6/10
The main problem with this movie is what everyone thought it would be - it's still too soon after the Raimi movies. The first half is a chore because we're being given minor variations on a backstory and history we already know. The movie picks up in the second half but it takes too long to get there, and seems to want it all. In the wake of the Batman successes, there's clearly a bigger attempt to make Spidey more "real", in terms of his suit, webslingers, etc. But director Marc Webb (Webb, really?) takes the easy way out, glossing over those rather important parts of Spidey's evolution with quick montages, or barely a word at all. Why bother?
Another "post-Batman" problem is the tone. TASM is definitely darker than any of Raimi's versions (without coming remotely close to something like The Dark Knight, mind you), but I don't think "dark" is a tone that suits Spider-Man. There are things this movie does better than the other trilogy - take the fantastic CGI, the fight scenes and the great actors (the five main leads all run circles around any of Raimi's cast) and mesh it with the tone and colour of the first or second Spider-Man movies and maybe you finally have a winning combination. As it is, I just don't think there's a heck of a lot here to excite anyone who isn't already a diehard fan.
Oh and despite the movie trying its hardest to stay away from the "sci-fi" aspects of the Spider-Man universe, inventing a high school where kids who look like Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield are the outcasts may be the most surreal thing in film all year...
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