If you’ve been following the development of Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man at all, then you’ll no doubt be aware that director Marc Webb has overseen big changes to the Spider-Man franchise, and we don’t just mean replacing Tobey Maguire with Andrew Garfield. Out of all of the changes to the Spidey mythos, one of the most contentious will likely be the director’s decision to drop Uncle Ben’s classic phrase “with great power comes great responsibility” and Webb has spoken to MTV to explain the reasoning behind its omission:
“We played around with the idea of using it, but ultimately it felt like it was in the subtext of the film in so many places. I think we’ve all heard it so many times that I didn’t think that it was necessary to use. Uncle Ben, of course, issues a statement using some of the similar words to kind of convey that idea,” states Webb, who is following up his acclaimed feature debut (500) Days of Summer with the $220m-budgeted reboot. “There were moments where we thought about using it, but it didn’t feel as emotionally honest to the scenes and to the sequences. We were trying to create something more naturalistic. Because we had seen it so many times before, I didn’t think it was absolutely necessary.”
Well, you could argue that we’ve seen Spider-Man’s origin so many times before that it isn’t absolutely necessary to see it again, but there you go.
The Amazing Spider-Man opened in cinemas today, with a cast that includes Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors / The Lizard, Denis Leary as Captain George Stacy and Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Take a look at our first review of the film here, and be sure to check back this week for more opinions.
Originally published July 3, 2012. Updated November 29, 2022.
