The Amazing Spider-man

Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone

Star rating: ****

This Spiderman film has to be one of the most anticipated films of the year. Using twitter, the film's PR team have been promoting the film and created a real buzz around it as a result. The unusual choice of Andrew Garfield had split fans' opinions, some saying he wasn't dynamic enough to take on the role but he sure has proved his critics wrong.

Taking the story back to the beginning, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is geeky high school mathlete who gets picked by the flash school bully and doesn't have a clue how to talk to girls. Peter is the the orphan to troubled scientist Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) who mysteriously died in a plane crash with Peter's mother, whilst working on  project on inter-species DNA splicing. Richard's work is now carried on by Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), a man with just one arm, who is hopelessly working on trying to manipulate lizard DNA to regrow his missing limb. Peter is hopelessly in love with classmate Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and is being looked after by his uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and aunt May (Sally Field). In order to investigate his  father's research, he pretends to be an intern at Connor's organisation Oscorp and sneaks into a room where spiders are being experimented on. After one spider bite, the rest is history.

The one thing this film has done really right is the casting. Andrew Garfield is perfect as the socially awkward Peter Parker and plays his role to the tee. He looks clever, physically thin but also a bit of a rebel with his skateboarding antics. Emma Stone is great as the young but mature girlfriend, however you can't help but feel that more could have been done with her role. 

Visually this film is brilliant, with some great transformation sequences for both Spider-Man and the Lizard. Peter's struggle to face that he has developed superhero is humorously portrayed with teen arrogance which would inevitably come with the freedom to be invincible. Ifans transformation into Lizard is cleverly done with some great scenes of him trying to grow an extra limb and all the side effects he experiences. The sheer exhilaration of Spider-Man flying through the streets of New York is fantastic with some great first person shots of the New York skyline. This film is a must see for this summer, even if you are not a big comic book fan. It is very well shot and directed and really does keep the Spider-Man franchise alive for years to come.