"The Amazing Spiderman"

Aaaaah Spider-Man. I owe a lot of my childhood to the wall-crawler. Ever since I was little I've loved the guy, spent hours drawing him from comics, watching every episode religiously on Fox Kids, playing with all the figurines. But enough about what I did last weekend, this is a film blog, after all.

Mmm, Shiny.

As I got older Sam Raimi obviously didn't want me to stop loving Spider-Man, so he thought he'd make an equally awesome trilogy of films showing my secret dream profession web-sling all over the cinema. I actually know Spider-Man 1 word for word off by heart. I loved them, because they captured the essence of Spider-Man perfectly. He's not like all the other superheroes! He has normal everyday problems like everyone else, he's a nerd, he's in love with the babe next door, he's a part time pizza guy! Can't imagine Bruce Wayne getting his dinner money stolen, can you? And I think that's part of the reason why I love Spider-Man so much, yeah he's bad-ass and everything, but he's also relatable as a person.

Although I will always adore Sam Raimi's trilogy, I am very, very, verrrry excited for Mark Webb's Spider-Man. Although not a lot is known so far about the film itself, the clues and the speculation are enough to make me want to fail my A-levels and just sit in my room for the next 18 months watching re-runs of Spider-Man cartoons until it's released. Below I'm going to list reasons why it's destined for awesome!

#1 

Andrew Garfield.

Now, impending man-crush's aside, Andrew Garfield will be perfect for the part. When he was first announced as the new Spidey everyone seemed to collectively wonder "Who?" and "Why?" Apparently even Garfield was completely shocked by the decision. 

They are several reasons why he's perfect for the part. Firstly, he's a really good actor. Like most people I first heard of him in "The Social Network" playing Eduardo and I thought he was really good and out-shone Jesse Eisenberg. (who was essentially playing... Jesse Eisenberg. A bit like Michael Cera... but that's for a whole other blog.) It may seem pretty strange that him being a good actor would be such a good element of his casting, but when names like Zac "High School Musical" Efron and Jake "Brokeback" Gyllenhaal were in rumour circulation he came very much as a relief. 

Also, Andrew has made it very clear in interviews that he had a quite a hard time as a teenager with bullies, which can only make his portrayal of troubled Peter Parker all the better. Oh yeah, and he’s a trained gymnast, which can only be a plus as far as stunts are concerned.

#2 
Hopefully it could go down the “Dark Knight” Route.
Batman films have been completely revitalised since Nolan got his hands on them, by giving them a realistic, darker, gritty edge. Raimi’s Spiderman had there moments, after all the Green Goblin died from being impaled by his own hovercraft. But on the most part, they were very light-hearted affairs, which as a 12 year old I didn’t mind at all!

But it would be great to go for a completely new change of tone, and make a Spiderman film which can be mentioned in the same breath as The Dark Knight. Having said that, Mark Webb’s previous film was (500) Days of Summer. Not the most shocking film in existence, but a decent flick none the less, and shows the direction for the Spidey films taking a whole new route.

#3 
Emma Stone
Ah… Emma Stone. She has been cast as Gwen Stacey, and considering no Mary-Jane has been announced yet, we can assume she is the leading lady. She’s cool, having starred in “Zombieland” and “Easy A” and of course the love interest in “Superbad.” She can be funny. She can… act. Probably. Oh whatever, just look at this I made on Photoshop.

I know which one I'd rather lived next door...

Hmm, hmm.

I mean Mary Jane wasn’t bad in the last Spiderman, but Kirsten Dunst was hardly the bombshell we’re all meant to find completely irresistible. She’s more (ironically) girl-next-doorsy.

#4
New plotline
In the last trilogy, Peter Parker worked for the Bugle, but considering this film won’t even include Jameson we can safely assume he won’t be there this time. This could be because in this film he isn’t even leaving school yet and therefore hasn’t had chance to become a photographer. Or, it could signify that the new film is following the more up to date storyline in “Ultimate Spiderman” where he becomes (again, ironically) a “web designer.” A bit cheesy, but it shows Spiderman keeping up with his ever-changing audience.

It will also be another element to separate this film from the previous trilogy. Keeping in line with Peter staying at school, the enemy in this film will be the Lizard, who of course is Dr Connors from the previous films. He becomes the lizard when trying to utilise the regeneration properties from (you guessed it) lizards, in order to regrow his arm. However, it goes terribly wrong and he becomes the very aggressive “Lizard.” Played by Rhys Ifans, more good points!

#5
Web-Shooters
Woohoo! He’s finally getting web-shooters. In the original comics Spiderman didn’t develop sudden web shooting wrists straight away, and developing highly pressurised web-shooters, which only he could operate because of his super-strength. He does later develop natural web, but only after he mutates into the “Man-Spider” for a while which was more like Shelob rather than “friendly neighbourhood Spiderman.” On the subject of his costume, his latest costume looks bad-ass. It's not so, spandex, and more dark and stylish...

New Spidey, new wardrobe.

Well there we go, my top 5 reasons why The Amazing Spiderman will be… amazing! I just hope it’s everything the Spiderman franchise deserves. I'll make sure I post more info about the film as it's released, but until then I’ll have to settle for Thor and Captain America to be released this summer. 

In the immortal words of Stan Lee… come back soon, true believers!
-Luke