A Bit Too Familiar, Spider-Man's Relaunch Struggles to Differentiate Itself

Rating: 6/10 (16 November 2012)

I appreciate this franchise's need to distance itself from the missteps of Spider-Man 3, to start from scratch with a villain besides the Green Goblin, and to get back to the character's roots as an awkward kid in an adult's costume, wise-cracking to mask his uncertainty. I even like the decision go completely Mary Jane-free, as I felt the old "girl next door is the only one for me" story was a path the Raimi films walked far too quickly. Despite those perfectly noble, admirable intentions, though, this reboot just doesn't click for me. In the ten years since the first Spider-Man, the landscape of cinematic superheroics has changed dramatically. The Avengers family has upped the action ante, while Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy has proved a hero's story can be about more than just the mask. With the glut of action heroes now on the scene, Peter Parker needed this chance to differentiate himself, but instead he fades further into the wallpaper. Andrew Garfield turns in a laudable effort, but his renditions of Parker and Spider-Man are written to be so drastically different, it's often tough to imagine they're actually the same person. I had a hard time watching Peter doom and gloom over his Uncle while at school, then immediately toss out wacky jokes at night, in the midst of hunting his killer. Martin Sheen is the film's only real standout as poor, ill-fated Uncle Ben, but that's a role so inherently sympathetic that it would take an unmitigated disaster to screw up. All things considered it's certainly not a bad effort; the cast is loyal to the source while still seeming contemporary, the action scenes are breathtaking (if surprisingly infrequent) and enough leftovers remain on the table to feed several sequels. But several dull spots, a foil that seems too run-of-the-mill and universally inconsistent characterization stop it from being as amazing as the title would have us believe.