Last week saw the re-remastered of the 2018 smash hit of Marvel’s Spider-Man, developed by Insomniac Games, being released on the PC! This is a game that started off exclusively on the PlayStation 4 but later came available in better quality (and a more Tom Holland-like redesign) to the PlayStation 5 and has now been ported to the PC.
Marvel’s Spider-Man has been one of the more successful video games in recent memory, selling millions of copies and is loved by critics and gamers alike! Most would agree that this is one of the best, if not THE best, Spider-Man game to date and one of the best superhero games ever made! It’s basically the equivalent of the Batman: Arkham series in the sense that it not only plays like a superhero game should but it just makes you FEEL like a superhero, more so than any other prior game with the web swinger! However, as times goes by with this game, not only has it aged wonderfully but it makes me think how better The Amazing Spider-Man movie series could have turned out if they choose to take the same approach and direction to the character before Insomniac did years later.
The Amazing Spider-Man had just turn ten years old last month with the original release being back in July 2012. It was approached by Sony as a darker, lower-scaled reboot compared to the Sam Raimi trilogy, containing a larger focus on the teen drama/high-school dynamic aspects of the character. While it did get mostly solid reviews at the time it came out, with most critics praising Andrew Garfield’s performance, it received plenty of criticism for putting too much focus on the origin story and being way too similar to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. These complaints are valid as there was plenty of plot beats that the movie follows with the 2002 film along with not offering much new or interesting things of it’s own. Despite having a talented cast and crew, the whole thing came across as rather forgettable and tiresome.
The big takeaway for me when it comes to The Amazing Spider-Man franchise has a whole is how it’s cynicism became so apparent on the big screen. It only exists to fill out a balance sheet! Sure, every big movie is made to make money but the best of these kind of movies are one that don’t FEEL like that when you watch them. When you watch a movie, you want to get the sense that it felt like a passion project for everyone involved and the love and effort it took to make it. Unfortunately, I can’t really say that for The Amazing Spider-Man and it’s sequel.
They don’t feel like movies that Sony or anyone involved WANTED to make but were FORCED to make because they had to keep the rights to Spider-Man somehow. Despite arguably containing more comic book-like elements of the character than before, hardly any of it is put to good use, meant anything in terms of story and character development, and came across as things needed to be check off of a list that obsessed fanboys would want to see in a Spidey flick than actual earned fan service.
However, it didn’t have to be this way. It didn’t have to be derivative and come across as an obligation. They could have actually explored a interesting and new dynamic of Spider-Man How exactly? By focusing on a new side of the Spider-Man character that wasn’t presented in the Sam Raimi films, Peter Parker coming into his own as a fully form adult. Whereas Raimi put more emphasis on Peter being on the tail end of high school to college, Sony and Marc Webb could have made the Amazing franchise more successful by putting more emphasis on Peter Parker on the tail end of college to complete adulthood. This would have helped uncharted new territory for the famous character on screen and showed audiences a different and unique side of the character.
When I really think of all the amazing things that Insomniac provided with their Spider-Man games thus far is showing Peter Parker away from his traditional origins and roots. It doesn’t show Peter Parker in high school or seeing him meeting all his friends, girlfriends or enemies for the first time. What it does show that this version of Peter Parker has a history of his life as Spider-Man.
Plenty of things had already happened throughout his tender as a masked, web swinging-hero. Instead of focusing on things that most mainstream audiences already know about Spider-Man, it focuses on NEW things that mainstream audiences haven’t seen much off, Peter Parker as a fully-formed adult. He’s still young but he’s grown more powerful and responsible. We’re not always shown that but we KNOW it because of the right amount of context shown and told to the audience.
