It's likely impossible to not compare this Spider-Man reboot with Sam Raimi's recent trilogy of films. To their credit, director Marc Webb and star Andrew Garfield do take some admirable swings. The webbing just doesn't always stick. Garfield plays a Peter Parker that's more introspective loner than outright dweeb, while Emma Stone is shiny in an otherwise do-nothing role as his girlfriend Gwen Stacey. Webb, who previously directed 500 Days of Summer, expertly handles their awkward high school flirtations. But then radioactive spider, death of Uncle Ben, evil scientist, great power and responsibility, etc. Same song, just played with different rhythms. But where Raimi birthed a world of high-stakes melodrama, Webb's Spider-Man is considerably less ambitious in scope and themes. They may have mixed up the titles. This is Spider-Man, but there's nothing really amazing here.
