The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man: I think it’s fair to say that Marc Webb was not a good choice to helm a big budget summer blockbuster. His sole feature credit is the sweet (500) Days of Summer, a film that, to the best of my memory, had nothing like a big CGI lizard man in it. This is a “reboot” of the Spidey franchise, with Sam Raimi parting ways producers after his outrageously bad Spider-Man 3 and an aborted attempt at a Spider-Man 4 that would’ve seen John Malkovich as a vulture dude. Webb gets it all wrong, from his casting of Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone), to the terrible operatic soundtrack, and, most disappointingly, a truly bad screen rendition of The Lizard (played drably by Rhys Ifans). As it turns out, Webb can’t handle an action scene to save his life. Garfield, so good in The Social Network, takes an “Oh-gosh-golly-gee-willickers-please-like-my-nerd-ass!” approach to the role of Peter Parker. It’s cute for about five minutes, and then it gets pretty painful to watch.