Tries To Do Too Much And Ends Up Failing At Everything

Rating: 3/10 (9 March 2017)

After the incredible success of the "original" Spiderman series (now known as "the Tobey Maguire one"), director Sam Raimi & Sony could not agree on a fourth addition to that franchise. As such, Sony decided to dump Raimi and reboot the series again despite the very short time frame. While this movie will almost certainly rack up huge profits at the box office over the summer months, its utter lack of heart and anything original/interesting will eventually become known and be its undoing.
For a basic plot summary, "The Amazing Spider-Man" reboots the Spiderman franchise with Andrew Garfield as the title character and Emma Stone as Peter Parker's teenage crush Gwen Stacy. Also along for the ride is Rhys Ifans as a scientist working to perfect inter-species DNA mixing, which of course sets the stage for the battle between Spidey & The Lizard.
There are so many things wrong with this movie that it is actually just easier to go over them in list form:
-The main problem is that the direction from Marc Webb and thus the overall tone of the film is just wrong. It tries to be a high school drama, action/adventure romp, "Dark Knight"-style hero film, and even a part goofy comedy all at once. It fails at all of these aspects because it just doesn't establish an identity. Whereas "Dark Knight" works because it is so visceral and the original Spidey flicks work because they are more playful and light (like reading a comic book versus a graphic novel), this one falls squarely in the "muddled middle". -Andrew Garfield is a great actor, but his character is written so wildly inconsistent that it is literally laughable at times. There is no believe character progression or development whatsoever. One minute he is a goofy teenager, the next a brooding soul, and the next a punk, changing between the three for seemingly no reason at all. -This is too soon after "Spiderman 3", plain and simple. The first 45 minutes are so get tedious because, well, we already saw this stuff not so long ago. I can completely see what Sony was trying to do, but it just should not have been done. As previously mentioned, it will make a ton of money (at least at first) but inevitably suck the life out of the franchise. -Finally, there are also some scenes in this film that will almost make you laugh out loud as to their ridiculousness. Maguire's Spidey always teetered on the edge of dramatic/campy, but this time it descends into stupidity. You never know what you are going to get from scene to scene.
The only bright point of the experience: Emma Stone's performance as Gwen. Despite the fact that she is terribly miscast as a high school student, Stone gives her character at least some charm. It is more than can be said for anything or anybody else in the movie.
Overall, "The Amazing Spider-Man" was one of the biggest letdowns I have ever experienced in the cinema. For me, it is closer to 1.5 stars on the ranking scale. In a Hollywood era where superhero movies rule right now, this one is a complete and utter dud.