THUNDER BAY – Entertainment – DVD Corner – Marvel Comics brings us yet another installment on the story of Peter Parker in their latest Spidy release “The Amazing Spider-Man”. This time the character of Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield, is a brilliant yet cocky, rebellious teen unlike the past nerdy persona in the previous Spider-Man movies.
The general story remains the same, peter Parker is bit by a specular spider that gives him super powers such as strength, speed, the ability to cling to any surface and flexibility. Unlike in the previous movies though Spiderman’s web slinging abilities come from a mechanism made by peter instead of some kind of mutation. Peter’s uncle Ben, played by Martin Sheen, is killed by a thief Peter had earlier let escape. Creating the persona of Spiderman in order to seek vengeance for his uncles death by catching the thief. While doing this he becomes mixed up with the movies super villain a mutant lizard bent on destruction and the creation of super race.
In this installment the love interest is not the usual Mary Jane, but a different character Gwen Stacey, played by Emma Stone, the police chief’s daughter and a prodigy of the villain Dr. Connor. The love story takes a different, refreshing turn with great chemistry between the two characters. Rhys Ifans does a fantastic job playing geneticist Dr. Curt Connors/ The lizard a one armed genius trying to create regenerative abilities in humans through cross species creation.
Having seen all previous Spiderman movies, this movie stands out among them as more original with a very different theme for Peter Parker. True fans who follow the Marvel series and expect the movies to follow the comics may be disappointed with this rendition but for those who enjoy a good action movie and are not familiar with the series this movie may be enjoyable.
Not comparing it to the other franchise movies this one gets 4 out of 5 stars.
Lynda J. Henshell