Secrets WON'T be revealed.

Rating: 4/10 (3 July 2012)

PROS:
+ good cast (though I didn't love him in it Garfield was good in the role, he emoted well. As someone who finds Stone annoying I didn't find that to be the case here. Martin Sheen is a standout despite the small part)
+ Denis Leary's shotgun moment
+ solid special effects
+ to my memory the best Stan Lee cameo to date
CONS:

hit and mostly miss script (the great Rhys Ifans is decent but he really doesn't have much to work with and because of that his character and the villain are a bit weak, and the same can be said for Denis Leary though he does have a cool moment at one point as mentioned in the 'pros'. The movie is also very, very much a remake of Raimi's original film which really surprised and disappointed me. I liked the original movie quite a bit, but based on the marketing and promotion for this movie they were telling us this would be going in a different direction, yet besides more scenes at night there really wasn't that much different and actually a lot of awkward note-for-note similarities almost to the point of the Psycho remake. I mean hell even though it's a different villain Ifans' Lizard still battles the evil, over the top voices in his head just like Dafoe's Goblin, though it's not as well done as with most of the similarities to the original. Annoying plot holes, occurrences and character choices also plague the script, like where all the tiny lizards came from or what happened to mouse-lizard or why the Police Captain went to the top of the tower all by himself... and finally, Peter Parker. For the most part he's a likable character--up until the very end at least where his choice makes him such a despicable, unlikable and selfish character)

art design (I wasn't a fan of the look of The Lizard or of Spidey's suit)

music (the score wasn't bad by any means, and actually pretty solid in general but in terms of a superhero score and in terms of the theme in comparison to the previous Spider-Man theme... it doesn't hold a candle)

while Marc Webb does surprisingly well considering what he came from before I can't say that any of the action sequences were particularly thrilling or memorable. 95% of the action also takes place in the middle of the night, which just doesn't feel right for Spider-Man. Also the only real memorable action sequence (and it is a pretty cool one) isn't even in the movie, and that would be the POV sequence we've seen in promotional material. Only about 5 seconds of that sequence makes it into the final cut of the movie, which was surprising and confusing.

deceiving (the marketing campaign was built all around the 'secrets' of Parker's parents being revealed as well as lines like 'do you have any idea what you really are Peter?' and 'if you want to know the truth about your parents Peter, come and get it'... well none of those lines are actually in the movie and neither are the plot points or revelations that would come with them. We literally get none of that other than a post-credits scenes that hints that we'll actually get what was advertised for this movie... in the sequel)

OVERALL:
I was hoping, and actually kind of expecting, that it would surprise me as I really couldn't get that excited for it initially yet heard the good word (even from a family member). Unfortunately it did the opposite and actually disappointed me. It's not a bad movie, but it is a flawed one and most of the things that it does right are just damn near the exact same things we've already seen, making it a bit tedious and having me just want to fast-forward the movie at times which is never a good feeling. I was open to it, but it disappointed me. Still I think I'd give a sequel a chance at least, if we even get there that is, as the only thing truly amazing about this Spider-Man flick was the budget, a whopping $220 million that you just really, really don't see on the screen.