SPOILER ALERT!
In my opinion, the name of this film did it justice. It was, quite simply, amazing. It was well directed, expertly shot, the acting was extraordinary, and the script nailed the feel of Spiderman. With specific refernece to the script, the trash talking was funny, but the character did not seem as full of himself as Tobey McGuire did, which I think calls for credit to be given to Andrew Garfield.
Talking of Andrew Garfield, I felt his portrayal of Peter Parker was a lot more believable than that of previous actor Tobey McGuire. I thought McGuire adapted to his new powers far too easily- he just accepted them and started to save the world and be all heroic- whereas Garfield was more freaked out, did more research into the source of his powers, and was just generally cooler about the changing of his life. He was also suitably geeky, but good-looking, therefore making the romance more believable- the character also seems like a nicer person, in my opinion McGuires portrayal of the character was a bit of a dick.
The next character to catch my eye was the lead female character, Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. Her character was much more substantial than that of Kirsten Dunst's Mary-Jane. The romance between the two leads was also much more believable because they seemed to have more in common- plus this one actually had some substance, as opposed to Dunst standing round kissing him upside down or crying. The actress also quite clearly pulls in young males to the film that might not have been previously interested, because she is beautiful- I believe that the producers also used this technique in picking Garfield- although I am not down playing the actors abilities, they were excellent and excedingly enigmatic, they just also happen to be very good looking.
I believe credit also needs to be given to the chief cinematographer- as pointed out by a friend of mine, the shots used were very clearly adapted from the comic book and I believe that that was a good technique to use- it pulled in old fans of the comic book and made the film a more enjoyable experience- as opposed to the previous remake. They also showed very engaging shots of the action scenes, which made the film a more enjoyable experience for me personally, a cinema goer that had not read the comic books. Another effective use of shots was the climax scenes, when the oscorp building was lit up and in the centre of the screen- I am aware that this is to fit in with the business' "character", so to speak, but I felt it was really effective, pulling the viewer into the heart of the action with a simple shot.
I believe a flaw of the film is it was incredibly cheesy- which was cute at first but as the film went on I felt it to be a bit too predictable, for instance I liked it when Garfield pulled Stone to him to kiss her, and when he threw her out of the window in the school, but I found myself beginning to predict what was going to happen before it did- with particular reference to the climax scene where Garfield is receiving this speech from the mutant lizard about how he's alone, and the chief police man jumps in with "HE'S NOT ALONE". It was just so obviously going to happen that I found myself annoyed by it. Also the way the same character manages to use his last breath to tell Garfield to stay away from his daughter. I am nit-picking though, I believe that this is a very small flaw and in a way makes the film more endearing to families viewing it, as well as opening it up to a younger audience.
As I have made quite clear, I realy just think that this adaptation is done better than that of Sam Raimi's. This film focused on Parker's character, as opposed to the hero, which helps the viewer to understand the hero more as well as making the film more interesting to watch, instead of what I perceived as basically pure action. It also means that the character development across this series will be more interesting- I believe that there will be a series of films from Marc Webb, as it was hinted at after the credits.
