A must watch

Rating: 7/10 (1 July 2012)

When Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced in 2010 that they were rebooting the Spiderman series with a new cast and crew, critics as well as the fans were skeptical whether a revamp to the commercially successful trilogy would actually work. But as it turns out 'The Amazing Spider-man' has had the highest opening for a Hollywood film in India, even surpassing the other Marvel Studios movie, 'The Avengers'.
So does the version of the Spiderman by Mark Webb match that of the director of the previous 3 movies by Sam Raimi? Yes it does, in fact better in certain cases.
Andrew Garfield astonishes us by a refreshingly original approach to the character of The Spider-man. For starters, he doesn't play the shy, nerdish guy which was played by Tobey Maguire. It was Garfield's childhood dream to play the Spider-man, and it clearly shows in the movie where he effortlessly shows us a more intriguing, interesting version of the superhero.
Emma Stone plays Gwen Stacy, the love interest of Peter Parker and not Mary Jane, unlike in the previous movies. She does a decent job, and the love affair between them is more appealing and less annoying, which was the case between Maguire and Dunst. There is a very sizzling chemistry between Emma and Garfield, the real life couple look great together on-screen as well. The first half of the story is almost the same as the original Spider- man of 2002, with more emphasis being given on the story of how Peter got separated from his parents. Peter learns Oscorp Labs hired his dad's former associate, Dr. Curt Connors, whom Peter hopes has knowledge about his parents. But Connors (Rhys Ifans) is doing strange things with science, developing a reptile serum to regrow his missing arm, and one of his steroidal spiders bites Peter. Connors later turn into a giant lizard with voice and mind of a man. But however, he is not a terrifying villain as in case of the earlier movies. Also there are not many mind -numbing fight sequences in the movie, however the excellent graphics and CGI make up for it. Irrfan Khan is a let down, who speaks with a strange accent in the 2-3 minutes of his screen time.
There are many funny scenes in the movie, like the one in which he falls on his knees and begs mercy from the thief, or the one in which he is lying upside down on the wall of his bedroom. The movie is a slight let down on the emotional front, as Raimi does a better job at handling the subject. All in all, the movie is definitely worth a watch. For all those who would rather download the movie on torrent and watch it, I would definitely suggest to have the theatrical experience of the movie. For all Marvel Comics fans, don't miss the cameo of Stan Lee, where he plays a librarian oblivious to the fight between Spider-Man and the Lizard happening behind him. And of course, typical of all Marvel movies, there is an after-credits scene, promising a sequel to the movie.