Best Spider-Man Movie to date

Rating: 9/10 (21 August 2012)

I am a huge fan of comic books. Thought I should get that out of the way up front.
I was very skeptical of this movie up front for two reasons. One is the choice of a British actor (Andrew Garfield) to play Peter Parker. Two is that I was concerned about remaking the beginning when it was done so well in the Sam Raimi version with Tobey Maguire as Peter.
This movie blew me away. Andrew Garfield was able to pull off the American teen accent and affectations with no problem. But to be more specific, he pulled off Peter Parker's worried, self-doubting, bad luck infused, angst ridden but light hearted teen-age attitude with great aplomb. Emma Stone played an excellent Gwen Stacy and the chemistry between Andrew and Emma was outstanding. Dr Conner / The Lizard (played by Rhys Ifans) was the second best villain to date in a Spider-Man movie beaten only by Alfred Molina's version of Doctor Octopus in Spider-man 2.
One of the things that really set this off from the Sam Raimi Spider-man movies was how Spider-man moved. His fights with The Lizard in the school and on top of the empire State building displayed the lightning fast reflexes and use of surroundings that Spider-Man was known for in the comic books. Another point that was more like the original Spider-Man in the comics is Spider-Man's use of homemade web-shooters instead of the biological web-shooters that were used in the Sam Raimi version. And finally, the use of Gwen Stacy as Peter's first love (and the obvious setup for the whole Gwen Stacy story over the next movie or two) is critical for the development of the Spider-Man persona as created by Stan Lee in the comic books. I would go so far as saying that the Gwen Stacy story is as important in the creation of the Spider-man persona as was the death of Uncle Ben and the loss of Peter's parents.
This is not to disparage the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies because I really liked them as well (except for Spider-Man 3 which was a mish-mash of too many villains and plot lines).
I highly recommend this movie to any fan of Spider-Man and of the comic book movie genre.
The Panel Votes: Cthulhu: 6 out of 10 (The villain reminded me of a Deep One which is nice but the fact that the spandex clad hero won in the end was a huge disappointment) Fuzzy Toad: 9 out of 10 (This movie is great for the young ones. There are some scenes of comic book violence and some images of the Lizard that may be too intense for some children under 8.) Mouth-Breather: 10 out of 10 (Loved this movie in all respects. Somewhat confused though because I think Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man could take Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man) Frat-Boy: 7 out of 10 (Nice action scenes. Emma Stone is hot. Not enough hot chicks and no nudity.) The Queen in Yellow: 4 out of 10 (If I never see another super hero movie it will be too soon.) Azathoth: 100 out of Pi (A twisted cacophony of flute piping fills your mind)