THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Title : The Amazing Spider-Man

Language : English

Release Date : June 30, 2012 (Tokyo)

July 3, 2012 (United States)

Directed By : Marc Webb

Distributed By : Columbia Pictures

The Amazing Spider-Man is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, and sharing the title of the character's longest-running comic book. It is the fourth theatrical Spider-Man film produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Entertainment, and a reboot of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2002-2007 trilogy preceding it. The film was directed by Marc Webb. It was written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves and it stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curtis Connors, Denis Leary as NYPD Captain George Stacy, along with Martin Sheen and Sally Field as the uncle and aunt of Peter Parker, Ben Parker and May Parker. The film tells the story of Peter Parker, a teenager from New York who becomes Spider-Man after being bitten by a genetically altered spider. Parker must stop Dr. Curt Connors as a mutated lizard, from spreading a mutation serum to the city's human population.

Development of the film began with the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 in 2010, ending director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film series that had starred Tobey Maguire as the titular superhero. Columbia Pictures opted to reboot the franchise with the same production team along with James Vanderbilt to stay on with writing the next Spider-Man film while Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves helped with the script as well. During pre-production, the main characters were cast in 2010. New designs were introduced from the comics, such as artificial web-shooters. Using Red Digital Cinema Camera Company's RED Epic camera, principal photography started in December 2010 in Los Angeles before moving to New York City. The film entered post-production in April 2011. 3ality Technica provided 3D image processing, and Sony Pictures Imageworks handled CGI. This was also the final American film to be scored by James Horner and released during his lifetime, before his death in 2015 from an aircraft accident.

Sony Pictures Entertainment built a promotional website, releasing many previews and launched a viral marketing campaign, among other moves. Tie-ins included a video game by Beenox. The film premiered on June 30 in Tokyo, and was released in the United States on July 3, ten years after release of Spider-Man (2002), in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D and released in home media in November 2012. The reboot received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising mostly Andrew Garfield's performance, the visual style, James Horner's musical score, and the realistic portrayal of the title character. The film was a box office success, grossing over $757 million worldwide, becoming the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2012, and the highest-grossing reboot of all time. The film's sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was released on May 2, 2014.

Plot

A young Peter Parker discovers that his father Richard Parker's study has been burgled. Peter's parents gather hidden documents, take Peter to the home of his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and then mysteriously depart.

Years later, a teenage Peter attends Midtown Science High School, where he is bullied by Flash Thompson, and has caught the eye of Gwen Stacy. At home, Peter finds his father's papers, and learns his father worked with fellow scientist Dr. Curt Connors at Oscorp in the field of cross-species genetics. Sneaking into Oscorp, Peter enters a lab where a "biocable" is under development from genetically modified spiders, one of which bites him. He later discovers he has developed spider-like abilities, such as sharp senses, reflexes and speed.

After studying Richard's papers, Peter visits the one-armed Connors, reveals he is Richard's son and gives Connors his father's "decay rate algorithm", the missing piece in Connors' experiments on regenerating limbs. Connors is being pressed by his superior, Dr. Ratha, to devise a cure for the dying head of Oscorp, Norman Osborn. In school, Peter is exposed after a basketball challenge with Flash, in which Peter accidentally shatters the backboard glass. His uncle changes work shifts to meet with the principal, and asks Peter to walk May home for him that night. Peter forgets to do so, distracted while at Oscorp helping Connors regenerate the limb of a laboratory mouse. At home, he and Ben argue, and Peter leaves. At a nearby deli, a cashier refuses to let Peter buy milk when Peter is two cents short; when a thief suddenly raids the store, Peter indifferently observes. While searching for Peter, Ben attempts to stop the thief, and is killed. The thief escapes as Peter finds Ben dead on the sidewalk.

Afterward, Peter uses his new abilities to track down criminals matching the killer's description. After a fall lands him inside an abandoned gym, a luchador-wrestling poster inspires him to create a mask to hide his identity. He adds a spandex suit and builds mechanical devices to attach to his wrists to shoot a biocable "web". Later, at dinner with Gwen's family, he has a tense conversation with her father, police captain George Stacy, over the new masked vigilante's motives. After dinner, Peter reveals his identity to Gwen, and they kiss.

After seeing success with the mouse using lizard DNA, Ratha demands Connors begin human trials immediately. Connors refuses to rush the drug-testing procedure and put innocent people at risk. Ratha fires Connors and decides to test Connors' serum at a Veterans Administration hospital under the guise of a flu shot. In an act of desperation, Connors tries the formula on himself. After passing out, he awakens to find his missing arm has regenerated. Discovering that Ratha is on his way to the VA hospital, Connors, whose skin is turning green and scaly, goes to intercept him. By the time he gets to the Williamsburg Bridge, Connors has become a violent hybrid of lizard and man, tossing cars, including Ratha's, over the side. Peter, now calling himself Spider-Man, snatches each falling car with his web-lines.

Peter suspects Connors is the Lizard and unsuccessfully confronts the creature in the sewers. The Lizard learns Spider-Man's real identity via the name on an abandoned camera and follows Peter to school, where they fight. Police start a manhunt for both Spider-Man and the Lizard. The Police corner Spider-Man by taking off his mask and Captain Stacy discovers that Spider-Man is really Peter. The Lizard plans to make all humans lizard-like by releasing a chemical cloud from Oscorp's tower, to eliminate the weaknesses he believes plague humanity. Spider-Man eventually disperses an antidote cloud instead, restoring Connors and earlier victims to normal, but not before the Lizard mortally wounds Captain Stacy. Before his death, Captain Stacy requests Peter avoid Gwen, in order to keep her safe. Peter initially does so, but later at school, suggests to Gwen he may see her after all.

In a mid-credits scene, Connors, in a prison cell, speaks with a man in the shadows who asks if Peter knows the truth about his father. Connors doesn't know, and demands Peter to be left alone before the man disappears.