Wonderful Things are Coming.....Wonderful Things

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2014)

Five years after the successful, but bad Spider-Man 3 was released, the studio felt a reboot was in order. Frankly you cannot blame the studio for that, as Spider-Man 3 was indeed a bad to average film. However the franchise was just ten years old when this reboot hit the theaters in 2012. Which presents a lot of problems for this film.
The story for the film, written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves is barely better than average. The film holds onto this need of a long and drawn out back story for Peter Parker. However the back story we were told in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, about ten years ago at the release of this film, told us that story, and quite well. Doing that leads to a water down film overall. While the development of the characters was very good, taking an hour or so of a film that is barely over two hours to tell the entire story over again is just bad thinking. The villain in the film, Dr. Curt Connors also known as The Lizard is actually very fun, however giving him a deep back story would have made him much better. I also enjoyed how they didn't go right for the major villains right out of the gate. Sure they give hints here and there at other major villains, but that is all.
Directed by Marc Webb, he leads a wonderfully shot film. There are a few very fun flying scenes, shot in first and third person involving Spider-Man. These scenes look beautiful using CG. I also give him credit for using conventional filming as well. He doesn't overdo the CG like some superhero films do these days. The acting overall is amazing. From top to bottom this film delivers on its acting. Although I did feel at times Peter Park, played by Andrew Garfield, slipped out of his role. Although it doesn't really hurt the film. The battle scenes with Spider-Man and The Lizard are amazing as well. While the first battle is more over the top with the action, the final battle while still fun it did fall too short and rushed even.
Composing the score for this film was James Horner. Superhero films usually have this heavy handed loud coming at you score. The score for this film was very light for most of the film. At times the score is amazing, for example near the end of the film, but for the rest of the film it just falls flat.
Overall for the start of a new series, this film was just barely over average. In my opinion telling the entire back story in depth, and taking up a large portion of the run time was just a big mistake. I am still holding out hope for the sequel, which will be released just two days after this review is posted, but as for this film I will leave it at a barely about average. If you haven't seen the film already and you enjoy superhero films, then giving this a watch wouldn't be a bad idea. Or if you want to get caught up in time for the sequel.
5.5/10