Amazing Spider-Man: The Abandoned Middle Child

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[00:00:00]This video was sponsored by Factor.

[00:00:05]So, uh, Spider-Man.

[00:00:09]>> SPIDER-MAN.

[00:00:11]>> I'm going to die.

[00:00:13]>> You don't need an introduction. He's Spider-Man. You probably knew who Spider-Man was before you knew about your own sentience. I know I certainly did. I knew about him before Batman, before Superman. I didn't know who the Joker was, but I sure knew about Mysterio.

[00:00:30]and the lizard. Maybe it's a generational thing. The '9s had Batman, sure, but the 2000s were dominated by Spidey. My brother and I had so many Spidey things. We still even have the Spider-Man skateboard from 2001. I loved Spider-Man. I still like Spider-Man no matter how much Marvel bungles everything. Spider-Man was Marvel's biggest face before the MCU, and Spider-Man will be Marvel's biggest face after the MCU. But there's a time not too long ago when it felt like that wasn't the case. There's a time when Spidey movies were a joke. A sheer act of hubris by Sony. There's a time four words sent shivers down the spines of any manchild in the 2010s. Andrew Garfield Spider-Man. So, I'm here to ask a very important question.

[00:01:19]What was the big deal?

[00:01:23]There have been three distinct phases of Spider-Man liveaction movies. The Remy movies. Yes. Yes, I know. We all love them. Okay, stop clapping. Shut up. The Tom Holland movies, who is still Spider-Man after 10 years. Yes, you are old. Then there's the middle child, the black sheep, as far as most are concerned. The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and two.

[00:01:46]>> I'm going to be right back.

[00:01:50]To the cheers of everyone in 2014, there was never a third. These movies were hated back then. Don't let the scores today lie to you. The internet back then showed no mercy. They were the easiest punching bags. I was on the internet at the time. I was in the trenches. I watched anything that made fun of these movies. And that's just kind of how it was. The Garfield movies were a mistake.

[00:02:13]That's how I saw it. That's how I thought everyone saw it until last year.

[00:02:18]You see, a few months ago on Twitter, I started getting bombarded with the same clip over and over again from those Cinema Bot accounts. And all these posts were the same, praising the opening of Amazing Spider-Man 2. And I kind of got annoyed because this isn't the opening of Amazing Spider-Man 2. This is the second scene in Amazing Spider-Man 2.

[00:02:39]The real opening is Peter Parker's parents [ __ ] dying in a plane crash.

[00:02:44]That annoyance spawned this video. I I think most people would say that he was providing a public service.

[00:02:52]>> Most people would be wrong.

[00:02:55]>> I watched all the Spider-Man movies for this video except that one. And the reason I did that was to really put the Garfield movies into perspective because movies aren't made in a vacuum. They're products of their time and place and responses to what came before. And what came before the Garfield movies was this guy.

[00:03:15]>> Pizza time. What a joy it was to revisit the Remy movies for many reasons. I've realized I enjoy these for an entirely different reason than I did as a kid. In 2004, I saw this and just thought Spider-Man. But as an adult, I see this and think, "Holy [ __ ] that's the Evil Dead."

[00:03:33]Sam Ramy has such a distinct style. It warms my heart knowing that audiences went into theaters in 2001 and just accepted this at face value.

[00:03:44]I've seen takes about how the Remy films have aged poorly or are worse than you remember. And I just can't agree with that. No movie in the 2000s looked like this. That's just Remy. He's still doing [ __ ] like this to this day. It's so good. As a grown adult, I can view these movies as what they were intended to be.

[00:04:03]Pure camp.

[00:04:05]>> I surrender.

[00:04:06]>> Oh boy.

[00:04:06]>> And that's not a bad thing. Camp is not a bad word. Camp doesn't mean ironic. It doesn't mean so bad it's good. It means heightened. Camp is a bunch of business tycoons turning into [ __ ] skeletons and being played completely straight.

