10 Criticisms Of The Amazing Spider-Man Films That Are Completely Unfair

Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man films are not exactly the most beloved superhero films around. It's generally held that the first entry was pretty decent, but the second one was just plain awful. Even now, with the revived interest in Garfield's portrayal of the web-slinger, fans are saying that he was a fantastic actor in the role of Spider-Man who was unfortunately let down by the quality of his films. But is that really fair?

Really, most of the criticisms are just a matter of people either misremembering what actually happened in the films, or misunderstanding the central themes completely. For comparison, 2013's Iron Man 3 was criticised for not having enough Iron Man action, when the central theme of the film was that Tony Stark doesn't need his suit to be a hero. In the same way, a lot of the criticisms of Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man films tragically miss the point completely.

Unfortunately, the series was cut short due to the poor reception of TASM 2. Interest in the films were lost, and a new Spider-Man entered our screens. But now that Andrew Garfield's portrayal is receiving the praise it deserves, his films merit another look.

One big criticism of Peter's characterisation is that he was presented as a cool, popular guy, which doesn't fit the character of Peter Parker from the comics. But when we take a closer look at what the first film presents, this isn't true at all.

In fact, the film goes out of its way to show that Peter is the kind of kid who gets picked on and who doesn't get the girls. There's a scene early on in which Peter talks briefly with an attractive girl. She asks him if he is free on a particular day, and he seems surprised but interested. Then it's revealed that she actually wants him to take pictures of her boyfriend's car; she isn't asking him out on a date. The whole point of this scene is to show that Peter isn't a cool, popular guy who gets the girls.

Later on, when Peter talks to Gwen and somehow finds the courage to ask her out, it is painfully awkward, because he just has no idea how to talk to girls. So the film does everything to show that, although Garfield may be a good-looking actor, this Peter is absolutely not a cool, popular guy. His characterisation is a great match for the original Peter Parker.