Amazing indeed

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2012)

This reboot has been under a lot of pressure since announcement, most of which are not very objective. The main concern is that it has only been 5 years since the last spider movie, therefore it is clearly too soon to reboot the campaign with a whole new set.
Let's face it, the previous 3 spider-man movies weren't so good, the script were in the level of last decade's superhero movies where stuff like Xmen and Wolverine were acceptable; they were mostly the result of lots of studio's money + some 3rd rate director and writers + experiments with CG to see how far they could go. There were not even an attempt to take some character development into consideration until the Batman Begin.
The only cherishable elements from the original 3 were some of the swing CG shots and Danny Elfman's music. Until now, the final swing sequences with his orchestra behind still gives goose bumps.
Now this talented young man came along, Andrew Garfield, an unpretentious natural actor. His remarkable performance in the Social Network and Never Let Me Go established personalities based on his ability to handle inner twist and struggle while expressing it without trying too hard. His version of Peter Parker gave a very nice first impression, an impression got even better as the movie progressed.
The fighting sequences are the best in this movie. It's just so hard to impress the audience nowadays, unless you give something extraordinary. You gotta have the WoW factor like Inception's Paris sequence to hold people's attention. The fighting sequences in this one are beautifully executed, especially the animation and editing. The 3D animation of spider-man often subtly mimicking the spider movement in very fast paced cuts, and each change of position is complimented by cleverly set camera angle then smoothly edited together. A few well placed first person shots really made the motion come alive.
Performance is good, both the lead and support actors are solid performers who can properly deliver a line. Masters like Martin Sheen and Sally Field need no introduction; Rhys Ifans brought his very tasty accent with a touch of his Welsh tongue, which made every syllable memorable.
Well, there are some plot holes, it wouldn't be a Hollywood movie if there weren't any. But not too terrible, not like Prometheus! How did Dr. Conners moved all his very delicate equipment in the sewer with no help and just one arm? Nevermind, he's a big lizard! They also had to show the American flag in a heroic way, they just had to do it. In spiderman3 there were a shot where the hero briefly stops in front of a flag before hopping off, and I almost fell off my chair in the cinema – it was shameless! Now at least this one wasn't that bad. It's NYC and the civilian heroes shed their blood during 911, so we shouldn't be too cynical while the movie maker decided they deserve some applause.
Disappointment – the music. It's really, really bad! It literally felt like one tune, which sounded as if composed for some independent documentary, inappropriate for most of the scenarios, got used over and over and over. it was neither a good tune nor nicely arranged. I hated it with a passion so I looked it up and realized it made sense that James Horner gave birth to the score. This guy once had a few nice melodies in his head back in the 90s, unfortunately he used them up in 'Legend of Fall', 'BraveHeart' and 'Titanic', that was it. In 'A Beautiful Mind' you could feel the desperation, and when it came to 'Troy' that was just constipation. Since you can't use bagpipe to portrait a modern time NYC scenario, the whole attempt was pathetic. Hopefully soon someone will remix the new visual with Danny Elfman's tune and put on Youtube, so when watching and enjoying the climax of the swings, we don't have to suffer from Horner's impotence.
Overall it was a great pleasure to sit through the 136 minutes. Being the one main member missing from the Avengers, the little spider did just as well on his own.