[00:04:21]These are sincere movies with a dramatic story and serious characters told in a wacky way. They are meant to be funny and serious at the same time. That's the real beauty. The first two could juggle all these different tones without skipping a beat. The third one is uh well a different story.

[00:04:42]>> I like being bad.

[00:04:45]It makes me happy.

[00:04:47]>> Spider-Man 3 is bad, but it's not bad for the reasons people thought it was in 2007. Everything with Bully Maguire is a piece of modern art. The jazz scene was too advanced for the general public's feeble little minds. Now dig this.

[00:05:03]While three landed with a mixed reception, at least at the end of the day, the trilogy was over. Spider-Man 3 was in fact an ending. Was it a good ending? Was it a bad ending?

[00:05:16]>> It's an ending. That's enough.

[00:05:18]>> But, you know, the rumor still persisted. The cope was still real that maybe, just maybe, we could get a Spider-Man 4. Maybe the Remy films could redeem themselves. Get a proper sendoff.

[00:05:32]Maybe we could even pretend Spider-Man 3 was just a mistake and didn't matter Shrek 4 style.

[00:05:38]>> Like that's ever going to happen.

[00:05:40]>> Yeah, we never got a Spider-Man 4. Sony was doing a full reboot, which funnily enough, it didn't even seem like many people minded at the time. At least in all the forums I can find. You really forget how hated Spider-Man 3 was.

[00:05:54]Everyone just went, "Okay, fine. Start over. As long as it's not another origin story." Then it was another origin story. Hey, I'm Chef Bobby Bubadelli. As a broke college student who fights crime, I ironically did not have the time to cook. Which is funny because my superhero persona is also a chef.

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[00:07:04]I'm I'm beating up thugs in the street.

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[00:07:36]That's my bit this month. That's what I'm doing.

[00:07:41]In 2000, Marvel rebooted many classic characters with the Ultimate series. For the first time since his inception, Spider-Man's origin was retold.

[00:07:51]Considering by this point Spidey had over four decades of a floating timeline, a reboot made sense to your average comic reader. For your average movie watcher, though, a reboot did not make sense, especially after the most successful trilogy of the 2000s. The Amazing Spider-Man, ironically, should not be called Amazing Spider-Man. It has more in common with Ultimate Spider-Man.

[00:08:14]If anything, Peter Spiderb is connected directly to Oscorp. His parents died in a plane crash. In the behind the scenes, Dennis Liry says he was casted because he looks like Ultimate Captain Stacy.

[00:08:27]That's really where the uh similarities end, but my point here is that Ultimate was meant to be the jumping on point for new fans. The Amazing Spider-Man kind of just confused people. Today, your average movie goer gets the whole multiverse thing. How Spider-Man has like three movies about that by now. But rebooting the character back in 2012 just felt wrong. Redoing the Spidey origin only 5 years after Spider-Man 3 felt wrong. Like that's the time difference from Now and No Way Home. The best comparison I could make here is Batman. And Warner Bros. at least waited 8 years before having the most drastic tonal shift ever. Can't believe these came out less than a decade apart.

[00:09:07]That's [ __ ] up.

[00:09:08]>> What killed the dinosaurs? The ice age.

[00:09:11]The selling point for Batman Begins made sense. There was a big difference. But for The Amazing Spider-Man, it wasn't following up Batman and Robin. Though it was following up this >> going to cry.

[00:09:22]>> In the behind the scenes, the studio said that this new Spider-Man would be more realistic, more grounded, an opportunity to explore Peter Parker in a high school environment, which the original trilogy moved on from too fast.

[00:09:35]And while I'm sure there was genuine interest from those involved in doing a different take on Spider-Man, this is still Sony. The main reason they did a reboot was because Spider-Man 3 was the 12th highest grossing movie of the 2000s and also to retain the rights. The biggest hurdle Amazing Spider-Man could never swing over was being compared to the Remy trilogy. And for your average movie goer whose only exposure to Spider-Man were those three films, if things were different, they were wrong.

