Does whatever a re-boot can (mostly)

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2012)

I'll start off by saying that, rather than delving into exactly how comic-book accurate the film was or constructing some Garfield-Maguire Venn Diagram, I'm trying to focus on its establishment of Spidey as a plausible, unique, and entertaining (I mean, that would be nice, right?) figure, and whether in covering those bases the film left something to be desired, or bit me with the excitement-bug for future -- read: requisite -- sequels.
The casting: Garfield clocks in with a phenomenal effort. His Parker is believably intelligent/handy, (a theme addressed early-on so the web- spinners don't come out of nowhere) outsider-ish, (but not to the point of unapproachability) and surprisingly masterful in his nuance, pulling off the unmistakable air of a clever, you're-annoying-me High-Schooler every time he brushes shoulders with the beautifully warm Uncle Ben (Sheen) or Aunt May. I will add that the latter is rendered with her eyebrows constantly knit in worry, and thus a little too one- dimensionally/sigh-inducingly by Field, but for a totally different end of the female performance strength-spectrum, it's refreshing to watch Stone, who is as collected, sharp, and consistent as her character's fashion-sense, especially when the task is attending to her feelings for Peter. Wrapping up the actors, Leary reminds me of the first time I had dinner with my sophomore-year girlfriend's father (in only the best of ways) with a clear, if quickly/even humorously covered, place in his heart for daddy's little girl. Ifans does a very solid job with Connors, handling a script that makes his transition into the Lizard somewhat mentally... strange.
The Story: Peter is nudged, never shoved, into his development as both a more moral, responsible teenager and hero. A few spots feel slicked- over and underplayed, but even a spider won't lament the handful of missed gnats that precede a horse-fly; the heavily emotional climaxes Webb has littered throughout the film, taking the trendy "hyper-human- superhero" concept boldly where no man has -- uh oh, sorry, wrong franchise. He really does a good job with feelings, though. I also really loved how an event which jolted Parker from vigilante to public servant swings back around to rescue our wall-crawler in his greatest time of need.
Since they do play a measurable role as setting, I'll say realism of educational-facilities and their atmosphere gets a "B", redeemed by the clumsier, more troubled path to power/self-mastery that takes the well- deserved limelight for the film's majority. Spidey being much wittier (as some teens tend to attempt) also works as WD-40 for scenes where the energy/development-through-dialogue ball could've been dropped, allowing successive scenes to stick quite memorably in their place on the web of events (okay, I'll stop, I promise).
The verdict: A few small imperfections (*cough* Oscorp lab-security *cough*) don't take as much away from the whole as die-hard Raimi-ers might have you believe. My rating of 8.5 once again makes me wish IMDb's scale went up in half-star increments, but like any decent human being, (I wonder how many teachers are reading this) I round up.
Go see it.