The Amazing Spiderman – A Closer Look

This article contains spoilers from the movie and speculation.

Director: Marc Webb
Writers: James Vanderbilt (screenplay), Alvin Sargent (screenplay)
Stars: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans

On Wednesday I finally got the chance to see the Amazing Spiderman which makes this my third trip to the cinema this year (having seen Avengers, Dark Knight Rises).

If I’m truly honest I wasn’t really looking forward to this film, I wanted a Spiderman 4, 5 and 6 from Toby Maguire. I loved that version of Spiderman and I would’ve loved to have seen Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) grow and eventually marry, even though Spiderman 3 wasn’t the greatest of the three films – let’s not talk about emo Peter Parker.

So in retrospect I am looking at them at two different franchises and loved the last one and I can see my love of this one growing, in the comics world we have many spin-offs of Spiderman including the latest version Miles Morales in the Ultimate Universe who has been extremely well received.

This Spiderman (Andrew Garfield) is slightly cooler than Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman, he sticks up for himself and has slightly more confidence and is full of teenage angst, when comparing the two I found myself feeling more at ease watching Andrew Garfield and there was no denying the on-screen chemistry between Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and Peter Parker. Gwen Stacy was originally introduced in the comics as Peter’s first love interest before Mary Jane and I can remember reading an article back in 2002 from someone at Marvel that they deliberately didn’t introduce Gwen as they would have to kill her off and bring in Mary Jane but that hasn’t stopped them with this reboot.

When I first heard that the new Spiderman would be a reboot I was really disappointed as I had wanted more from Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, so I didn’t watch any of the trailers and felt a real lack of enthusiasm for the new franchise but in the end I relented and this week decided to give the Amazing Spiderman a chance.

While sitting there and enjoying this new take on what could only be described as the Batman Begins version of Spiderman, I found myself really enjoying it and also feeling slightly sad as I was falling in love with the character of Gwen Stacy. The character of Gwen is full of innocence and charm, you could see the love between Gwen and Peter even before he becomes Spiderman, the scene that really got to me was on the on the roof top with Gwen wanting to hear Peter’s feelings and Peter fighting against his awkwardness as she walks away he shoots a web at her and pulls her in for a kiss. 

I wasn’t around in the sixties and seventies when Gwen and Peter were dating and I can’t imagine what went through the minds of Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr and Roy Thomas when the decided to kill Gwen Stacy off. I have gone back and read several graphic novels that feature her including the “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” and I can see why fans at the time were so enraged. There was such a backlash back then that Marvel decided to bring her back as a clone two years later although the clone eventually leaves (this starts a ripple effect resulting in the clone saga).

Gwen Stacy was loved by fans back then and I can see that this Gwen Stacy will be loved as well, I hope that the movie world decides to overlook this part of the comics world but I have read several interviews and Emma Stone took this role knowing the fate of her character.

It appears that an ongoing story line within this first movie has been setup with flashbacks to Peter’s parents and their mysterious disappearance, it would seem they are building a bigger story here and really pulling from Peter’s tragic past. I look forward to seeing where this story lines goes.

With Sony confirming that this was the first in a planned trilogy and Emma Stone already knowing of her characters fate it would seem that Gwen’s death may already be certain, so that the audience gets a complete story in this trilogy I speculate that:

1. Harry, Norman and the Green Goblin will be introduced in the second film.
2. The Green Goblin will kill Gwen Stacy in the second film.
3. Mary Jane will also be introduced in the second film but more as a cameo.
4. The third film will see a still devastated Peter get closer to Mary Jane and relationship will grow.
5. A resolve to Peter’s back story and his missing parents.

I hope I am wrong and Gwen doesn’t die but I guess we will have to wait till 2014, the planned release date of Amazing Spiderman 2 to see.