Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man is out on DVD, Blu-Ray, and other various media platforms today. The following is a review of the Blu-Ray film as well as the extras the disc showcases.
The Film:
Venturing into the world of comic books is tricky. It’s even trickier when you’re setting out to turn the comic that started in 1962, in the comic magazine Amazing Fantasy and since then has become something akin to an international symbol for comics, into a film that has already been done before.
From 2002 to 2007 known horror director Sam Raimi took on the challenge of bringing the story of comic book character Peter Parker who becomes vigilante crime fighter Spider-Man to the screen. Under Raimi’s direction Tobey Maguire, (Pleasantville, Brothers) takes on the main role, of Peter Parker, with Kristen Dunst, (Melancholia, On the Road) playing love interest Mary Jane Watson. For its time period its worthy of being in the collection of Spider-Man and Marvel fans but it’s not without its flaws that – after three films – become too glaringly obvious to ignore. At one point, a fourth Raimi film was discussed but didn’t look too promising and might have succeeded in making the already obvious flaws, in the trilogy, much worse.
When production on the fourth Raimi film in the series didn’t occur the dreaded word “reboot” started flying around on all corners of the Internet. Most, including myself, were skeptical. Why was this needed and why so soon? This was the more than needed reboot to a film that I didn’t even know I wanted.
Marc Webb’s Spider-Man trilogy (yes, it’s being billed as a trilogy), in my mind, is going to be thought of as the definitive word on Spider-Man and Peter Parker’s heroic journey to become the title character.
The Amazing Spider-Man is the first part of Webb’s trilogy and it succeeds in doing two things the Raimi version didn’t. It stays true to the comic book source material as much as it can and it makes you care more about the characters.
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