Reason Writers at the Movies: Peter Suderman Reviews The Amazing Spider-Man

The filmmakers behind the new Spider-Man reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man, have added an adjective, but not much else. Perhaps they should have called it The Repetitive Spider-Man? Reason Senior Editor Peter Suerman reviews the summer superhero do-over:

There are a handful of minor changes from the original: Spider-Man's love interest is no longer Mary Jane Watson but Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), whose father (a wonderfully cranky Denis Leary) is a police officer pursuing Spider-Man for vigilantism. Peter Parker's parents are briefly involved, and Spider-Man's guiding principle, "with great power comes great responsibility," has been awkwardly rewritten into a clunkier variant: "If you can do good things for other people, you have a moral obligation to do those things. Not choice — responsibility."

Indeed, the movie is essentially a lesser rewrite, like a VHS copy degraded by duplication. Aside from a few rearranged plot points, there are few new ideas to be found: Like Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin from "Spider-Man," Mr. Ifans' Lizard is a sympathetic villain who carries out arguments with himself. Even a final stirring moment in which New York's residents come to the hero's aid is lifted almost directly from the original.

Read the whole thing in The Washington Times.