(Marc Webb, 2014, USA)
Of the myriad superhero reboots over the last decade or so, the most egregious and downright offensive might be Marc Webb’s reset of webslinger Spider-Man in 2012, just five years after Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 opened to toxic word-of-mouth and ready-made memes of Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker sporting emo hair and dancing in the streets. Usually it takes a bit longer than a half-decade for the audience vitriol built up by an ostensible franchise killer to subside enough for a franchise restart to work (the seven years between Superman Returns and Man of Steel is probably the next shortest timeframe), and, even then, an alternate narrative take or radically different tone is often required to properly differentiate the two series – see Christopher Nolan’s gritty, down-to-earth Batman Begins. But Webb – known only for his hipster romcom (500) Days of Summer prior to taking Spidey’s reins – largely copied Raimi’s approach for The Amazing Spider-Man, ditching the cult director’s more offbeat methods but keeping the basic storyline and dominant themes of the original Spider-Man. Retelling the story of Parker’s high-school life and superhero origins may have been necessary, but Webb did little to distinguish his version from the already-told tale, making only superficial changes and following the same plot points that Raimi covered with flair ten years earlier. Parker’s in love with a girl. Parker is bullied at school. Parker gets bit by a super-spider. Parker gains incredible powers. Parker battles a former scientist mentor genetically transformed into a green-coloured monster. Rinse. Repeat.
Cinema Charchuk 