The untold story thats already been told

Rating: 7/10 (5 July 2017)

As a big fan of Sam Raimi's films with everyone's favorite wall crawler and web slinger (yes, even the third one), I was more than skeptical when it came to this reboot. Hence it was no surprise I didn't like this film on a first watch and things didn't change with this rewatch either.
Why do the origin story again, just tweaked a bit, when it was already perfectly done by Raimi? Because Sony was afraid to lose the rights to Marvel, if they didn't come up with something. And because it is a reboot so they need to restart the franchise and make some easy money while at it. What they came up with though is half-baked and disappointing on almost every level. I mean, just having to listen to Uncle Ben rephrase the classic line "with great power comes great responsibility" in order to avoid sounding too familiar to the original goes to show how pointless all of this is.
This "updated" version for "modern audiences" completely changes Peter Parker into someone I don't find myself hurrying to root for. Compared to (and I know it's not really fair to compare it to the original but they basically asked for it) Tobey Maguire's character, this Peter Parker seems so shallow. In the original Peter Parker was a meek, even poor four-eyed crammer with no parents. In this, he wears contact lenses and has a skateboard. Just by giving Maguire's Parker this constant struggle with money you bring the audiences to side with him, not to mention the fact that he's an orphan. Here, it's almost taken for granted that we should root for him because he's an orphan, whereas I don't think that's enough. He seems like a spoiled brat who is too "cool" for his own sake. Andrew Garfield is fine for the most part but I don't find him particularly great in the role.
Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard does a good job with what he's given; he's not given that much though. From the first time you see him he already begins laying out what he's all about: his obsession with finding a medical solution for his missing arm. Not that I'm expecting deep character development or solid motives when it comes to the villain but it sure helps to flesh him out a bit.
I'm not going to get into the whole Gwen Stacy romance and the sub-plot with her father but they seem as poorly handled as the rest of the characters/relationships. It's not a terrible film by any means, I actually enjoyed it somewhat. I liked how Spider-Man saved the kid on the bridge, the fight in the school and in the sewers, the fact that they made Spider-Man a very agile superhero and that they went for a dramatic, almost corny tone by the end. All of that I liked. But. It felt like a rushed and unnecessary rehash of already great content.