[00:10:05]There is a lot wrong with the Amazing Spider-Man series, but it's also unfair to judge the movie based on what the Remy ones did. These are two different takes on Spider-Man. I remember always seeing Uncle Ben's speech made fun of because it's like the writer is trying so hard not to repeat great power, great responsibility. But this isn't even copying the Remy movies. It's what Ben says in the Ultimate comics.

[00:10:29]>> But your father lived by a philosophy, a principle really. He believed that that if you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things.

[00:10:39]>> I don't think it was the wrong move for Amazing Spider-Man to go with this more grounded approach. I just think it should have been executed better. We have to watch Peter get bit by a spider again, but worse. Like instead of just wandering in a lab with other students, he breaks into a secret vault full of mysterious spiders that all fall on him at the same time. How the hell was he only bitten once? And we also had to watch Uncle Ben die again, but worse.

[00:11:06]Actually, no, I take that back. The way Uncle Ben dies is just so funny, I can't hate it. So, after getting bit, Peter starts acting out, of course. Absolutely dunks on Flash with his sick ass moves.

[00:11:17]After getting into a fight with Uncle Ben, Peter storms out to go buy some milk at a bodega like you do. But he can't buy his milk because he's a few cents short. So, Peter tries to steal from Charity for some reason, like an [ __ ] And that doesn't go over well either. Peter walks out all mad, milkless, and alone. And then the guy behind him epically pranks the cashier, stealing the money out of his open register. The dude then throws the milk to Peter cuz he's just cool like that.

[00:11:48]Upon realizing he's been mogged, the cashier yells to the uncaring streets of New York to stop the guy who stole money out of his register. Somebody stop that guy and get a little help.

[00:12:00]>> Okay.

[00:12:00]>> His cries fall on deaf ears for all except for Uncle Ben, who was out and about trying to find Peter. The robber trips on some people, falls, and his gun slips out onto the street right in front of old Ben. So, what is Uncle Ben to do in this moment? What would you do in this situation? I'll tell you what Ben does.

[00:12:25]Probably not the smartest move. Uncle Ben was kind of a dumbass. Now, it might seem cruel to laugh at that, but was Uncle Ben in any danger from this robber? In other incarnations, he's getting robbed directly on his property, but this Ben is just strolling the street. This robber stole from the cash register, which yeah, is wrong, but he didn't use the gun in a crime. In a way, this robber's personal property fell onto the ground, which Uncle Ben then leaped for to try to take it from him.

[00:12:57]What I'm saying here is that Uncle Ben was robbing this man. Now, you may disagree with that, and I'm not a lawyer. I'm mainly goofing, but my main point is that the movie made Ben's death way more complicated than it needed to be. It should not be up to debate in a court of law whether or not Uncle Ben was the aggressor in the situation where he [ __ ] died. What lesson is Peter supposed to take away from this? Don't accept milk from shoplifterss? Was he supposed to tackle this guy the second the cashier beckoned him to do it? Was it his fault that old Ben was walking the street waiting to fight some random criminal that came upon his way? He really gets no clear lesson at first.

[00:13:42]Peter's lesson in the first movie is kind of just his arc throughout the movie. He only wears the mask because he's going around profiling criminals that might resemble the guy who Uncle Ben tried to rob. But, you know, by the end, he learns an important lesson that being Spider-Man is pretty neat.

[00:14:02]I remember one of the biggest complaints about Garfield's Peter Parker was that he's too cool. He's too attractive.

[00:14:10]Which, man, imagine being Tobey Maguire and hearing that? That's kind of rude.

[00:14:14]You're telling me this isn't the perfect man?

[00:14:17]>> They love me.

