Ouch! What a mess!

Rating: 3/10 (16 September 2014)

Going into this film, I had no expectations. I set the bar at about the same level as the first Fantastic Four movie, and sadly, it didn't even manage to reach those. Just about everything except for the visuals and the acting in this film is done incorrectly.
Where do I begin? I might as well start with the writing, which happens to be this film's biggest sin. First of all, it's all over the place. Way too many plot points are introduced into the film, which play no part in the general story, and make the movie very boring. The most glaring example of this is the back story of Peter's parents. I already know what all of you are going to say. The back story is important because: A) It wasn't in the Raimi films, and it gives the film its own identity, and B) Knowing what happens to his parents is important because his father's research leads Peter to investigate Oscorp, which allows him to meet Dr. Connors. To explain my original point, let me shoot both of those pathetic excuses down. When making a good movie, the Raimi films should be completely unimportant. If a movie is good, it's good, and audiences will still appreciate it (except for the rabid fan boys of the comics who only care about following the books perfectly), and not care if the film so happens to borrow or utilize plot points from similar films. That's why it's a shame that this movie felt the need to advertise itself as the "Untold Story" because as long as it's not a direct shot-for-shot remake (like the Psycho remake), and is entertaining, it can still be enjoyed as its own separate thing. You don't need to be too concerned with creating a separate identity. It also adds too many layers to the story. All that garbage with Dr. Connors could've been dumbed down to Peter following Gwen to Oscorp, sneaking into the internship, and ending up meeting Dr. Connors, while gaining his powers. That still keeps the same principles and ideas of the story, while cutting out 15 minutes from the film's total runtime. Doesn't that sort of make sense? Second of all, the characters have no motivations whatsoever. For Peter, he takes his uncle's message about using his powers to good use, which is fine. But after Ben dies, due to his son's stupidity nonetheless, the film decides not to use a perfect setup that would allow Peter to reconsider what he wanted to do with his life, and cause him to feel the need to change as a person. That would've allowed Peter to be more well rounded as a character and perhaps connect to the audience a touch more. But nope! He can be a perfect Spider-Man just by being himself, which is infuriating, and causes him to be extremely unlikable and disgustingly arrogant. He doesn't even have to try! For Dr. Connors, he injects himself with the self-healing serum because he desperately wants to grow his own arm back, and perhaps win a Nobel Prize while doing it. That's fine. But it is never explained clearly why he ends up going on a rampage across New York City. I guess the drugs made him go insane(?), but it would've been much nicer, and more reassuring to have that be clarified. Finally, and most importantly, this movie was unable to get me to care about any of the characters in the movie, except for Aunt May. Peter, horribly miscast as Garfield, by no means sold me as being unpopular in the slightest (I'll get to that later), which instantly took me out of the movie. My brain kept hurting trying to comprehend why this kid would get picked on. Also, like I said earlier, he never felt the need to change as a person after the death of his uncle, which to me was just insulting. Uncle Ben was the biggest jerk in the entire movie. He was a cold, angry, and heartless human being, constantly reprimanding his son for not walking his aunt back home 8 blocks, without realizing how much his son's life sucked. If I knew someone who lived a sad and miserable existence, I'd do my best not to yell at them because it's not what they need. I was happy he died, but still was unsure why he tried to reach for the gun of a man who just robbed a liquor store. For Connors, me not caring was a case of him being underdeveloped. I felt that his story of not having a hand would be powerful enough if it got more screen time. Maybe he could've been fit into the 15 minutes that should've been cut with Peter's parents.
Now that that's done, it's time to move on to acting. I felt that the cast turned in pedestrian showings at best. Sally Field was great as Aunt May, and was the only person that seemed to truly try. Martin Sheen was way to preachy in his portrayal of Uncle Ben, as it felt like he was giving a sermon more than being a good father figure to Peter. Stone and Garfield are fine, and have good chemistry. Rhys Ifans was alright as Connors, but never brought much much true emotion into the role. Denis Leary as Captain Stacy was very one-note; his performance could've used more heart.
Having a huge budget, the technical elements such as sound, lighting, and visuals are where I'd expect them to be. I did think the CG looked a tad fake at times, and could've used the presence of actual actors at several points, but I was overall satisfied with the technical elements.
Final thoughts: I know that this film is enjoyed by a lot of people, so I am unable to fully say that I can't recommend it. However, there is no denying that this film could've been much, much better.