Waaaay better than the previous installments... and I mean ANY of them!

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2012)

The Good: This movie is one of the rare superhero flicks with a heart. At the same time it possesses some of the best CGI and action sequences. The 3D surely does enrich the visual appeal of the movie, especially in the action sequences.
Andrew Garfield is simply terrific as Peter Parker and no spider-man fan will be disappointed with his portrayal of the wise-cracking yet troubled teenager. (Even though some say that his sense of humor borders on arrogance.) His portrayal of Peter Parker is so amazing that it will surely set a benchmark for all the future Peter Parkers to come. Emma Stone is simply lovely as Gwen Stacy. Her character has been fleshed out neatly by the writers and her acting is way better than Kirsten Dunst's MJ. Special mention to Rhys Ifans as well. His portrayal of the Lizard is simply awesome. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised by how the Lizard looks and how its mannerisms have been captured.
The camera work is also stupendous and the direction is fabulous. The action set pieces will surely blow your mind away. This is equally true for romantic/emotional scenes as well (This, of course, is no shocker given that Marc Webb had earlier directed "500 Days of Summer").
The Bad: MANY of the scenes and dialogs depicted in the trailers were completely absent from the final cut (or at least the one released in India). This was really very irritating. Irrfan Khan's Dr. Ratha had a blink and a miss role. Not exactly "the untold story" as these elements of the story kind of remain underdeveloped. (Perhaps this issue will get resolved in the coming installments).
What some critiques are saying and my take on it:
1. "Origins story not required" -- Really? I can see another Spider-man origins story if it brings something fresh to the table. And this movie does more than what is required to infuse a sense of originality the previous one.
2. "Too much deja vu" -- For crying out loud, it IS an origins story. It's basic ingredients cannot change all of a sudden. For then people would have accused it of not remaining true to the comics.
3. "CGI not up to the mark and 3D is useless": I had no such issues. And trust me I had gone with great expectations... and as it turns out all those expectations were met. And not watching the movie is like reducing the fun by half.
4. "Twilight for the superhero generation": Spiderman is NO Superman. Fortunately or unfortunately, he is a teenager and he has Twilight-ish issues in his life. That is in fact one of the reasons why he is so loved all over the world. I don't see any reason to crib if the same is depicted in the movie at the cost of mindless action scenes.
5. "Story not up to the mark": Kind of agree with this one. But the 'Goods' totally make up for this one flaw. (And I agree it is not a minor one... but then I am a crazy Spidey fan!) Do watch this one. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.