[00:14:18]>> A common sentiment back in the day was that Andrew Garfield was too cool to be Peter Parker. I think 90% of those complaints were really just because he had a skateboard. And I agree, the skateboard was dumb as hell. You could just see the studio meddling to make this Peter modern and relatable. But it wasn't just the studio involved here.

[00:14:37]Director Mark Webb purposely didn't want Peter Parker to be a nerd. He wanted to re-imagine Peter as an outsider, as a drifter. I view Peter Parker as not as necessarily as a nerd, per se, cuz I think nerd in a the current world as means a different thing.

[00:14:55]>> I don't know, Mark Webb. I think nerds still existed by the early 2010s. I was one of them. I get why they made this creative choice, though. They didn't want to repeat what the Remy movies did with Toby. And Toby was kind of a nerd the entire time.

[00:15:09]>> I have to see this show. You just let me in. I'll stand in the Also, dressing Andrew Garfield up like Urkl probably wouldn't have worked. Now, that said, I don't think the movie sets it up well at all that Peter is an outsider either.

[00:15:23]Like, Gwen seems to like him. The only thing Peter does that makes him an outsider, I guess, is telling Flash to stop bullying a kid.

[00:15:33]Spider-Man in these two movies is the best visually we've ever seen in liveaction. But there's one major problem with Garfield Spidey, at least in this movie. Peter and Spider-Man don't feel like the same guy. Let me explain. Amazing Spider-Man tries to have more realistic dialogue with people tripping over each other's words or wandering in and out.

[00:15:54]>> Um, so, uh, you want to uh I don't know.

[00:15:57]Um, >> want to what?

[00:16:00]>> I don't know.

[00:16:02]just uh um >> it's doing a different thing than the Remy movies where literally every line was precise and purposeful.

[00:16:14]>> He stole that guy's pizza.

[00:16:16]>> But the beauty of Tobey Maguire is that he's already kind of a [ __ ] weird guy. He didn't need to try to be awkward. That's just him.

[00:16:24]>> And to you for sending in your questions.

[00:16:29]Please check out our go see our movie.

[00:16:31]>> Andrew Garfield is not awkward, though.

[00:16:33]He comes off like a guy actively trying to be more awkward than he actually is, and you can see through the illusion.

[00:16:40]This hurts Peter the most because he'll bounce between this awkward a shucks guy to well, Spider-Man. In the comics, Spidey talks a lot, and that's fine.

[00:16:51]Spidey never shuts the [ __ ] up. That's just his thing. Spidey allows Peter to say stuff he normally wouldn't. like he can insult Jameson right to his face and get away with it. When it comes to adapting that though, you have to balance that, right? Spidey and Peter should feel like the same guy. And half the time here, he doesn't. It's like Peter literally changes personalities the second he puts on the mask.

[00:17:16]>> Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I got to tell you this one thing. I got to tell you this one thing, and it's it's about the the vigilante and the car thief. All right.

[00:17:22]>> Somebody's been a bad lizard. The movie tries so hard to juggle its lovable, awkward Peter and this chatty, sarcastic bug. It just comes off as Peter is either faking his awkwardness or the Spider-Man mask works like the Jim Carrey one and he becomes a funny cartoon character. Is >> that a real knife?

[00:17:44]>> Yes, it's a real knife.

[00:17:45]>> My weakness, it's small knives.

[00:17:47]>> If they had just toned Peter's personality down in either direction, it could have worked more for me. There's a lot to love about this version of Spider-Man, like the scene on the bridge. The lizard is rampaging, as he does, and Spidey has to catch all the cars being flung into the river. One car still has a kid in it. Peter takes off his mask, gives it to the kid, and with that courage, the kid climbs up to get saved. It's a great scene. It kind of encapsulates Garfield Spider-Man for me.

[00:18:18]Gwen Stacy. No, not that one. Not that one. Or that one? Yes, that one.

[00:18:25]>> Sorry. I love you. Don't hate me.

