to direct a new, fresh take on Spider-man. When Webb announced that he chose Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) many quickly began to speculate what the movie would be like with him in the leads shoes. And IT WORKED. The Amazing Spider-man offers a rare view on how it can and does work when you try to modernize a character, especially one that had previously been seen on screen in a completely different way.
While the Amazing Spider-man is indeed a reboot, it shows Spider-man’s origin in a very different way. The story this time around heavily relies on the inclusion of Peter Parker’s parents (whom if i recall correctly didn’t even get mentioned in the last movies) and his high school love, Gwen Stacy (played by Emma Stone). Some parts of this movie felt like Deja Vu, seeing peter get bullied by Flash Thompson, lectured about responsibility by Uncle Ben, etc. But what it did change, was very welcomed. The character felt fresh, new, exciting again. And I found myself getting upset about halfway through the movie because I knew that I would have to wait several years for the sequel, which was set up for in several ways throughout the movie.
Rhys Ifans (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1) plays Dr. Curt Conners aka The Lizard. The role heavily plays on the ideas that Conners isn’t the bad guy he starts out to be. Like all great villains, you feel for him, you understand him and why hes doing what he is doing. And when he falls into the darkness, you sympathize with him he plays this role perfectly. The character is played very mysteriously, obviously knowing much more about Peter’s parents than he lets on.
The movie takes a very realistic approach to all the characters involved. From the awkward scene where Peter asks Gwen out on a date, to Spider-man playing video games on his phone while waiting for the Lizard to appear. It all felt very real.
Bottom line: The movie was easily the best Spider-man yet, and personally the only thing that takes away from the movie, is it being compared to the last 3.
The Amazing Spider-man 4.5/5 – A
Below the break is a Longer Spoiler-Filled Review
