The Amazing Spider-Man

If you’re looking to go deeper into the story of Peter Parker and Spider-Man, you’re going to have to wait. The Amazing Spider-Man is a total origin-story reboot, meaning we get reintroduced to Parker (Andrew Garfield) as he suffers a fateful spider bite that leads to superpowers he can’t immediately master. So that brings us nothing new. Most of the film follows the time-honored formula for these things, and it actually feels like a superhero movie made in the years before Marvel and DC figured out that they didn’t need to play it so safe to draw massive audiences. Garfield is really good, and Emma Stone balances him as Gwen Stacy, but the Lizard isn’t a great villain, so Rhys Ifans is wasted. It’s well-made and all, but not revelatory, so a better title might be The Eminently Competent Spider-Man.