Compared to the other spider-man, this one is more feminist, better villain, but far less heart-wrenching which detracts from its depth.

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2012)

This review will contain spoilers for the old spider-man with Toby Maguire. I will reveal some minor-moderate details about the new one, and only less minor things that shouldn't be surprising (e.g. spider-man doesn't die).
When uncle Ben dies in the 2002 Spider-Man, it's heartbreaking. It's the culmination of a slow build up of hubris on the part of Peter Parker over the course of a few weeks or so. He starts out trying to win money, lies to his aunt and uncle about it, tells his uncle he's not his father, and eventually lets a criminal go free because he couldn't collect his winnings. Parker has become arrogant and selfish in his newly found identity, and when he finds his uncle dying on the street he has a REASON TO FEEL GUILTY. You can feel his shame for how he's behaved for the last few weeks, and the last real conversation he had with his uncle was one he will always regret.
The Amazing Spiderman stomps all over that. I have to agree with the telegraph.co.uk reviewer who says this is a movie for the Twilight generation. There's some 'you don't understand me' drama and a similar selfish lapse that lead to uncle Ben's death, and although Parker and his uncle don't part on the best of terms, one of the last conversations Parker has with his uncle is telling him he's been a great dad. Is this supposed to finally quell that beautiful sorrow we felt when Parker left his uncle thinking he was a terrible father in 2002? It's cheap. It's like making a new Titanic movie where they blow up the iceberg and everyone survives. What I'm saying is: Uncle Ben's death was NOT sufficiently heartbreaking, and did not supply the same kind of motivation to Parker's selfless heroics as it did in the 2002 version (Remember, "with great power comes great responsibility?"). Side note: The actors who portrayed uncle Ben and aunt May were good, but did not fit the roles absolutely perfectly as the 2002 actors did.
One aspect in which this movie greatly improves on its predecessor is in the treatment of the love interest. In 2002 Mary Jane spends most of her time screaming, getting kidnapped, standing in the rain with a soaking wet white shirt... basically she's helpless eye-candy. In The Amazing Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy is smart. In fact there's a bit of dialogue where we find out she's smarter than Peter. This is where appealing to female movie-goers (a trend that, again, started with Twilight) does the movie a great service. We have a smart female character that plays a major role in stopping the film's villain, and despite the fact that Emma Stone is breathtakingly beautiful, she is never sexualized. We do have a just little showing off of Parker for the ladies though (that suit is way tighter than before). There's more relationshippy stuff throughout the movie. Make of that what you will.
I feel that Parker's relationship with the bully Flash was also Twilight-ized. One minute Flash is literally kicking Parker on the ground, and then they weirdly seem to become friends for insufficient reasons. It's not believable.
Now I'll just mention one other thing that bothered me: Parker's stupid phone. We get it; he has a Sony XR500000 or whatever. The product placement is just a bit overdone. I felt like they were finding excuses for people to mention Parker's phone, for him to check his messages, get phone calls etc. There's one point where he's laying there waiting for something (I won't spoil what) and what do you know, he's playing a game on his Sony cell-phone.
Closing thoughts: There will definitely be a sequel, because a specific question was brought up that was never answered.
Wait through the first bit of end-credits for a little extra scene, but don't bother waiting through all the credits after that. There's nothing.
The movie has good action sequences, but Spider-Man's martial arts are, in my opinion, less awesome than in the 2002 version. I'm recalling specifically the move Maguire does to disarm the knife from the guy who killed his uncle, and whip it into the ceiling.
The villain is much better, and maybe it's just the imax, but it was a lot more stressful to watch Parker fight this villain than was the Green Goblin. This villain reminded me of The Hulk from the Avengers movie. He's got that great sense of unstoppable power.
It's a good movie. The new take on Spiderman's origin is cool, and more satisfying than "Oh he got bitten by a genetically altered spider and his DNA went ftfftftftftftftft."