THINK TWICE: DOES THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2012) DESERVE TO BE GIVEN A CHANCE? PART III

Similarly to Batman Bagins and X-Men: First Class, The Amazing Spider-Man has a chance to become a new masterpiece in the genre of comic book movies, in spite of all the concerns it is currently facing. These include complaints regarding “extreme dark and somber tone” and “Twilight look”, conceived by both fans and general audience to be initiated by Sony for the pure sake of fitting new trends and fashion after the enormous success of The Dark Knight and The Twilight Saga.

However, in reality, judging by the recent official teaser and Comic-Con footage can be described as nothing, but a contemporary, naturalistic, grounded and serious take on Spider-Man. If Sam Raimi’s concept was to introduce us to the world of Spider-Man, the premise of Marc Webb’s movie is to place the protagonist in our reality, in the modern world. In fact, aside from already mentioned The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 3 was the real attempt to be “dark and dreary”, not only visually, but story-wise as well. This certainly has a great effect on all the visual attributes of the film, from Peter’s hair style to the excessive use of practical stunts in action scenes.

The latter seems the most appropriate in the contrast to Raimi’s continual reliance on CGI to the degree of its complete exploitation and overuse. From the time set photos spread throughout the net, it has become apparent that the new film will use practical effects and real life stunts, filmed with RED Epic camera, in order to make audience believe that this is happening here and now, in our world. Noteworthy, Webb did use visual effects and CGI, when executing the Lizard’s presence and shooting scenes from the first person’s POV to maximize the feeling of what it’s actually like to swing around skyscrapers, hundreds of feet above the ground.

Regarding Peter Parker’s appearance in the new movie, it’s safe to assume that what could define a typical look of a nerd in the 60s has little to do with today’s understanding of the term and style. Peter doesn’t need greasy sleek hair, big glasses and formal clothes to show off as a nerd. Today, stereotypes have merged to the point, at which nerds, just like many others, can have interests in skateboarding and prefer to blow their hair, which actually dates back to the last century’s fashion, started by James Dean and Elvis Presley.

What really can distinguish Peter from others and stress his true self is his behavior and speech. In addition, Webb commented on the protagonist’s nature by implying that the protagonist’s characterization will certainly stress him as an outcast in his his community, rather than just a nerd. As Webb discusses:

"Nerds are running the world. Andrew Garfield made a movie [called "The Social Network"] about it. Nerds are no longer pariahs and knowing how to write computer code is longer a [mocked] quality.What was important in those early comics was this notion that Peter Parker is an outsider and how we define that in a contemporary context. That, I think, was one of the challenges for us — getting Peter Parker’s outsider status to be current. Peter Parker is a real kid. He’s not a billionaire. He’s not an alien. He’s a kid who gets picked on and gets shoved to the outside. The 90-pound weakling, that’s who Spider-Man is when he gets bit. So much of the DNA of the character is the fact that he was a kid when he got bit. He is imperfect, he is immature and has a bit of a punk rock instinct. In his soul he’s still a 90-pound weakling even after [the transformative bite]."

These words also shed the light on Webb’s decision in introduce new Spider-Man with as a separate ego from Peter Parker, instead of positioning it as Peter's extension. The previous movies were notable for their exploration of particularly Spider-Man’s villains, allowing them to possess more than two dimensions and providing actors with rich material to develop from.

In contrast, the protagonist himself was always limited to only Peter Parker and Peter Parker in the costume of Spider-Man, leaving out the opportunity for his alter-ego to shine and take the pride of his own persona. In comics, if Peter was always depicted as a shy, modest and anxious person, Spider-Man, on the other hand, would simply delight in using his wit and sarcasm as both a weapon to distract his enemies and a button to effectively push up self-confidence. When putting his mask on, Peter naturally vanishes to give freedom to Spider-Man, the person he wants to be when beating criminals and saving innocents. As proven by the footage from Comic-Con, this time Spider-Man won’t be silent, but wisecracking and skillful at shooting words at foes. 

The Amazing Spider-Man is the second film for Marc Webb after his debut (500) Days of Summer, which was critically acclaimed as one of the most ingenious romantic films of these days, as well as a magnificent coming-of-age story, beuatifully told with the usage of a rich visual style and imposing acting. Aside from so many options of young candidates and objects of attraction in today's Hollywood, Marc Webb chose Andrew Garfield, a British rising star, to play the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

Garfield is known for not only being a big fan of the superhero, who can endlessly talk about the character, but also one of the most talented representatives of the new generation of actors. As an actor, Garfield proves his chameleonic ability to switch from a complex outsider, as is evident in Boy A, to assertive and brave fighter for truth, as is shown in Red Riding 1974, to a charismatic and sympathetic young businessman, apparent in The Social Network.

Webb and Garfield admit that for inspiration they borrowed some of the ideas from not only the early comics of Lee/Ditko, but also the very recent ones, specifically Ultimate Spider-Man, which introduced Spider-Man to the new century’s generation, therefore the film expands from one period to many other interpretations of Spider-Man.