A great action movie - but isn't Peter Parker supposed to be a geek?

Rating: 6/10 (18 November 2012)

Overall, I did enjoy the movie. Andrew Garfield is a great actor. If you haven't seen him in the "Red Riding" series - you really should. Emma Stone is beautiful and believable as Gwen Stacy, and Rhys Ifans is terrific, as usual. The action was fun and exciting, and the story was decent. Additionally, Sally Field and Martin Sheen were excellent as Aunt May and Uncle Ben. There was one huge problem with the movie though - they went ahead and completely changed the character of Peter Parker.
I'm not an avid comic book fan, but I did read many of Spidey's stories back in the 70s - and if you had to use one word to describe pre-spider bite Peter Parker, that word would be, "nerd." Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker really pulled it off well. In stark contrast, Andrew Garfield's was more of a brooding outcast than a nerd. Sure, he was a shy, brilliant scientist, but he dressed and acted like one of the "cool" kids. He had the stupid, tussled, trendy hair, he was a coordinated skateboarder, he was sullen and moody - and he seemed relatively comfortable around women. That's not Peter Parker's character.
In the history of geekdom, no geek has ever worn hip hugging "skinny jeans" and exposed boxers. You can't just have a character wear his knapsack with both straps, throw a pair of glasses on him and pass him off as a nerd.
Peter Parker is supposed to be likable - Garfield's version seemed more like one of those annoying teenagers who hangs out at the 7/11 all day when he's not zooming within an inch of killing you on his skateboard. I came away from this movie disliking Peter Parker!
Also, Garfield's Peter Parker is portrayed as heroic before he was ever bitten by the spider - when he comes to the rescue of another kid being bullied by Flash. People who themselves are targets of bullies would never try to intervene when someone else was being picked on. Ten minutes earlier Parker failed to stand up for himself when Flash bounced a basketball off his head - but when it comes to other kids being harassed he turns into Mr. Bravery? Gimme a break.
***SPOILERS***
Next, we have the Flash Thompson character. In this incarnation of Spider-Man, Flash starts off as a bully, but then he barely even stands up for himself when he is being humiliated by Parker on the basketball court - and 50 minutes into the movie, for no reason whatsoever, he suddenly has a change of heart and shows compassion for Parker after the death of Uncle Ben. WTF?! The bullies I grew up with would have tormented the guy even more once they knew he had a weak spot. It just made no sense.
Another thing that made no sense was Uncle Ben's anger when Parker humiliated Flash. The jerk had just brutally punched and kicked the hell out of Peter, and all he did was show Flash up on the court. Why would Ben be so angry about that? Is outperforming someone in a sport morally wrong? I guess in this day and age of cyber-bullying and school shoot-ups, they didn't want to endorse or glorify violence as a means of righting a wrong. Fair enough, but it seriously undermines the relative realism of the movie. In the 1st Spider-Man movie with Maguire, Parker *did* kick the crap out of Flash - and that's definitely what a kid who had spent his life being picked on would do if he suddenly found himself with super powers. It also made Ben's moral scolding seem justified and appropriate.
Finally, I have to do some nitpicking.
1. When the father of the boy saved by Spidey (played by C. Thomas Howell) redirects the cranes to help him swing his way to the OsCorp Tower - that's just ridiculous. How in the world would he know exactly from which direction Spidey was coming? Why, if the city was being evacuated, would construction workers be allowed (or even inclined) to be at their posts? Why would massive I-Beams be left swinging from a crane's arm at night, after the shift had finished hours ago?
2. Why were there lizards crawling around the streets on NYC? I've lived here for 40 years and I've never seen one. Also, if you're gonna make a movie set in NYC, why not film it here? I can understand Lucas subbing Tunisia for Tatooine - but c'mon.
3. At the very end of the movie, when Gwen realizes Peter is avoiding her because her father made Peter promise to keep her out of harm's way - Peter implies he has no intention of keeping that promise. So in other words, he is going to break his oath to a dying hero police officer who saved his life, and just go ahead with endangering the guy's beloved daughter!? Maguire's Parker took cold showers for years to avoid getting M.J. involved - and her father was an abusive drunkard.
So, basically it's a good, fun movie - but the Peter Parker character was replaced with a shy, savant Bam Margera.