So, here we go again. I'm killing time in a movie theater, waiting for a movie to start. However, there are only a couple of minutes to go, so I'm not going to get much typing done. I wasn't sure whether to go see The Amazing Spider-Man or not, since I can't say I was all that intrigued by the trailers. But I had a couple of hours to kill, and a free movie pass burning a hole in my pocket, so here I am. Well... time for the show.

(One movie and a late dinner at Chick-Fil-A later...)

(BTW - does anyone actually like their rubbery waffle fries? Their chicken nuggets are awesome - especially with the Buffalo sauce, but their fries... bleah.)

Anyway.... I figured I should probably see Spider-Man now, because once The Dark Knight Rises hits later this week and takes over every single movie screen in the country, there won't be any place left to watch it, except the dollar theater next to the bowling alley. Yeah, you know the one.

Spider-Man (The Amazing) is a pretty good superhero flick. Generally speaking, I liked it better than the first Spider-Man movie in the last series. I think the casting was better across the board - especially Emma Stone (as Gwen Stacy), and the villain (The Lizard) worked better too. But then, I never really found the Green Goblin to be all that credible as a movie villain. What works fine in a comic book, doesn't always (or sometimes ever) translate well to the big screen.

I also liked the different take on Peter Parker (or more accurately, Peter Parkour) (Andrew Garfield), and Aunt May and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen), and was surprised how well Sally Field worked as Aunt May. For those of us who grew up on the ancient endlessly-in-peril version of Aunt May in the comics, it's nice to see a (slightly) younger, feistier version.

The special effects were spot-on, but by this point, that should just be a given in a high-budget superhero film. Spidey's webs (which have thankfully returned to their proper place, coming from web shooters outside of his body) looked the best they ever have. There was a particular scene where Spider-Man webbed up a bad guy by eerily crawling around on him like a real spider would, which was pretty cool and something I hadn't seen before.

Speaking of things I hadn't seen before... well, that was about it. The biggest drawback to The Amazing Spider-Man is that it's basically just another re-telling of Spider-Man's origin story, which probably every single person on the planet is already familiar with. So there weren't really any surprises in it, and some things were telegraphed so obviously and early they had little impact. "Oh right... this is where that thing is going to happen. Well, get on with it then." They tried to shake things up a little by incorporating Peter's parents into it (which I don't know if they ever covered in the comics or not), but while we find out a little bit more about them, we really don't find out what happened to them. I guess they're saving that for the sequel. But at least they expanded a little bit on what has come before.

There were a few annoying things - like how incredibly convenient it was that someone was working at the very company Peter needed to sneak into; the ridiculously convenient (and improbable - even for a comic book movie) crane scene (you'll know it when you see it - or when you hear the overblown orchestral music that accompanies it); and two or three times they had a TV news anchor telling the movie audience, in the most painfully obvious way possible, what just happened. It's like, "Hey - we know some of you in the audience are really stupid, or three years old, so in case you missed it, Spider-Man just did this." That was completely unnecessary and really pulled me out of the movie. Show it. Don't narrate it.

Speaking of being pulled out of the movie, I did not see it in 3-D, and I'm glad I didn't. There were several point-of-view shots with swirling camera moves that probably just would have made me ill. They were obviously thrown in for 3-D screenings (Bad filmmakers!! No biscuit!), but they're still just as obtrusive in 2-D. One, maybe two would have gotten the point-of-view of Spider-Man across well enough.

Criticisms aside, I enjoyed the film for what it was - an above-average superhero film. The cast was best thing about it - the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone was spot-on, and there really wasn't a weak player in the group. The action was good, the special effects were first rate, and overall, it was a fun film. But it's nothing you'd need to see in 3-D or even in a movie theater. It lacks the epic scale of something like The Avengers. That's not a bad thing - just a different thing. It's a smaller, more intimate film, which I think suits Spider-Man well. The biggest problem is that we've seen/read/heard this story before. But I am looking forward to the sequel, and seeing this cast in action again.

Spider-Man (The Amazing) gets:

7.5/10