I wanted this movie to fail big time so that Sony would think twice about creating another one, Marvel Studios would be able to get the rights back, and then Spider-Man could be a part of the larger continuity.
Considering how well the movie is tracking and how positive most of the reviews are, it seems unlikely that it will do that poorly in the box office, though it's worth noting that it only has two weeks before it's annihilated by TDKR and speaking personally, the midnight screening I went to was more than half-empty. Granted, I saw it in 3D, so it's plausible that the 2D screening was more densely populated, but I won't be too surprised if this movie underperforms. Midnight screenings are usually full of really enthusiastic people, but this one felt pretty much like any other movie screening. I get the feeling like word of mouth may not be too positive on this one and apathy will keep people from seeing it right away. This is probably wishful thinking.
Regardless, I went into the movie with pretty low expectations, and the film was definitely better than I expected.
Let me start with the good stuff. Andrew Garfield is a good actor and he brings a certain amount of charm to Peter Parker. Emma Stone is even better as Gwen Stacy. She really pops and is a really solid supporting actress. Martin Sheen, Sally Field, and Denis Leary all do well in their own right and some of the best moments are the smaller moments between characters. Rhys Ifans isn't bad, but he comes off as the weak link in the chain. He's just not a very compelling villain, but more on that later.
The thing that surprised me the most is that the action set-pieces are really solid. I loved Mark Webb's "(500) Days of Summer", but I didn't think he had enough experience directing action to be a good fit for a movie like this. I was wrong. Not only is everything shot well, he makes good use of the 3D, which is something even seasoned action directors seem to struggle with. Spider-Man moves less like a ninja and more like a spider, which gives him a very unique physicality that makes the action almost mesmerizing. Whenever Spider-Man is fighting something, it usually works out really well.
With a good cast and good action scenes, audiences tend to forgive short-comings in the screenplay, which is why I expect there's quite a lot of positive reviews for this movie.
On the negative side, the screenplay is really, really weak. If the acting and directing had been more mediocre, it probably would have been much more blatantly obvious, but as it stands, it's not often bad enough to distract from the whole experience. But as a lapsed Spider-Man fan, this treatment of the character does him a lot of disservice, primarily by turning him into a huge douche.
From here on out I'm going to get into SPOILER territory, but let me just sum up by saying that if you saw the trailers and the movie looked good to you, go ahead and see it, but if it doesn't interest you at all, just don't bother.
