Hi everyone, welcome back to Identity Crisis, where I give a movie a re-watch to figure out once and for all whether or not it’s a good movie, or if I liked a movie as much as I first thought I did. Last time on Identity Crisis, I re-watched Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace to figure out if it was as meh as I remember it being or if I actually love it like I claim to on my podcast. This time around, I’m re-visiting an old friend, The Amazing Spider-Man, the first reboot of Spider-Man after the Sam Raimi movies.
I’m not sure if it’s ever come up here before, but for the record Spider-Man is my favorite super hero of all time. Of all time! To this day Spider-Man 2 is still my favorite super hero movie. Yes I liked it more than Infinity War or any other super hero movie you can think of. When I saw Amazing Spider-Man in theaters, I was blown away. I came out of the theater liking the movie alot, even more than the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man. Then The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came along. Oy! Despite AMAZING performances from Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, they weren’t enough to save it. That movie then marred the whole franchise, taking down The Amazing Spider-Man with it. I caught a little bit of Amazing Spider-Man on TV not too long ago and found myself thinking “oooh, this might not have aged well”, but I wasn’t sure if I was being influenced by Amazing Spider-Man 2 or not. So I gave it a re-watch to determine once and for all how much I liked The Amazing Spider-Man – if at all! Like last time, you’ll find my live thoughts from the viewing below and my final determination will be at the end.
*Does anyone else try to see what super heroes they can see in the brief montage of comic pages in the Marvel logo? I do but it never goes well! I think the only consistent thing I see is the Juggernaut’s helmet. On this particular viewing, I think I made out Iron Man and either Atlas from the Thunderbolts or Hawkeye as Goliath. If you do this, comment on who you see!
*With no offense to any of the other actors who’ve played the parts, Sally Field and Martin Sheen might be the best Aunt May and Uncle Ben of all time.
*So Flash is wearing a super baggy track suit and gets into a fight with Peter. My biggest question is how do his pants not fall down during the fight?
*So spies just leave important brief cases with their only family members? Wait were Peter’s parents spies? They were in the comics. In this movie they seem to be scientists. Richard is for sure anyway. Are they SPYENTISTS?
*The Oscorp building looks alot like Avengers Tower.
*Peter steals the unclaimed badge of Rodrigo Guevara to enter the Oscorp Building and then poor Rodrigo is kicked out of the building – come on Pete! That’s how super villains are born! Rodrigo, don’t fret! Try LexCorp, I hear they’re pretty understanding.
*I love how the subway passengers shrug off a guy clinging to a ceiling on his back because like two drops of beer spilled on a girl.
*Such a shame, Peter could have went to the NBA if not for the fact that he doesn’t understand the rules of basketball. I know the NBA is lax on traveling sometimes but even they would have blown the whistle on Peter when he did his dunk. Not to mention charging!
*If I saw right, Oscorp developed the web fluid itself (at least a prototype) and Peter in turn built the web shooter. If so, that seems to be an interesting compromise. In the Sam Raimi Spider-Man they gave Spider-Man organic web shooters because they thought it too unbelievable a high school kid could develop something so advanced. I was not a fan of the organic web shooters. A radioactive spider bite can give a guy spider powers but the same guy can’t use his already established genius level intellect to build something? It’s called suspension of disbelief!
*Gwen had brothers in the movie, totally forgot that.
*So Peter tells Gwen his secret identity…and I’m actually okay with it. He’s still figuring things out, heck he’s not even called Spider-Man yet, let alone has any enemies to safeguard against at this point. Sure he’s telling a police captain’s daughter he’s a wanted vigilante, but, like, she’s really hot!
*Lizard attack! Lizard throws several cars off a bridge, so Spider-Man catches the cars with his webs, presumably to save people from falling into the river. I emphasize this because Spider-Man does a great job saving one singular kid from a car. But, uh, what about all the other people in the other cars? Seriously, Spider-Man swings off after saving that one kid! Are the people supposed to climb out themselves? It’s conceivable rescue crews could get to them, but it would be difficult. If all the other cars by chance were empty, then why bother catching them? At minimum, there was for sure one person in one of the other cars. He was the Oscorp stooge so he was slightly evil so does that make it okay to fend for himself? No, it doesn’t! Plus, only the audience knew he was like 2% evil, Spider-Man wouldn’t have had any way of knowing. And it hasn’t been established in this movie yet, but traditionally Spider-Man’s webs last about an hour before they dissolve. I’ve bee liking the movie so far, but I’ve got to deduct major points for this.
*How cool would a Spider-Gwen movie with Emma Stone and Denis Leary be? No offense to the Venom movie, but if Sony has the Spider-Gwen rights they totally should have made that movie over Venom.
*I miss lab coat/pants/shirt Lizard, seeing as the movie decided to go with naked Lizard.
*The movie must have heard me, the next time we see Lizard he’s wearing a lab coat. This concept has me very intrigued. Did the (cold blooded) Lizard get cold in between scenes? He might have been trying to disguise himself, but he was lacking the required fedora to do so.
*I love the thought and intent of the crane scenes (when the construction crew positions the cranes so Spidey can swing to Oscorp), but was it really necessary? It’s not like Spider-Man was lacking buildings to latch on to.
*I wish this movie gave Sally Field Aunt May more to do.
FINAL VERDICT – The deductions (the lack of rescues at the bridge scene, the lack of Aunt May, and poor Rodrigo) add up to a slight decision reversal, I’m bumping this down to a tie with the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man, with maybe a slight edge to Raimi’s. But this movie still holds up well and I definitely liked it. It’s a shame Amazing Spider-Man 2 killed the franchise, this good movie deserves an equally good follow up. Next time on Identity Crisis, I take a look at a much more recent Spider-Man movie. Until then, I hope you were entertained and let me know what you thought in the comments!
