Saw this last night with low expectations. I have to say it was pretty damn great.
Personally I thought the tone of the whole movie with spot on, a lot more humour than I expected and it's done very nicely. Despite the hair, Andrew Garfield is pretty damn brilliant for the role as both Spider-Man & Peter Parker, it was good to have Spidey wisecracking and being a jerk to the criminals. The only thing that was hard to believe was how a chap like him didn't get female attention any sooner! Regardless of if someone is shy around girls, the pretty guys will get the pretty girls coming to them anyway...but whatever its a film about a man getting powers of a Spider and then fighting a scientist who morphs into a lizard so best ignore that! The acting is pretty damn good, I think everyone played their roles well. I'm a little sad that one of the characters died as he would have been good for future films...also that Stan Lee cameo is the best cameo he has done.
The action sequences were something I was worried about going into this movie but they were nicely done but I felt that maybe Spidey was too good as a fighter considering he was only just bitten. The drama side was done very well too, the previous comment about it being "depressing" is a bit much, I didn't feel it was whatsoever and when we did get a Parker crying scene it wasn't overly drawn out and it wasn't too long before we got to some action/humour.
Currently I'd rate it higher than the other Spidey films, I think they did things just right whereas the original trilogy had problems with the drama side and I felt that Maguire was decent enough Parker but not a good Spider-Man. What this film does well is show that with a mask on Peter, like a lot of shy people, comes out of his shell when people can't see the real person. In the previous films for me Maguire played both characters pretty much the same and that is why I feel the new movie is better. There were some minor flaws here and there but then its rare that films get to be perfect.
Safe to say I'm happy with Sony continuing to do the movies instead of Marvel and while before I thought it was an unnecessary reboot once I have seen the film I feel it was the right choice.
Is the whole plot focused around a gas that turns people into Island of Doctor Moreau-style animal-human hybrids? Not going to lie, that sounds mighty silly.
Not really, there is gas at some point that turns some into lizard/human hybrid but its a minor part.
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