So I have just returned from seeing the latest Spiderman movie, wow, the fifth one since 2002, is it really 12 years since Tobey Maguire made his debut as webhead? For me, any Spiderman movie is special. Growing up in the 70s/80s, Spiderman is one of 5 characters who have been with me nearly my whole life (Superman, Hulk, Batman and Wonder Woman being the others). I have added other favourite characters along the way, but always look forward to anything with the 5 characters who date back to my childhood.

Well seeing as us lucky Brits are getting this movie two weeks ahead of our American cousins, I will keep this spoiler free. This is one whizz bang, emotional roller-coaster of a movie, which in the grand Marvel (Spidey) tradition combines elements of raw excitement, humour and sadness into a truly epic movie. First of all I want to dispel any worries that Spiderman fans have of there being too many villains. The main villain of the piece is Electro and Jamie Foxx's Electro does the business, almost resembling Star Wars' Darth Sidious at some points in the movie. We get much briefer appearances from Green Goblin and Rhino and I will leave it at that so as not to spoil anything.

I think Spiderman fans will be happy enough with this film. There were criticisms that Webb's Spiderman lacked power in the first ASM and these are answered pretty much here. Spidey gets to strut his stuff and he fast, strong and above all VERY durable! Watching this film in fact shows why Spiderman is such a popular character. He has super-powers, but can be hurt, he has agility, he is a bit goofy and funny, with some great one liners, but at the end of it all, he is just a young post high school guy with a lot of hurt in his past struggling to find his path. The effects are superb as ever and the CGI does not dominate the movie as I feared it would. There are great shots taking in the New York skyline and finally he really looks like he is swinging on those webs for real. In many ways though this is a rom-com, a love story and the Peter Parker/Gwen Stacey relationship really makes this film.

Overall as a Spiderman picture I give it 8.5 or 9 out of 10. For me it stands shoulder to shoulder with Spiderman 1 and 2, which were previously my favourites. As an enjoyable film it shows up where Man of Steel went wrong last year, with plenty of action, but equally plenty of charm and sentiment. Go and enjoy it, I did!

I hear really mixed things about this movie, and it's making me nervous. I'm glad to hear you liked it, though.

I've only heard good things about it tbh.

Saw the movie and it was better then Winter Soldier

Broaden your resources. Lots of review sites have mixed reviews, and the movie has a steadily declining fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Not a hard task if you ask me, but ok.

Was talking about audience reaction tbh

Sounds awesome, I'm excited. Great review glad you enjoyed it.

@bezza: The thing is for it not just stand beside Spider-Man and SM2.......you're just saying that "it is better than the two worse Spider-Man films out there,Spidey 3 and ASM" ......the thing would be for it to stand beside great Superhero fimls......

Are there Venom easter eggs or hints in this

I re-watched the original Raimi Spider-Man movie again today...yeah, its really not that great IMO.

I think it makes for a good children's movie though, with all the slapstick/pratfalls/sight gags, simplistic character interaction, and pantomime villains and such, its also very easy to follow and is tame enough to not frighten youngsters.

So I'd put Spider-Man 3 at the bottom (atrocious), followed by Spider-Man (passable, though good for small children).

@silent_bomber: It was good for what it was at the time.

@punyparker@ryagan@farkam

The thing with movies, particularly superhero ones is that they are so subjective. Yes Rotten Tomatoes are on 71% I think with this film and IMDB 80% at the moment, which is good but not great. Rotten Tomatoes gave Iron Man and spiderman 2 94% back in the day, but I wouldn't say those films were 23% better than ASM2, far from it. My paper the Guardian gave it a 3 out of 5 only a week after another reviewer gave it 4 out of 5, but then the Guardian gave MOS and Captain America and Iron Man 3 all of them 3 out of 5, which is rubbish as you cant say those films were all the same. ASM2 is definitely a better overall film with far less flaws than, say MOS and for me better than Iron Man 3, although my teenage daughter disagrees! Subjective, as I say, films.

There are a few flaws in this film, some of which I don't want to go into in much detail as they would contain spoilers. One of the flaws for me involves Norman and Harry Osborn and the differences in their characters from Spiderman 1 and ASM2 and the fact that suddenly Harry, who didn't feature at all in ASM1 is described by Peter as "my best pal".

Overall, for me, I enjoyed it as much as I did any of the previous Spiderman films at the time and I would say it does stand up to the best films with individual characters in the Marvel Universe, whilst not been as inspirational and outstanding (IMO) as something like Dark Knight, or for me, the Avengers Assemble.

Hope that helps. Just go with an open mind and enjoy it! I look forward to your own comments on the film in due course. Hopefully you WILL enjoy the film.

..I should also add that where this franchise is perhaps struggling to gain critical acclaim in the media or for fans feel as special as it could is the fact that it was re-booted too soon and we are feeling the fall out from that. For example, the reason why I still find Raimi's Spiderman 1 and 2 and the Iron Man 1 film so special, is that they were the first films for the Spiderman and Iron Man characters and were fresh. With ASM1 and ASM2 we find ourselves still comparing them with the previous Raimi films and this means they don't feel new and fresh as they otherwise do. However, if you put those earlier films out of your mind and just this film on its own merits it does wow. Oh and Andrew Garfield's Spiderman and Emma stone's Gwen Stacey have far more chemistry than Tobey Maguire's bawling Spiderman and Kirsten Dunst's whiney and disloyal MJ ever did! Right, I've said enough, ta, ta.

