Comic book movies have gotten adapted a lot lately. Spiderman got his leap to film back in 2002, when Tobey Maguire took on the heroic role and Sam Raimi of Evil Dead fame took the helm as Director. Now, 10 years since, we had two sequels to the original and now a reboot/remake of the first. This retooling now has Andrew Garfield as Spiderman/Peter Parker and 500 days of Summer director Marc Webb in the director's chair. 
First off, Spider-man (2002) and The Amazing Spider-man (2012) are different, instead of Mary Jane and the Osborns (namely the Green Goblin) we have Gwen Stacy (played wonderfully by Emma Stone) and Doctor Curt Connors (played by renowned Irish actor Rhys Ifans), he becomes the lizard in this film. This essentially makes Amazing Spiderman a spiritual sequel to the previous films. In Spiderman 2 the role was played by Dylan Baker who went on to portray the character in Spiderman 3, there was also a reference to his eventual experimentation with lizard DNA in the film. Rhys plays Curt Conners with such sustain, giving the character the proper depth and humanity . George Stacy also makes a return in this film and is played this time by comedian Dennis Leary, who is also a serious actor and was terrific in the role, giving a scene near the end by making a promise to Peter reminiscent of the promise Peter made to Norman Osborn in the original 2002 origins story. Dennis Leary and Emma Stone (Gwen) are fantastic together and work well off each other. Flash Thompson is played by Chris Zylka. He is smaller than Magic Mike's Joe Manganiello, who starred as Flash in the original and in the third spider flicks but this new Flash gets more development here and becomes more of a friend to Peter than the regular bully he was in the original film. Other actors such as Sally Field and Martin Sheen, who play Peter's Aunt and Uncle, are so fabulous in their roles. The cast was well chosen for this revamp. 
As for the leads, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have fantastic chemistry. The awkward moments in the hall and the conversations they have feel so real and in now way like the teens of the twilight saga. Andrew crafts a great interpretation of Peter Parker, showing off more of his genius/lover side. He can also get pretty dark, and those moments are also fabulous. His moment on the balcony with Emma is by far one of the best scenes in the film. Emma Stone gives a great portrayal of Gwen, she even talks down Flash, now that is awesome. Bryce Dallas Howard, compared to Emma, was like a doe caught in the head lights. Emma gives her layers but the whole blame should not be on Bryce, her character barely got any screen time in the third film. 
While plot points in the film are similar to the Spiderman of 2002, this new spiderman is edgier and more tech savvy, he crafts his own webbing and, in a hint at the original Spiderman film, he gets an idea that eventually leads Peter to making his very own spiderman costume. The film does do a better job at sticking closer to the comic books, which is a plus.
The visual effects in the film are by far more stupendous then they were in Spiderman 3. The lizard is amazingly realistic and his fights with spidey are well crafted. James Horner, who takes over scoring duties from previous composers Christopher Young and Danny Elfman, does a descent job with the score, parts of it are fabulous, but overall there are moments where it seems like the score is trying to emanate Danny Elfman's score but James doesn't push recreating the old theme. I find either you try something completely new or do a good tribute, don't be half-assed about it.
The ending to the film also felt a little stretched and jumbled in places. There is a lot of ground to cover in an origins story but planting in the bit about him searching for his parents and then changing it to him having to stop a bad guy from destroying the city seemed a little generic.
The Amazing Spiderman is amazing, with great visual flare, a fantastic cast and superb direction. While the film could have waited a bit longer to come out, until we really had Sam Raimi's trilogy out of our minds (Yes, I did enjoy Spiderman 3).
The Amazing Spiderman gets 5 Stars out of 5.
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