The Amazing Spiderman (2012) - Sweeter, Funnier, All Better.

★★★★☆

I used to go to the cinema with my mom for Christopher Reeve’s ‘Superman’ that was so impressive to me as a little boy. Then there were Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ series, and Christopher Nolan’s astonishing work to date, ‘The Dark Knight’. That’s all I can remember about superhero movies. I’m not quite sure what I was up between the ‘Superman’ and the ‘Batman’. I guess I was busy trying to be a hero but failed of course. But I like superhero movies, and I believe in heroes.

To better enjoy this new spidey, you should entirely forget the old one. But if you’ve seen all the old ones like I have, and can’t help comparing like I can’t, it’s okay, the new spidey is still going to amaze you with a sweeter love story, funnier characters and dialogues, and more sensible, heartfelt action scenes. Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker seems brighter and more optimistic. Emma Stone looks so much prettier than she really is in the film. Not saying she’s not charming, she is very. The film, directed by Marc Webb of ‘500 Days Of Summer’, spends more than half of the time building up the bond between Peter and Gwen; explaining why and how Peter becomes the Spiderman. So if you look forward to mindless piles and piles of actions, you’ll be rather let down. What makes ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ a remarkable reboot is the way the story goes. It enables us to breathe and feel with the characters.

Why does Peter decide to take the responsibility and become the Spiderman? Why wouldn’t he just stay low and make some fortune with his superpower? Why would he want to get himself into so much trouble? Should a man live by his principles or his responsibilities to circumstances? It’s like, should a monk break the codes like eating meat so as to save lives, or should he stay ‘clean’ and watch them die? Maybe we all kind of live by our so called principles, likes and dislikes in fact. We feel very involved in what we like, but we don’t feel responsible at all to what we dislike. That’s when we go extreme and become the slaves of our principles. And the result could be rather devastating.

A superhero is bound to be pathetic because his responsibility is too big to share, and therefore he must take it all by himself. When I saw Peter put on his spidey suit and soar among skyscrapers, I felt like I was there with him indeed, free and lonely!