Boring and badly acted

Rating: 2/10 (19 July 2012)

Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is bitten by a radioactive spider and has the powers of a spider and fights crime as Spider-Man. He also falls in love with beautiful Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) whose father (Denis Leary) just happens to be the chief of police and hates Spider-Man. Then there's doctor Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) develops a serum that he hopes will cure people of any ailment. He tries it on himself and becomes the Lizard who wants to wipe out the human race.
OK--I never liked the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies. I thought he didn't look (or act) like Peter Parker and was WAY too low-key as an actor. Garfield looks like Parker--but his acting is terrible. He's all over the place and never seems to get a grip on his character's pain and anxiety. Also the film is slow-paced and--frankly--just boring. I kept looking at my watch! On the up side the acting (Grafield aside) was excellent. Martin Sheen and Sally Fields were great as Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Stone was sweet, innocent AND sexy as Gwen Stacy. Leary was good as Captain Stacy. It was also great to see Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz briefly as Peter's parents. The CGI and special effects were flawless--but we've seen this all before. There's no sense of wonder and amazement at what Spider-Man can do. We KNOW it's done by computers and that robs it of any sense of magic it might have. Boring and badly done. I give it a 2.