Lets get things straight. This was a film that was about the character of Peter Parker. Yes, we did have the Lizard as the main villain but this was not about that character. This film is about reinventing Spider-Man. Was it successful ? Completely.
Andrew Garfield was excellent. He brings a new dimension to the character of Peter and I was astounded by the way he made Peter feel like a real person. He has problems that he learns to iron out during the film and that makes the character extremely relatable. Tobey was great but Andrew Garfield owned this role in my opinion.
The rest of the cast were great too. I loved the rooftop sequence between Gwen and Peter. It had a really beautiful moment in it and I really felt the characters emotions during that scene. Emma Stone also managed to pull of being a real person and the chemistry these two shared was excellent.
Rhys Ifans played his respective role well. I just wish there was more for him to do. This movie focuses mainly on Peter Parker which slightly suffocates the villain arc. It does not become too much of a problem but I hope they address this issue in the sequel.
The cinematography is delicious. It has a very artistic flare to it and it felt like it had come from the pages of the comic book at times. I hope Marc Webb stays on fro the next film because his creative eye would be sorely missed.
The score worked really well in this movie for me as well. It has more of a classical approach to it and I thought it complimented the film with a tremendous amount of spirit. There is a particular moment when Spidey has been captured by the police, that really pushes the score to the next level. In a weird way it kind of reminded me of the Superman theme.
The action I found to be refreshingly clear and exciting. The CGI was great all in all with the occasional hokey areas. I let this off though because some of the action sequences were creatively realised. Loved the school fight particularly. Great use of Spidey's abilities in that sequence.
The only flaws I could see were definitely Connors character development and Ratha's role being rather minute. I wonder whether there will be a director's cut ? Also the pacing was a bit fast at times. Though to be fair they had a lot to go over in this movie. I think when the sequel is released it will have a much more consistent pace to it and have some time to develop the next main villain properly.
Also, I would just like to add one final thing. After reading some of the negative reviews, I was concerned I would feel the same way. I wonder whether any of the reviewers have seen Spider-Man 2002 recently ? I watched it yesterday night to get a fresh idea of the tone, direction and atmosphere of the movie. If any of you are yet to see it yet, I would strongly advise watching Raimi's first movie again before you do. Like I said in the review, the basics of the origin are the same as Raimi's but that is the only thing that is, in my opinion. There is such a wonderful sense of soul in this movie and I found myself getting chills down my spine at certain points. The characters were so believable that I was completely absorbed in that world. The only thing that severely disappointed me was the fact it had to end. I was quite happy to keep going and see where Peter's journey would lead to next.
Pay no attention to the negative reviews, that attack it because it contains the origin again. This feels nothing like the original Raimi origin and should be appreciated as it's own entity. Yes we have the basics but that is not Raimi's origin, it's the source materials. Spider-Man is back and he is better than ever !
All in all this film gets a 9/10 from me and it is now personally my favourite Spider-Man and Marvel film. I preferred this over The Avengers and some of my friends who went to see it with me felt exactly the same way. I now look forward to the sequel and I believe if they can develop the characters even further and push the boundaries, we could have something unbelievably special.