To tell you the truth, I’m not all that crazy about the new Spider-Man reboot.
Spider-Man 2 was the best in the series, it clearly jumped the shark with the third one, and I think Spidey should have gotten out while he was ahead.
Nevertheless, when you end a series on a bad note, even worse when you lose the original team of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Sam Raimi, there’s hope you can redeem one of the biggest superhero franchises around, and of course, make a ton of money.
So with The Amazing Spider-Man headed to theaters July 3, and the sequel already planned for May 2, 2014, Sony just released the following official plot synopsis for Spider-Man, which, yes, does contain spoilers:
“The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets.
“As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance—leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), his father’s former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.”
So that’s the official, long-awaited synopsis!
In other Spidey related news, Andrew Garfield, who is now playing the webbed one, recently admitted that like Bale with Batman, he definitely feels pressure walking in Tobey Maguire’s shoes, but like the saying goes, if you’re not nervous, you’re not ready.
“I think if we didn’t feel any pressure, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs properly,” Garfield said earlier this month in a statement quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. “[Spider-Man is] an important, mythical, fictional figure.”
Like anyone stepping into a superhero film, Garfield went into training, four months of it, which was definitely brutal, and a big question on many people’s lips is how Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy are going to have their first kiss. Maguire was hanging upside down when he first kissed Dunst, and Emma Stone, who plays Stacy, promised, “There is a nice first kiss, and it’s different than the upside-down one. We liked it.”
Also interesting enough, The Amazing Spider-Man is being directed by Marc Webb, who has never directed a big action film before, much like Pixar’s Andrew Stanton is directing his first big live action movie with John Carter, and Carl Rinsch is directing his first big movie 47 Ronin.
Usually you want someone with experience under their belts who can handle big action films, but hopefully these films will work out like Jaws, where Spielberg’s inexperience worked to the film’s advantage, and delivered a fresh take on what could have been a clichéd monster movie.