[00:18:28]>> Peter, >> she's the best love interest in any of these movies, right? That's not even a controversial take. Even people that dislike these movies like Gwen. These two have some real chemistry. Like sometimes too much chemistry. Should I be watching this? I can leave if you guys want. I got to go pick up some groceries anyway. And you might think, "Oh, well, of course these two have chemistry. It's because they were dating in real life." Well, guess what, Bucko?

[00:18:53]Every Spidey couple is dated in real life. That's just a thing that happens.

[00:18:58]Amazing Spider-Man was the only one that actually translated that onto the screen. What this movie does is excel at letting people just be people. That's what Mark Webb does well. If anything, they got the guy who did 500 Days of Summer to do a Spider-Man movie, and you can tell.

[00:19:16]>> What's your name?

[00:19:17]>> You don't know my name? No, >> I know your name.

[00:19:21]I just want to know if you know your name.

[00:19:23]>> These movies might have [ __ ] plots, pretty dumb writing, and questionable creative decisions, but I do enjoy those little moments between characters in Peter's life. That's nice. You know, for the most part, >> ask a question.

[00:19:38]Ask a question.

[00:19:39]>> Peter and Gwen is what makes these movies special. Not because any of their conversations are especially funny or memorable, but they do feel real. It's like these two have a dumb language only they understand.

[00:19:52]>> I don't know. We could I don't know. We could uh or we could do something else or we could if you don't we could >> Yeah.

[00:19:59]>> Yeah.

[00:20:00]>> Yeah. Either one.

[00:20:01]>> Stuff that feels kind of cringy to watch as an outsider looking in, but it works.

[00:20:06]Oddly enough, the strength of their relationship is conveyed more in these little moments than any grand gesture or kissing upside down. In a very talented cast with Andrew Garfield, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field, Emma Stone steals the show. She's the clear highlight. She honestly salvages a lot of these scenes, bouncing off of whatever awkward thing Andrew Garfield is trying to do. She's always on Peter's level. And that's why it's such a breath of fresh air that he just rips off the band-aid and tells her he's Spider-Man immediately. Now, I know that in the comics, Peter constantly flubbing his relationships because of his secret is a pretty core part of the character, but man, can it be frustrating sometimes. Spider-Man 2 explored that to its painful limit with Peter not even being able to show up to a damn play. When Peter dated Gwen in the comics, so much of their relationship was Peter just bolting off whenever something went wrong, and she thought he was just a little [ __ ] And yes, once again, that is a part of the character, but for the general audience, that would just seem like repeating what the Remy movies did. Oh, that boy of yours is a real hero.

[00:21:22]>> So, they just have Gwen find out immediately and save us another ride on the misunderstanding carousel. I like that. This Gwen is too interesting of a character to just be constantly putting up with the same Peter excuses. This early reveal also introduced an interesting dynamic into the mix. As now it's not just Peter's secret to keep anymore. It's their secret as a couple, which means mainly making sure that Gwen's dad, Captain Stacy, doesn't find out. Captain Stacy is the most important character in both movies. At first, you think he's just going to be a standard cop who dislikes the hero for doing his job better than him. But then come the scene at dinner, you realize, "Oh, damn.

[00:22:04]This guy's actually right."

[00:22:06]>> The car thief was leading us to the people who run the entire operation.

[00:22:09]It's been a six-monthlong stang, or it's just called strategy. I'm sure you're aware of the term strategy.

[00:22:13]>> He knows Spidey is profiling criminals that look the same in some quest for revenge. And up until now, that's exactly what Peter is doing. Even if he tries to rationalize otherwise, this isn't some Jonah Jameson type of beef.

[00:22:28]He knows that this type of costume stuff is only going to lead to trouble. Which is why he has his final dying wish. Be one very simple promise.

[00:22:39]>> Leave Quinn out of it.

[00:22:43]>> That seems pretty cut and dry, right? A dying father doesn't want his daughter involved in any of this dumb [ __ ] A giant lizard man just impaled him. It's understandable. And Peter does keep that promise for like 10 minutes.

