There is no doubt in my mind that it's difficult to even watch this movie without thinking about the original that was released 10 years ago. But I think it's better to go into this film, just looking at it on it's own. When the reboot was first announced I was very skeptical as to what Sony and co. can do with Spider-Man this time around. The fact that he was going back to high school kind of irked me. After watching the trailers I was sort of convinced, also with the addition of the cast I thought,it shouldn't be too bad.
I finally got to see the movie 2 days ago, now was it perfect? No, well at least in my opinion anyway. I had no problem with the cast, Andrew Garfield did a fantastic job as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. He was able to balance the nerdy, dramatic version of the character, being a wise ass as Spider-Man. Bringing in some witty one liners here and there. Emma Stone is great as Gwen Stacy, between her and Garfield they have great chemistry together. As for the other characters, Captain Stacy, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, you got yourself a pretty good cast here among Denis Leary, Martin Sheen and Sally Field. Now onto my gripes about the movie.
I thought the pacing was slightly off, the fact that a bunch of the dialogue in the trailers where cut out of the final product, which was a bummer. The main problem was the story, plot elements in the first 45 minutes of the movie is the same as the original just with minor tweaks. Dr. Curtis Connors/Lizard portrayed by Rhys Ifans is good, but the character really wasn't that interesting, as for the final look of The Lizard he looked okay, nothing spectacular.
The director Marc Webb does a good job here, but this movie was overshadowed by Sony and the marketing campaign that the movie wasn't what I wanted it to be, overall a pretty average reboot. Hopefully the story behind Peter's parents is explored a little bit more in the upcoming sequel. Don't get me wrong it's a good movie, but as a reboot, it's just.. okay. I've seen this in IMAX 3D by the way and it was good, but I recommend you watch in 2D.
7/10