Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy (2002 to 2007) was super fun with a bright palette and colourful villains. Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, the science whiz who is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains superpowers, Kirsten Dunst as his love, MJ, and James Franco as his best friend Harry Osborn were all rocking. The bad guys, including Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, Alfred Molina as Doc Ock and Thomas Haden Church as Sandman, proved suitably villainous.
When news came of a spider-man reboot in 2012, one wondered at the need for it. Five years hardly seemed long enough to do a reboot. Be that as it may, the reboot, The Amazing Spider Man directed by Marc Webb was a sweet little superhero movie. While that sounds like an oxymoron, Webb who had earlier directed music videos for groups such as Fergie, Green Day and My Chemical Romance, made his feature film debut with the charming little love story, 500 Days of Summer .
While Webb seemed a little out of his depth with the wall-to-wall action sequences of the giant lizard trashing the city, he was very much at ease in the quieter, more intimate moments. Parker’s growing pains, his love for his classmate Gwen, his feeling of abandonment by his parents, his relationship with his uncle Ben and Aunt May are touching portraits of a day in the life of a superhero.
The Amazing Spider Man had Peter’s father’s friend and colleague Kurt Connors turn into Lizard and trash the city. Peter promises Gwen’s dad, the chief of police that he will keep away from Gwen. Peter tries but at the end of the movie says the promises you cannot keep are the best — underscoring the fact that Peter apart from saving the world is also a teenager with a teenager’s troubles over girlfriend and pocket money.
The movie had Irrfan Khan as one of the scientists at Oscorp.
Since we didn’t actually see him die, I thought he would pop up somewhere but that isn’t the case at least in the second movie. The Amazing Spider Man 2 , also known as Rise of Electro , sees the return of director Webb as well as Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Emma Stone as Gwen, Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben and Sally Field as Aunt May. Some crucial details of Peter’s parents who vanished in the first movie will be revealed.
Jamie Foxx plays one of the villains Electro, an engineer at Oscorp who falls into a tank of genetically modified eels and mutates into a live generator — look ma no UPS! Dane DeHaan is Peter’s childhood friend, Harry Osborn, who is sent off to boarding school around the same time Peter’s parents disappear. Harry returns to New York to take over Oscorp when his father dies. He eventually turns into the Green Goblin. There is also Rhino played by Paul Giamatti. Rhino was a Russian mobster before Oscorp put in some modifications.
Apparently producers Sony have announced two sequels. The Amazing Spider Man 2 featured Shailene Woodley (we recently saw her as Tris Prior in Divergent ) in a tiny role as Mary Jane Watson. Her role was edited out as Webb wanted to concentrate on Peter and Gwen’s story. And with two sequels in the pipeline, Ms Woodley will have enough screen time.
For now we will feast our eyes on Spidey taking on Rhino, Green Goblin and Electro. And don’t forget to sit through the end credits for a wee teaser!
