From any other perspective other than a financial one, there was no need to reboot one of the most successful franchises of the modern era almost immediately after it had ended, but Sony initially piqued interest by claiming that The Amazing Spider-Man would tell “the untold story” of Peter Parker.
That would at least differentiate it from Sam Raimi’s widely-beloved trilogy, which was the wisest option by far considering the new spin on the web-slinger was officially announced in January of 2010, just three years and eight months after Tobey Maguire had bowed out with the underwhelming Spider-Man 3, which ended up snowballing into the planned fourth installment being scrapped.
So, what of “the untold story”? In an earth-shattering approach to the Spider-Man mythos, we were introduced to nerdy high schooler Peter, who ended up getting bitten by a radioactive spider, being left helpless as his Uncle Ben gets murdered in the street, and falls for a fellow student he’s secretly been obsessing over from afar, all before battling a green villain with a direct connection to his personal life. Wow, talk about upending the rulebook and telling a tale that’s never been seen before…
In the end, The Amazing Spider-Man simply opted to tell the exact same story that had already been told, and didn’t even tell it any better than Raimi did. Garfield was an excellent lead let down by the disappointing duology he headlined, but even after 13 years it appears audiences are still willing to revisit his debut, though, with FlixPatrol naming the opener as one of the top-viewed movies on Max, Prime Video, and Rakuten.
Published: Jul 18, 2023 12:46 pm