The trilogy is cheesy.(well the first 2)
It's a love letter to the Lee/Ditko comic.

I trust them,till i see the acual film.
MOS stands at 56% on RT and i find it ridiculous,because i love the film.Really.

One review on ASM2 says

"This new Spidey is a bit dull. He whines a lot, taunts his criminal victims with smart-aleck dialogue and he doesn't really deserve Gwen Stacy, who is the best ting about the new series."

The dude is a complete ridicul.
He complains about Spider-Man being Spider-man.

They're clearly making Harry his arch nemesis,and i,as the biggest Norman fan here,find it sad and unfortunate.....

Yes,DK and Avengers are masterpieces,in my opinion too.

I am sorry but the Winter Soldier was better. With that said I enjoyed both films.

Miles better.

@punyparker:

I am going to see Cap America 2 on Monday. I wasn't going to bother initially as I am not particularly a cap fan, but everyone has been raving about it, so its persuaded my to dust off my wallet again for a family ticket!

re MOS I agree that rating was ridiculously low, I enjoyed it too, but it did have its faults and personally I think ASM2 is better. That reviewer moaning about Spiderman being whingey is plain wrong. Sure he is upset at times and when you see the film you will know why. But I LOVE the Garfield Spiderman. He takes time out for the "little people", there's plenty of Spiderman saving random members of the public, you know the sort of stuff that superman used to do before MOS and the New 52 universe...!!

If you love Garfield Spider-Man,it's another reason to read Ultimate Spider-Man......

I really hope i like ASM2.....i want it to succed but primarly i want to like it.

I've thought about it a lot, and to be honest I see very little resemblance to Ditko

Maybe just Amazing Fantasy 15 for the origin, that's about it (and the origin is world famous and has been retold countless times).

For the tone I think its more of that Adam West/Schumaker "comics should be a pantomime" thinking going on, except toned down.

"MY BABY! MY BABY!" #cue woman running around flailing her arms about#

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Spider-Man 1's main influence as far as I can see is the 90s cartoon series.

At first I thought there was decent amounts of late 60s early 70s (Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine 2, Night Gwen Stacy died), but the more I think about it, the more I feel its actually influenced via the cartoon episodes "Enter the Green Goblin" & "Turning Point"

All three media's have similarities to each other, but the film has scenes of Norman talking to himself in the mirror and changing his voice around much like he did in the cartoon, and his Origin of being stressed into testing the drug early is also in both (and going after the people who were putting the pressure on him as soon as he becomes Green Goblin), as well as the fact that you don't need to rework the MJ/Gwen Stacy substitution on the bridge, as that was already done in the cartoon.

I would say that Mary Jane actually acts more like the cartoon version of the character than the comic too.

Also Spider-Man 3s symbiote storyline is much more like the 90s cartoon than the comic.

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Now, Spider-Man 2 on the other hand, now that I think about it does have some similarities to early Stan Lee Spider-Man in the plot (not the characters though, the characters are pretty much unrecognizable for the most part).

You've got Spider-Man having an emotional breakdown and talking himself into not having powers (Sinister Six), unsure about his role as Spider-Man, and him giving up as Spider-Man for instance (The End of Spider-Man, Spider-Man No More).

Well,the cheesy tone,in general......
I HATED the fact that he didnt quip.

This is true,i'll reccomend the podcast i heard it,to anyone interested

Bendis in an interview said that he was called in for an opinion about the film,back in 2002.
He saw the film,and then he was asked to write some lines,and he did.The lines' content was a Spider-Man mockery of Green Goblin's look....obviously.
Sony said "What is that?....." he said "I noticed Spidey doesnt joke,so i added this....Spider-Man is a joker,a trickster,a trash-talker,it's his thing,his tactic." and what did Sony say?...."You know how much this suit costs?......why would we make fun of it?.....you can go now,mr Bendis"

No comment.

A big influence,in general was from the Spider-Man 90s cartoon....the whole Venom situation was that.
Arad said it too.

That's pretty interesting, Bendis just wrote down what everyone else was thinking about that costume

Reminds me of this LOL

I was looking at the writers of those three movies, interesting that they were all made by completely different writing teams

(and LOL at Spider-Man 3 being written by Sam and his brother, that guy's nepotism knows no bounds)

I'm thinking now that the writer of the second movie probably knew his stuff pretty well, but I guess he was somewhat constrained by the events and characterizations of the previous movie. Writer of the 1st was more experienced with the 90s cartoons and bits and pieces of the comic + public perception, and where it comes to Spider-Man 3 Sam and his brother were just on an ego trip.

@silent_bomber said:

This is like the best thing ever.....

GOD i miss 1610 Peter Parker.....

Yeah,i've looked at it in the past too.

The Screenplayer Alvin Sargent co-wrote Spider-Man 2,3 and ASM screenplay.....that's interesting.
The other Spider-Man 2 story writers wrote for Smallville,so a superhero slick wasn't something new.....but lets be honest here,the film succeded only because of Raimi......script/story is nothing spectacular or inovating.

Now Spider-Man's Koepp wrote Mission Impossible and Jurassic Park.......they picked well,no doubt.

That's why i thought ASM2 will be well written,they picked Orci and Kurtzman to write and constract the whole universe....that's a good thing.
And Drew Goddard for Sin Six,damn....