A Solid Reboot? You bet.

Rating: 8/10 (4 July 2012)

OK, so the burning question on everybody's mind is; Is this Spider-Man better than the Sam Raimi directed version starring Toby Maguire? Answer, yes. But in all fairness, that is a loaded question. Is this film a better origin story than the original "Spider-Man"? Yes. Is it better than any other Spider-Man movie that came before? No. It's better than "Spider-Man" and it's a hell of a lot better than "Spider-Man 3", but "Spider-Man 2" is still (in my opinion) the best Spidey movie that's ever happened, and it's gonna take some serious wizardry to top that one in the future. I'm going to try and break down this film as best I can and tell you what's good and bad about it. Here we go: Character wise and story progression, the direction by Marc Webb is fantastic. He did a great job of capturing the character moments that really moved the plot along and kept you invested in the characters. Webb's direction is much better than anything Sam Raimi did in "Spider-Man", because Raimi seemed more concerned with the feel of a live-action comic book. When you look back and watch "Spider-Man" now, it's easy to see just how close to a graphic novel or comic book it really is. When you watch this film, it's almost like you're watching a scene from "The Dark Knight" it's so far removed from the comic books that inspired it. Good job Webb.
As far as the acting and characters go, they were all perfect to me. Andrew Garfield was phenomenal as Peter Parker, and as Spider-Man. His rendition of Peter was a very socially and personally repressed individual, who had numerous personal issues, and he was much more complex character than I was personally expecting. In the Sam Raimi film, he was a pretty straight forward character: he's a nerd, he has a crush, he gets bitten by a spider, he gets his powers, his uncle gets killed, and he sobers up immediately and uses his powers for the best. In this movie, Spider-Man is a cocky, smart ass teenager who, just because of the death of his uncle, isn't just gonna go out and fight for "truth and justice". In fact, the whole character arc of "with great power, comes great responsibility" comes later on at the end of the movie, and is the major driving force of this film, not necessarily one specific "villain". In fact, the villain in this movie is a side effect, of sorts, of this character driven storyline. In the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man", it always seemed like the driving force of the whole plot was the threat of Norman Osborn and by the time he becomes a threat to New York, Spider-Man is already out swinging around kicking ass and has mastered his powers completely. In this film, it really shows the work that goes into understanding his powers, and even shows the limitations of them, which is interesting. On a side note, I loved the concept of him having to construct his web shooters. One, it's more faithful to the comics, and two, it really illustrates the intelligence and skill that Peter Parker possesses.
Emma Stone was excellent. She plays the part of Gwen Stacey as a very smart, cute, and sexy love interest to Peter Parker, and the relationship is believable and sweet. That's the best way I can describe it. And here's a switch; she was actually useful to Peter and the plot line. She wasn't anything like Bryce Dallas-Howard's version of Gwen as this essentially useless damsel in distress, and was definitely a huge improvement over MJ in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man", because all MJ did was scream and cry for Spidey to save her every 5 seconds. There are 2 action sequences in that film where Spidey fights the Goblin and MJ is just screaming in the background. Thank God for Emma Stone and this reboot.
Rhys Ifans, did the best job he could have done with his character of Dr. Curt Conners aka The Lizard. This is really the weakest part in an otherwise strong film. The story focuses almost too much on Peter and Gwen, and therefore leaves most major character development for anybody else to fall by the wayside. All you know is that this man worked with Peter's father, he has only one arm, and he is desperate to get it back no matter what the cost morally or physically to anyone or anything, up to and including himself. I really think that had the script allowed for more time to focus on Conners, like showcasing his wife and son, etc., then it would have been more emotionally engaging, and as the ending is now, it just feels a little bit hollow. If the film had made it a bit more clear that Peter's ultimate goal was to save Dr. Conners from himself, so to speak, rather than to get to Gwen and save Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, Gwen. Too much on the central characters when secondary elements needed to take over.
There were just a couple other minor problems that I had with the film, one of them being the concept of Peter's Parents. It's very evident that his parents are key to the plot, but after the first, I'd say half hour, it focuses less on them and more about Peter and his powers. I would have liked more back story on Peter's parents and how that relationship impacted Dr. Conners as well. Secondly, after Uncle Ben is killed, Peter searches like a madman for his killer. But unlike the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man", he doesn't ever find the man who did it, and he just kinda stops looking after a while. I mean, you can easily rationalize it in the plot of the story, but it's just a little strange that he just stops, no matter what personal discoveries he makes and what he decides to do as Spider-Man.
8/10 easy.