If you have seen one Spiderman movie, you've seen this one.

Rating: 4/10 (21 October 2012)

Here is the latest re-boot of the never-will-die franchise of Spider-man. This time, the protagonist Spider-man/Peter Parker is played by Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy? Why not Mary-Jane Parker I do not know. Both played their part adequately. The cast is rounded out by some REAL actors whom, I'm sure just thought, why not, for a quick cheque. The always wonderful Martin Sheen plays Uncle Ben, and delivers his performance flawlessly. He plays a kind yet stern, fatherly figure for Peter. He makes you want him to take you for ice cream. He is great actor and a brilliant choice for this iconic role. Auntie Em is played by the great Sally Field. Loving and concerned, she makes you feel like if you skinned your knee, she would make it better. Having Sally Field and Martin Sheen as Peters Auntie Em and Uncle Ben, was great casting. The main antagonist this time is Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard. Played by Rhys Ifans, he does a fairly decent acting job. He is believable as a one armed scientist gone mad. Decent and likable in the beginning as Dr. Connors. And he does the transformation and CGI work well. But I think he could have given more as the lizard. Comic book super villains need to be NUTS!! Finally Denis Leary rounds out the main cast as Captain Stacy. And he does it great. He is his usual quick tongued, sarcastic, Irish cop self. It's actually pretty funny watching Denis going out of his way not to swear. It funny to think that Denis Leary's kids have never heard the word ass around the dinner table.The real stars of this movie, and this is true about most of these superhero movies are, the CGI people. Bravo folks, you did a wonderful job! As it is supposed to be, this movie is oneupmanship in regards to the art of comics. The scenes with Spiderman swinging through the city, and fighting crime, and battling the bad guy are well done and quite entertaining. The scenes with Dr. Connors turning into the lizard creature were really good, and the fight sequences were top notch, in the school scene in particular. But again I think the Lizard creature could have been badassier. The other real superheros of this movie were, as always, in movies like these, The Stunt people! There are some real athletes doing these scenes. If that parkour guy grabbed my wallet, it would be gone. Swinging around on ropes spider-man style. Jumping down from heights, beating each other up, I'll bet these guys had a pretty fun day at work. And they looked pro doing it.
But the problems I had with this movie were mainly with the plot and the storyline. I like the dad was a geneticist at the company idea and Peter could be connected that way. Good idea. He sneaks away and gets bitten. All major plot points that need covered. And then there is Gwen?, his crush/girl who sits in front of him at school/intern with top level access/daughter of the cop chasing Spiderman/now girlfriend who knows spider-mans identity character. Seriously what ARE the ODDS of this? Why doesn't Peter or Spidey just nick an ID from the professor or something. I doubt a 16 year old intern that does the public tour has the key to every door in the HQ of a major corporation, and is proficient in their fancy holographic computer. I realize I have just said something based on a comic book could be doubtful, but seriously The Peter finding out he's Spiderman scenes are pretty funny and are good uses of CGI and stunts. And back at school later Peter beats the crap out of the school bully, 'shockingly' named Flash. Could there be a sequel coming? They are cool scenes though, especially the basketball in the gym scene. But the first time Peter returns home after being bitten, could have been better. Andrew plays the scene well as does does Martin Sheen and Sally Field of course. But the director should have let this scene and become more integral by letting these two brilliant actors run with it more. They should have known who he was earlier and helped. That would have been a good use of those two actor in this movie. The way that uncle Ben was killed off by the guy who Peter let rob the store was good, but I would have rather him survive and it be a father son revenge storyline. The main problem I have with Peter becoming Spiderman, was the web spinning devices. Part of becoming Spiderman was the ability to spin webs. Not with a gadget. Batman would like that toy. I'm being geeky, but too bad. There are also just some silly eye rolling moments like the door to the super secret spider lab looks like the door to my old science class room. Complete with 4''X18'' glass window. The Lizard seeing 'Property Of Peter Parker' literally labeled on his camera. The weird cops shooting Spidey just after he has his talk with Capt. Stacy thing was strange. And all the crane operators that came around to help Spidey was, uhh... a strange attempt at something maybe Sept. 11ish? And why did the antenna fall over at the end and they landed on the roof? I might have missed that part as I was getting ready for it to be over. At over two hours long it was a nothing to special kind of way to spend a Saturday evening. It was good CGI and stunts, with a silly plot and character misuse. I think they need to give the Superhero stuff a rest for a decade or two. Stan Lee has more money than he could spend for the rest of his life. Time to move on from this genre for a while.