Kind of silly, not true to the base story, but a fun popcorn action flick nonetheless.

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2012)

THIS REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS..
I'm not a comic book fan boy, but I was a mixture of disappointed and amused at some of the weak unrealistic point of the new Spiderman movie.
My whines:

Where's Jonah Jameson? Peter's "photog" career?

Emma Stone / Gwen Stacey - in high school, but has full access and is the right hand woman for a major technology / chemical firm?

I'm sorry - Emma Stone (who is 23?) along would most of the characters do NOT look like they're in high school. I think the decision to have Peter be in high school was to somehow have him appeal to a younger demographic, but I just found it completely silly.

Why does Peter insist on showing off his true identity to everyone within 5 minutes of meeting them? Then, he tries to hide it while there are a million people with mobile phone cameras around him. We're supposed to believe that he simply goes back to school as a high school student at the end? Even stupidity like he hangs his camera (one of the two photography references), but it's got his name, address, social security number, etc. sitting on it.

He gets beat up badly in front of a million people by the big school bully with no repercussions. Then, he "teases" the school bully and slam dunks the ball in a way that Michael Jordan would be impressed. The result is that his father is forced to come in and he has to perform community service. No offers to play for the Knicks?

Spiderman seems to get beat up much more easily in this movie. He's shot by a policeman in full flight, then shot again as he runs away -- both times taking him down. Meanwhile, the lizard gets machine gunned and heals in seconds. I don't think they decided how truly "powerful" this new Spidey was supposed to be.

Weird introduction of Peter's father/mother, but really never explains what happens to them -- I guess that's for a future movie.

The "villain" was intended to have a likable, but flawed personality. He's got one arm, he's smart, but not as smart as Peter's dad. And his big plan (outside of trying to get his arm back) is to turn everyone in the city into lizards too? Why?

Why do the lizards all follow the guy in the sewer? Is he some sort of pied piper of the lizards?

These people all barely know each other for almost all of Peter's life. Then within 1 week, Peter meets Emma Stone's character who not only works for his dead father's business partner, but whose father is the captain of the police force. Oh, with some weird future tie to Oscorp which will be Peter's future best friend, father is the Green Goblin, etc.

Peter, who is supposed to be a nerd suddenly is beating up the school bully, slam dunking baskets, oh and catches a football one handed and throws it so hard that he BENDS the goal post... But, nobody thinks twice about and it.

In a weird purist move, they went back to Peter's "web shooters" being technology he needs to wear vs. "built in to his powers". They seem sort of bulky, but he's wearing them around when he's not in costume. You don't think someone would "see" those bulky web shooters on his wrist?

I also wonder (as with most of the Spiderman movies) that as he flies around shooting this highly indestructible web all over the place, how much he's polluting NYC! Who is cleaning up all these wires he's leaving all over the place.. :)

I didn't quite get the ending either. Peter promises Gwen's dad that he won't see Gwen any more. Then he ignores her, doesn't support her through the funeral, then she sort of figures out that her father told him not to see her.. And then, he decides that he's just going to ignore that promise at the end anyway. Ha, ha, fade to black.

Wow, that was a lot of whining on my part..
I saw the movie in a 3D Imax theater and (outside of the 45 minutes of previews), the experience was great. The action was "realistic" and the 3D technology has become very good.
So, I give the overall story 1.5/4 stars (definitely not as strong as Avengers, previous Batman flicks, X-Men, etc.), the actors 2.5/4 stars, and the action 3/4 stars.. I hope the new Batman movie is better.