Great potential, but not very well-executed...

Rating: 6/10 (6 July 2012)

In spite of several very good individual elements, Amazing Spider-Man falls short as a whole. The good includes a beautiful, more modern aesthetic (compared to the previous Spider-Man films), a for the most part very good cast, and an admirable effort to build more technical/"realistic" explanation into the back story. That being said, to me it fails as a reboot because far too much of it feels both highly derivative of, and sadly inferior to, last decade's Spider-Man 1 and 2. When rebooting a franchise, the last thing that you want the audience to be thinking as they watch the film is, "this is really a lot like the other version, but not really as good." That thought went through my mind multiple times. The other problem, which is sort of the same problem, is that the villain was just not convincing. Too clichéd, again too derivative of both Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus, without being nearly as well fleshed out or understandable, and thus not nearly as truly menacing. Also, the villain's form, literally, did not make sense. I will not spoil that, but the character's visual design is incongruous, which make him harder to buy into. The exposition was lacking in some other key areas, as well. I will say that the cast was terrific, in particular Emma Stone, Sally Field and Martin Sheen, in addition to Andy Garfield. It is saying something that they fully atone for the absence of the much-beloved Toby and Kirsten. The Spidey costume is awesome as well. The problem is that this is not as good as Spider-Man 1 or 2 were as fully-formed films.