wrenn and I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man last night.

The good:
---The cast. Andrew Garfield was far more like the Spidey of the comics than Tobey Maguire was, and I liked Maguire. Though one could argue that Maguire was more Steve Ditko's Spidey and Garfield was more John Romita Sr.'s. Speaking of Romita, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey looked like Romita drew her -- she was beyond perfect. And Denis Leary, Sally Field, and especially Martin Sheen were superb.
---The script. We got wisecracking Spidey, we got a good argument from Leary's Captain Stacey about why vigilantes don't necessarily help, and we got good setup for future films (Peter's interest in photography, Norman Osborn as a shadowy background figure, the unresolved issues regarding Peter's parents, the fact that he still hasn't captured Uncle Ben's killer).
---The effects. Technology has allowed the web-swinging to become even more effective.

The bad:
---The villain. The Lizard? Really? And while I spent a large chunk of this movie thinking, "Imagine if this cast was in Raimi's first film, how awesome that would've been," that did not apply to the bad guy, as Willem Dafoe was far superior to Rhys Ifans. (Hell, Alfred Molina was far superior Ifans, and I hated Molina's Dr. Octopus.) The Lizard was never one of Spidey's top-shelf bad guys, and this movie goes to show why. Plus, he was kinda doofy looking.
---The plot. Too many coincidences, too many connections -- Peter's girlfriend just happens to be the daughter of the police captain chasing him and the bad guy's intern, e.g. -- and trying to cram a bit too much into one movie (though it doesn't feel as crowded as, say, X-Men: Last Stand). Plus Captain Stacey switches from hating Spidey to supporting him way too fast and unconvincingly.
---The mask. Jesus Christ, did they have to remove the mask so damn often? It wouldn't be so bad except he kept doing it in public. There are cameras everywhere these days, between security cameras, traffic cameras, and cell phones. I find it impossible to credit that nobody ever got a shot of Peter Parker leaping around maskless given how often it happened in the film.
---The origin. Didn't we just do this? They could easily have rebooted the franchise without retelling the origin again. Yes, it would've denied us Martin Sheen owning the role of Uncle Ben (he was arguably the best part of the movie), but still....

A fun film, certainly, and it nailed the spirit of the character nicely. Worth seeing, though it's not must-see the way the Marvel Studios pictures have become.