I’m of two minds about The Amazing Spider-Man, On the one hand, I thought the story was great. I’m a big fan of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book, and I thought this movie was almost a direct adaptation of the first six issues of Bendis and Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man, just with the Lizard standing in for the Green Goblin and Gwen taking the place of Mary Jane. On the other hand, I felt like I wasn’t really watching a new movie, but rather a revised draft of 2002’s Spider-Man. There were some differences, but not enough to make it feel like it was a new movie.

That said, I thought Andrew Garfield was excellent as Peter Parker. I like that this Peter Parker wasn’t just a complete nerd, but still an outsider. It was Peter Parker by way of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.

I also thought Emma Stone was excellent at Gwen Stacey. She is such an improvement over Kirsten Dunst as in every way. I never understood the casting of Kirsten Dunst in Spider-Man. I think the only movie I liked her in was Bring It On. But I’ve loved Emma Stone in everything she’s been in, including this movie.

Their chemistry together worked so well.

The dialogue was great. I can’t decide which was my favorite line. It was either:

Mrs. Ritter: “Peter, don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Peter Parker: “But those are the best kind.”
or

Spider-Man: “Oh, no! You have found my weakness. Small knives!”

I have to say, as much as I liked The Amazing Spider-Man, I am very glad that I saw it before The Dark Knight Rises. Don’t get me wrong, I thought The Amazing Spider-Man was a great movie, but if I had seen The Dark Knight Rises before it, I may have had bigger issues with the issues I have with it.

The Lizard looked a little silly. I wish they had gone with a more long-snouted gator head, like in the comic. Here he looks like a hairless, green ape. Even a roided up Geico Gecco would have looked better.

My biggest problem with the movie was the scene where the crane operator gets all of the cranes to swing in the same direction, so that Spider-Man is able to swing uptown easier. It took me out of the movie completely. It might be the cheesiest scene I’ve seen in a movie this year.

In a year where we have The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, I feel like The Amazing Spider-Man may get swept under the rug and not remembered. It did well enough to merit a sequel, but I can’t help thinking it would have been the biggest or second biggest comic book movie of 2011 if it were released last year.