[00:22:57]>> Don't make promises you can't keep, Mr. Parker.

[00:22:58]>> Yeah, but those are the best kind.

[00:23:00]>> As much of an easy dunk it would be for me to just roast this. I want to be a little fair. Like in the next movie, Peter's having Halo 3 level hallucinations of Captain Stacy. He's appearing like Cortana because Peter is so overcome with guilt that he keeps seeing Gwen. That said though, the ending line was still dumb as hell.

[00:23:19]>> But those are the best kind.

[00:23:21]>> What does that line even mean, Peter?

[00:23:24]Why would you say that? A man is dead.

[00:23:26]Why would she even smile at that? She knows what he means. She knows he made a promise to her dad. It's just a weird emotion to leave the audience with. It's meant to be all quirky and fun, like, "Haha, Peter broke his promise to a dying man. Oh well, he'll learn the hard way, I guess.

[00:23:43]The biggest tragedy of Amazing Spider-Man is that as much as I'd like to praise it for its different sense of direction or the chemistry between Peter and Gwen, at the end of the day, this is a movie about stopping a lizard man from turning everyone into lizards. The Lizard is my second favorite Spider-Man villain. Sorry, Connors. Nothing can beat Mysterio. Which is why it pains me that the liveaction lizard we're stuck with is this one. God, I will never like this design. I can forgive this movie so much, but I cannot forgive that. I get they're trying to do the whole humanoid reptile thing, but they did not have to.

[00:24:22]The lizard is supposed to look like a lizard. Even in his original look, he at least had a snout. He's not even that green. And worst of all, oh worst of all, he only wears his lab coat once.

[00:24:35]This is just a naked man with a skin infection. I don't care if he's supposed to look uncanny. I wanted a cool ass dinosaur. I would have sacrificed every precious Peter and Gwen moment just for that. They say art is subjective, but in this case, oh no, it's objective. The tragedy here is that the lizard could have worked so well, but he just doesn't. I have nothing against rise ephens ree aons auto high tower he does fine but the biggest problem with Kurt Connors in this movie is that he's just too isolated Kurt Connor should not be off-putting he's a family man he has a loving wife and son who deeply care about him and that part of his character is what makes him so distinct from all the other weirdos what makes him tragic.

[00:25:22]He's a guy who had one bad experiment and now on occasion he might transform and become a monster at a moment's notice. That's something that could have easily been worked into another origin movie for Spider-Man. Connors is trying to regrow his arm and Peter casually fixes his formula. Peter feels guilty that he's kind of contributed to Connor's turning into the lizard. Like the Ramy movies gave the Sandman this whole sad backstory he didn't have in the comics. He looks at his daughter's picture and a sad theme plays.

[00:25:53]Meanwhile, in this movie, the actual family man uh is just the guy that turns people into lizards with fart clouds.

[00:26:00]That's all the general audience is ever going to think of him as. Hey, future Cody here editing this video. So, apparently they did give him a son in a deleted scene. The kid is never mentioned again. This climax, man, it's just >> poor Peter Parker. Oh no, the lizard is about to gas up all of New York. Watch out. It ends with a cliche light in the sky. It's just like, okay, it's so funny that the lizard finds out Peter is Spider-Man because Peter just has his name on the camera. I thought you were supposed to be smart. Overall, Amazing Spider-Man 1 is all right. Funnily enough, it works best after watching all three Remy movies in a row. You'd think it would look worse in comparison, but it really just helps illuminate what they intentionally did differently so it wasn't just more of the same. Amazing Spider-Man 1 was, if anything, a decent base to build something on. If the sequel was good, then Sony would kind of have a home run on their hands. All they had to do was wind up the bat and hit the ball. It's Spider-Man. What could go wrong?

[00:27:11]They uh they somehow burned down the baseball field.