Not so amazing after all.

Rating: Null/10 (28 June 2012)

So Spider-Man got a reboot after the great job that Sam Raimi had done for the previous three movies. This was due to a myriad of factors, including studio interference, and Raimi not being happy with the process. But how does Marc Webb (good name for a Spidey director, by the way) hold up against the guy who made the excellent and campy Evil Dead movies? Not too well.
Honestly, the whole film is laden with this annoying sheen that really makes it difficult to enjoy. Whereas Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films emphasized the self-aware and campy nature of the comic book character, Webb directs in a fairly annoying CW-like style. The 3D cameras simply do not film in a high quality that you might expect out of a 200 million dollar blockbuster. It's literally the equivalent of a semi well-shot TV show. The CGI for the Lizard is like something you would see on Supernatural, and the acting is actually quite a bit worse than that.
Andrew Garfield tries, he really does, but he can't measure up to Tobey's brilliantly understated performance. Emma Stone is just kind of there, but has no real point. When made the focus, Stone can really shine, but here she plays second fiddle and simply fades into the background. The only solid performance in the film is Rhys Ifans as Dr. Connors; the man can act, and although most of his most popular roles are comedic, this shows that he can do a solid dramatic job as well. Too bad his role is criminally underused, and doesn't approach anywhere near the amount of screen time that a villain should be given.
The thing that really brings the movie down is the terrible writing and directing. The writing takes so many steps to copy the original Spider-Man, yet also tries to do its own thing, leaving the film a huge jumbled mess. It's obvious that some craft was put into this film, but unfortunately not enough to make it a worthwhile viewing.