In this version of Spider-Man, we see Peter Parker taking on many different roles now that he is out of college and on his own as a grown man. He plays the reliable cocky vigilante that New York and the police force led by Yuri has grown accustom to. He plays the ex-boyfriend who somewhat wants to get back with his ex-girlfriend in Mary Jane Watson. He plays the supportive nephew with Aunt May and her work with F.E.A.S.T. He plays the apprentice with his assistance towards Otto Octavius on his big experiment. And arguably the most important role of all, acting as a mentor towards a younger, more diverse Spider-Man for a new generation in Miles Morales. These were all major roles that Peter has to play throughout the course of the game to discover a new meaning of great power coming with great responsibility! These were also major roles that Amazing films themselves could have tackled.
We could have seen a natural progression of Andrew Garfield’s version of the character without having to resort back to the standard origin formula or hitting the same beats as before. We could have seen Peter play the same energy-filled web swinger as Insomniac’s did without having him come across as Deadpool. We could have seen his status on New York and the police force led by Captain Stacy or whoever without having to see the hows, whens, and whys. We could have seen him deal with his relationships with the female figures in his life such as Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, and even Liz Allen without resorting to typical teen drama and soap opera tropes. We could have seen him be a supportive nephew to Aunt May without him coming across as a jerk and a tacked on nurse subplot (You forgot that Aunt May became a nurse in the second film! Didn’t you?!). We could have seen him play the apprentice role to Dr. Connors with an actual mentor ship and connection with one another. We could have gotten more invested in Peter and Harry’s relationship by letting the history between the two play out more. Lastly, we could have seen Peter act in his first step as a teacher and mentor to Miles Morales, introducing the character on the big screen even before Into the Spider-Verse did. Things like this could have made the Amazing Spider-Man series much better and more interesting than it was.
I’m always baffled whenever I hear people defend the first Amazing movie for being an origin story because it just had to be since it was a reboot. I find that absolute bollocks. Most mainstream audiences are already aware of Spidey’s standard origins and didn’t find another origin movie released just a decade later to be necessary. They just needed to do an opening credit scene similar to all three of Raimi’s films or even The Incredible Hulk ( a very underrated MCU film) to use visual storytelling to show the origin of this version of Spider-Man and then move on to new things. It would have helped the series stand out more on it’s own and putting a focus away from how Peter Parker became Spider-Man could have let room for plenty other interesting stories to tell.
What would make the Amazing series stand out even more with the other two live-action Spider-Man movie series is how we would have gotten a perfect showcase of three different versions of Spider-Man. Tom Holland’s version focused on the high school nature of Peter Parker along with seeing him grow into his own iteration of Spider-Man after taking inspirations from other superheroes he grew up watching and fighting alongside with. Tobey Maguire’s version would have focused on Peter Parker finishing high school and working his way to college as he takes his first steps into true adulthood. Lastly, Andrew Garfield’s version could have focused on Peter Parker fresh out of college, fully into adulthood, and on the verge of fully fleshing into a middle aged superhero. That way, we would have gotten three different Peter Parkers from three different perspectives: as a high schooler, college student, and as a grown adult. It would have had Andrew Garfield stand alongside with Tobey and Tom as being Spider-Men that stand well on their own and don’t need a crossover movie to be as great as they are.
While I’m still glad that Andrew Garfield go to come back as Spider-Man once again for No Way Home and seen him interact with Tobey and Tom along with fighting alongside them, I still can’t help but see missed potential with his version of the character. I believe him to be the best overall actor to play Spider-Man and his version had the best costume and web swinging of the live-action movies so far. Just to bad he was also settle with the worst story and character development of the three by far. To this day, if the series of films could have just focused on a different time period of Peter Parker that felt more natural and be more age appropriate for Andrew, the Amazing series could have truly been amazing! Oh well!
On the bright side, there is at least another version of Spider-Man to look forward to in the future! Not just with Marvel’s Spider-Man being remastered yet again for PC owners but also for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that is confirmed to be released sometime next year in 2023! It might be five years since the first game and three years since Spider-Man: Miles Morales but I’m pretty confident it will be well worth the wait!
Adam's Blog 
I love this movie and the costume is wonderful 😍😍😍
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