USA 2014
Starts April 17, 2014
Directed by: Marc Webb
Writing credits: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orcirbilt
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx
Length: 141 minutes
Every generation has its heroes. Spider-Man has been one for a few generations by now, but on screen, Spider-Man is someone new for every generation. The most current cinematographic version of Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Garfield) is a lot more self-assured than his predecessor, played by Tobey Maguire. He is witty, a bit self-absorbed and very talkative- even when he is glued to the front of a car calling his girlfriend Gwen (Stone) in order to tell her that he will probably not be late for his own graduation. Spider-Man is, of course, just keeping the city safe. In the course of the movie he will be fighting a total of three villains, which have all somewhat come out of the underbelly of Oscorp, a high-tech company. Electro (Foxx), the Green Goblin (DeHaan) and the Rhino (Giamatti) all hate Spider-Man and/or Peter Parker and want to destroy him- the city merely being collateral damage. As if this weren’t enough, Peter Parker has to deal with all the problems of a regular teenager: bringing his aunt’s car into the shop, doing the laundry (without bleeding the colors of his costume into other stuff) and also his love life. Gwen, by no means a damsel in distress (“Nobody makes my decisions for me”), wants to accept a scholarship for Oxford and go to England. In the meantime, the head of Oscorp dies, making his son Harry (DeHaan), Peter’s oldest friend, an orphan who wants to reconnect. As a whole, the plot wasn’t really memorable when it came to Spider-Man’s challenges. What was really great was the way this new Spider-Man dealt with life, taking his Aunt’s advice seriously: “time is luck, never waste it living someone else’s life.” And with that, he often uses diplomacy over violence and tries to support his girlfriend in respect to her choice of career, making this new Spider-Man not only a modern hero, but also a modern man. ()