Before I discovered Star Trek or Doctor Who, there was Spider-Man. I fell in love with the character from his appearances on the Electric Company and was an avid comic book collector in my younger days with a large portion of my collection devoted to the web-slinger.  And during all that time of collecting and loving Spider-Man, I always heard rumors that a movie based on the hero was just around the corner.

Turns out that corner took close to two decades before it was turned, but when it was, I was more than pleased by the results.  The original Sam Raimi directedSpider-Man was everything I wanted from a film adaptation of my favorite super-hero and a few years later Spider-Man 2 became the gold standard by which I judge all other comic book movies.  Sure Spider-Man 3 was a bit of a letdown, but I’m one of the few who will defend portions of the film and see how it could have been better had the studio stepped back and let Raimi follow his vision for the franchise instead of forcing certain decisions on him and the script.

So, I’ll admit that when it came time to see The Amazing Spider-Man, I was both optimistic and pessimistic about the whole thing.  On the one hand, I was eager to see a new cast and crew’s take on my favorite super-hero.  On the other hand, I wasn’t exactly eager to experience another origin story movie nor was I certain this set of filmmakers could capture lighting in a bottle again like the Raimi trilogy did.

And that’s the biggest thing working against The Amazing Spider-Man.  No matter how you feel about the Raimi films, there will be inevitable comparisons between the two takes on the super hero.

My full review is posted HERE and HERE.