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First, Reb Brown as
Captain America, and now “The Amazing Spider-Man”. Don’t get your hopes up,
there is no Emma Stone to be found here.
The year is 1977. A
sensation known as “Star Wars” is storming the galaxy. The “Atari 2600” leaves
“Pong” in the dust. The “Son of Sam” killer is captured and a young man from
New York gets exposed to a radioactive spider in “The Amazing Spider-Man”.
THE SKINNY
The film begins, as
you would expect, with college student and amateur photographer Peter Parker. One
day while performing some experiment, a radioactive spider bites young Peter on
the hand, and soon, he notices a change. He can climb walls and even has super
human strength. Soon he invents himself a “web-slinger” device to, yadda yadda
yadda. We all know the origin by now. Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man.
Spider-Man saves some little old ladies and all of New York erupts into spider
fever.
While this is
happening, a Tony Robbins style guru named Edward Byron has been selecting
prominent New Yorkers, bankers, lawyers and the like, from his life coach
seminars to be his mind controlled puppets. Once under his control, Byron uses
them to carry out bank robberies. To guarantee they don‘t lead the police back
to him, he has them drive their get away car into the side of a building,
killing themselves.
Byron also uses these
robberies/deaths as examples when he makes a fifty million dollar demand from
the city. If his demand isn’t met, he will force ten citizens to kill
themselves. How is he doing it? It’s a combination of hypnosis that takes place
during his classes, making the subjects vulnerable. Later Byron transmits a
radio signal that is picked up by a lapel pin receiver, given to them by Byron
when they join the group.
Peter is assigned to
photograph the remains of one of the car crash victims, Professor Noah Tyler.
On location he meets Noah’s daughter, Judy Tyler, and a romance begins. As they
get to know each other, Judy mentions to Peter that her father has been
attending the classes of Byron. They even sit in during one of his classes. It
isn’t overtly suspicious, but Peter still has his suspicions.
Things take a turn
for Byron when Peter accidentally discovers how he has been transmitting the
radio waves. Spider-Man follows the signal to it’s source, destroys the radio
tower, apprehends Byron and saves the day for ten unlucky New Yorkers.
The film ends with
Peter and Judy walking off into the
sunset together. The End.
THE VERDICT
Before I share my
thoughts on “The Amazing Spider-Man”, I would like to cover a little Spider-Man
television history.
This was the first
live action Spider-Man with any substance. Before this there was an animated
series in the late ‘60s and the occasional appearance on the children’s show
“The Electric Company” during the early ‘70s.
This TV film was a
“backdoor” pilot for the “Spider-Man” television show that lasted only thirteen
episodes, stretched over two years. Critics, kids especially, complained that
the show didn’t involve any established villains or storyline, and that the
production values were lousy. Soon CBS thought they may soon be referred to as
the “superhero station”, as it already had two successful series; “The
Incredible Hulk” and “Wonder Woman”. In addition, they also aired two “Captain
America” TV films, as well as a “Dr. Strange” TV film. Because of all this, CBS
pulled the plug on “Spider-Man”.
While this was going
on in the states, Toei, a Japanese production company, was producing a
“Spider-Man” show of their own. We all know how things in Japan can get a
little strange. Well, the Japanese “Spider-Man” is a motorcycle racer who gets
his spider powers from a special suit that alters him genetically when he wears
it. This ran for a total of forty-one episodes and came complete with giant
robots and the hit song “Spider-Man Boogie”. That’s Japan for ya.
So, what do I think
about “The Amazing Spider-Man”? It’s not very good. I find that my complains
about the film are the same complaints fans had back in the ‘70s. There aren’t
enough comic based characters and the special effects are cheap and
unimpressive. Instead of Byron, the villain could easily have been The King Pin
who employs some hypnotist lackey to carry out a similar plan. This could have
been an easy way to shoehorn more Marvel Universe into the film.
Peter Parker never
became comfortable in his spider skin. I miss the cocky, wise cracking Peter
from the comics, cartoons and later films.
I understand there
was no CGI in the ‘70s. Cheap special effects are something that I could
otherwise overlook. Especially when they are forty years old. But, there is
just SO MUCH of these effects. So much of the film is Spider-Man’s origin and
him wall crawling. It makes the films drag on. “The Amazing Spider-Man” is an
exorcise in patience. It has it’s charm, but it’s no wonder it was canceled
after thirteen episodes.
I’m Cory Carr and
this concludes another trip on the “Action Movie Time Machine”. Until next
time, Semper Fi Punk!
For more from Cory,
check out his website slaughterfilm.com, where he and his
good friend Forest Taylor record weekly podcasts, reviewing the films that are
legendary, even in Hell!
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