Spider-Man takes a mulligan

Film review: The Amazing Spider-Man

MANILA, Philippines - If your spidey-sense tells you to watch this film, by all means pony up the dough. I haven’t had this much fun at a Spider-Man movie since the erstwhile Peter Parker, Tobey Maguire, suited up for first flick in 2002. I don’t know if it was because Tobey and Kirsten Dunst (Mary-Jane Watson) really hated each other in real life. But whatever it was, it translated into some antiseptic performances in the succeeding two installments.

Besides, there was a cartoonish sense about Maguire’s acting that did little to make Spider-Man believable (I know that’s probably asking too much, given that he’s but a figment of Stan Lee’s mind, but you know what I mean). Maguire was funny when he shouldn’t have been, and was over-the-top dramatic when subtleties and nuances would’ve sufficed.

Maybe it’s much easier to bemoan the aforementioned films now because there’s a new webslinger in the neighborhood, too.

Andrew Garfield, a 28-year-old American-English actor who appeared in such films as The Social Network, Lion for Lambs and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is refreshing as the new Peter Parker. He gives Spider-Man some street cred with more brooding and less whimpering.

Peter Parker is still the social outcast, but he isn’t portrayed as a stereotypical weakling. In fact, Peter taps into a lot of his angst (he truly has a lot of issues) to serve him well in hero mode. Rebooting our radioactive arachnid-powered dude gives audiences a chance to relive these prior events, as well as those that lead to his creation.

As the high school student (not yet a regular Daily Bugle photographer), Peter is left to contend with the disappearance of his biological parents, and de rigueur bullying. Despite the watchful, well-meaning duo of Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), Parker gets into all sorts of trouble while hot on the trail of Oscorp’s Dr. Curt Connors, and his love interest Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). What’s a teenager to do?

You know where all of this goes, right? Lots of impressive CGI, action sequences, and an expected Stan Lee cameo (perhaps one of his best), and a climactic clash with the main antagonist, the Jekyll-Hyde Connors – who turns into the Godzilla-ish monster simply called “The Lizard.”

Even if I was drawn in by the storytelling and impressed by the on-screen chemistry of Garfield and Stone, I wanted to turn into the Lizard with the nonstop chatter of the dude two rows behind us in the cinema — a “film fest” suki actor on a date with his actress wife. The two presumably took time out on a Saturday morning to go on a date sans their two kids. Thankfully, the action on the screen and the digital sound served to drown him out much of the time.

As with most Marvel film adaptations, do stay a bit as the credits roll for a teaser. Do we smell multiple sequels? Of course, we do. There’s goes the neighborhood; the spider’s back!