The Amazing Spider-Man (In Glorious 3D!)

Impressions before seeing it
I liked the first two movies in Sam Raimi's trilogy (the third was a mess), and at first I was opposed to this because it wasn't a franchise that needed a reboot. I imagine it came to be when the studios said "We want to make a Spider-Man 4 because we love money, but nobody wants to come back for it. Let's just restart the whole thing." But after seeing the trailers, I liked that it seemed to be a little darker this time, a version that took itself more seriously.

How was it?
As I said, I was satisfied with Raimi's version, but after seeing this one and reflecting back, it makes the previous incarnation look bad. I had that peculiar feeling of cinematic déjà vu that one only gets when watching remakes and reboots, as there were certain events that happened in both films, but in different ways; ultimately, they are two very different versions of Spider-Man.

Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker was a total dweeb; perhaps too dweeby to be relatable. Andrew Garfield plays him as more of an awkward, angsty, rebellious teen. He's still unpopular at school, but not for being the painfully uncool nerd that Maguire was. This time around, he's closer to being a regular kid, and that's a significant difference. I think this one may have had a slower pace because it spent a lot of time on character development and Peter's relationship with Gwen (Emma Stone). It felt like a really long time before he was finally wearing the full Spider-Man suit, but it was time well spent because I was able to care about the characters so that the climactic battle would be more meaningful. Raimi's romance subplot was too one-sided, with Peter admiring MJ from afar and always being the one who loved her more than she loved him, even after they got together; not the case this time.

One thing I will say is that The Lizard wasn't really an interesting villain, but like Batman Begins, this is only a set-up movie and there is less time for an awesome villain. The sequel, assuming there is one, could have the potential to do some cool things now that Spider-Man's origin story is out of the way. I also have to mention that the 3D was somewhat intermittent; at some places almost non-existent, even, but when it was there - mostly when Spidey was fighting or swinging on webs - it looked great. And speaking of web-swinging, I notice they made a point of actually showing that the webs attach to things as he swings through the city, rather than hang mysteriously from open sky. Bonus!

Recommendation
I think it could perhaps be summed up like this: Sam Raimi made a movie about Spider-Man; Marc Webb made a movie about Peter Parker. This one is a little more down to earth - as much as it can be given the science fiction aspects - and a little less corny in its sense of humor, but it's a lot better. In fact it kind of ruins the other trilogy. Well, Spider-Man 3 ruins the other trilogy, but you know what I mean.