The Amazing Spider-Man: What Peter Parker Means To Me

Originally I had planned on writing a review for the movie but before we went to see it last night I told Scott “I want you to do the review. I want to do something else.” Seeing this movie was important to me. Originally Scott, Jonathan and I were to attend an early showing but due to circumstances we were unable to get in. I swallowed down by disappointment and hid it but on the inside I was let down so bad because of how much I was dying to see this movie. The reason being that Spider-Man/Peter Parker has been an important part of my life ever since I was a young child.

I think there’s many Spider-Man fans that can relate to what I am about to write and it’s why I am sharing it. When I was younger I wasn’t popular. I actually was picked on quite a bit throughout elementary school through junior high. Many people look at me when I tell them and they don’t believe me but it definitely happened. And during my youth I fell in love with something…comic books. In my youth though I stuck to two things…the X-Men and Peter Parker ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. I could never relate to some of the main Marvel characters or DC characters but when it came to Peter Parker I totally got it. As a kid Spider-Mans story hit me hard because like him I was kind of a loner and I never knew my dad myself. I had my mom in my life and my grandfather kind of played the father role to me. He was my own personal Uncle Ben. My love of comic books spawned from my introduction to Spider-Man. I had prior knowledge to Batman and Superman before but never developed an interest like I did when I fell into Peter Parker’s world. I would save lunch money just to run to the comic shop and pick up the new Spidey book that hit the shelves every month. Due to having a lack of friends I would sit in my room for hours reading comics over and over again and thinking out ideas for storys in my head.

There was even an incident in which some punk kid stole a copy of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man #365″ out of my backpack. At nine years old that was devastating because he denied it and the teachers did nothing. Let’s just say I got detention for my fist making contact with a certain classmates face due to a certain issue being stolen.

Over the years my love continued on but like most comic collectors during our teenage years alot of us having a time where we “lose love” for comics. This happened for me around eighth grade and lasted well past high school. I still went out and caught comic book movies and even caught ‘Spider-Man’ in 2002 which I liked at the time.

Around 2005 I was going through a hard time myself and it wasn’t a good time in my life in general. The best way to describe my feeling about life was that I felt “lost” like I did as a kid again. I didn’t feel I fit in anywhere and I wasn’t really sure what to do. One day my friends mother called me because he had moved and no one had been able to get in contact with him and was wondering if I wanted to pick up a box of comics he had left behind because otherwise she was going to toss them. I agreed and picked up the box and upon getting home opened it up. On the very top of the stack was ‘Peter Parker Spider-Man’ issues 44-47. I decided to open up the issues and ended up reading the entire story arc “A Death In The Family” aka “Return Of The Goblin” straight through. I was instantly returned to the world I had once loved and didn’t realize I missed so dearly.

Reading these issues brought me back to collecting comics and really changed my life in general to be honest. And that is why 2007’s ‘Spider-Man 3’ hurt me so much. I remember being so excited to see that movie and leaving theaters not even trying to defend it. I think I was dead silent for about five minutes after until I said “What the fuck was that?!” and just swore off the Spider-movies after. I’ll be straight forward with you…I didn’t like the Raimi movies. As I told Scott recently they are goofy, Tobey Maguire and Kristen Dunst were horrible leads and as much as I liked Sam Raimi’s movies…they weren’t Spider-Man movies. I had a sour taste in my mouth due to my favorite comic character just being such a let down on the big screen. I know some people are going to disagree with me but I think those are the same people who haven’t actually watched the original Spider-Man movies in about five to six years and realize that they don’t hold up and are just…silly.

When they announced the re-boot and that Marc Webb would be directing I was instantly excited. As more and more details emerged my excitement levels grew for it. Every trailer and every clip I watched made me feel like a kid again. I loved everything I learned about the movie and once I sat down last night I held in my excitement.

So what did I think of the movie? It was perfect. I have no shame in admitting that I teared up during parts of this movie. The cast are amazing…pun intended. Andrew Garfield was the best choice for Peter Parker that they could have possibly made and when I read Spidey books now I imagine I am going to be hearing his voice in my head. You truly relate to the character versus with Maguire where you felt like he was just a guy filling a role. The visuals in this movie are beautiful and you get lost in Peter Parker’s world and fall in love with everyone in it especially Gwen Stacy. Emma Stone if you wanted to go out…I would take you to a nice dinner and call you again. The introduction of  _____ _____ (I won’t tell you who it is) during the mid-credits is great to me. Can I wait for a second film? No. But I guess that just means I have to watch this one again and again. Thank you to Stan Lee for creating this character that helped me so much and to Marc Webb for making the best Spider-Man film to date and making a long time Spider-Man fan finally see what he loved truly come to life for the first time.

If you’re a Spider-Man fan…go see ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. You will definitely leave with a smile on your face.