By: Greg Payne
When I'm a famous screenwriter I hope I get to meet Marc Webb. Webb came through with a glorious directorial debut with (500) Days of Summer, starring the wonderful Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the charming Zooey Deschanel. It's easily one of the best romantic comedies of the last five years, exhibiting a sincere sweetness and an honest portrayal of human emotions in the midst of a failing relationship.
But, quite frankly, it was probably pretty difficult to be Webb over the last two years or so. He was named the director of The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot of the web-slinging superhero franchise that many weren't really clamoring for. After all, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, concluded in 2007 with the very lackluster Spider-Man 3 (images of an emo-haired Parker hip-thrusting on the sidewalk are forever burned into my brain).
Nevertheless, a reboot was put in place, giving Webb the very difficult task of recreating the character and putting a fresh spin on a story we had already seen (many times, actually, if you count the innumerable other super hero origin movies in recent years). Oh, and he had to make it work in July of 2012, stuck in the middle between two guaranteed box office superhero behemoths: The Avengers, which dropped in May, and The Dark Knight Rises, which lands in theaters on July 20. The Avengers shattered like every box office record, ever, and The Dark Knight Rises is poised to meet the same challenge.
But Webb's a comic book nerd, believe it or not, so his vision for Peter Parker, played this time around by Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), was crystal clear. He's matching Spidey up against one of his most well-known and ferocious villains in the Lizard, otherwise known as Dr. Curt Connors, and he's framing the story around Peter trying to uncover the mystery of his parents and why they deserted him when he was such a young boy.
Well, with July 3 a little over a week away, the first reviews for The Amazing Spider-Man are in, and so far they are overwhelmingly positive. After 11 reviews, TASM stands at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the 10 positive reviews lauding the film for great performances by Garfield and his love interest, the delightful Emma Stone, who plays Gwen Stacey and not Mary Jane Watson, solid emotional stakes (which seems to be a hallmark of a Webb film), and an emphasis on the importance of human relationships, all on top of some awesome action scenes.
Unless you're Green Lantern or Captain America: The First Avenger, comic book movies almost always succeed on delivering thrilling action sequences, but it's the stuff in between the city destruction and innumerable explosions that usually makes or breaks the film. Consider the first Iron Man, in which some of the best scenes in the movie come when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is by himself in his workshop inventing the suit. He's talking to a robot, shooting himself into walls, and blasting holes through his glass doors. Much of this all rides on the charisma and charm of Downey Jr., but the more important point is that Iron Man remains consistently entertaining when he's not blowing things up.
That's where Webb comes in. Hollywood has proven that putting steady, likable characters on the screen with a solid script behind them can easily hold the attention of an audience. Consider any successful romantic comedy, like Love, Actually or Crazy, Stupid, Love. Webb has proven he can deliver a thoroughly entertaining film built almost entirely upon human drama and emotion, and if he can insert those same things into The Amazing Spider-Man whenever Spidey isn't saving the city, we're pretty much guaranteed a great time at the movies. The good news is, the early reviews indicate Webb has done just that. We honestly might be in for our very first romantic comedy superhero blockbuster, but hey, at the end of the day, a great movie is a great movie.
And I, for one, am hoping The Amazing Spider-Man turns out to be a great movie.
gregpayne0@gmail.com
@Greg_Payne
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