I’m sure every review will touch upon this, including the positive ones but really, why would they reboot the Spider-Man franchise barely 10 years into it? Because they expect to make tons of money with this new version, of course, but wouldn’t just recasting and making another Spidey adventure work? Do we really have to go through the whole origin story again?

The first time around, I enjoyed how the filmmakers took their time before putting Peter Parker in the suit, but during this second go-around, it bugged me (pun unintended). I found act one (and most of two) rather dull, with a lot of it the beats being the same as in the original flick, but not as good, and whatever little twists and changes being made generally feeling wrong.

Like, suddenly, Peter Parker, while still a science whiz who gets bullied, isn’t that much of a geek anymore, but a brooding skateboarding rebel. Andrew Garfield‘s cool in the role – maybe too cool. To me, Tobey Maguire’s endearing dorkiness fitted the character much better. Emma Stone, on the other end, is perfectly lovable and goofy-fun as Gwen Stacy (didn’t care for Denis Leary as her police captain father, though). As for Sally Field and Martin Sheen as Aunt May and Uncle Ben , they’re okay I guess, but they’re hardly as touching as Rosemary Harris and the late great Cliff Robertson.

One seemingly big difference is that they don’t go into the whole Norman and Harry Osborn thing, though much of the plot does revolve around Oscorp, where Peter Parker’s father used to work and which now employs Gwen Stacy, as well as Dr. Curt Connors, who eventually turns into the Lizard… i.e. another scientist turned psychotic super-villain after injecting himself with an experimental serum. He even hears voices like the Green Goblin! So again, been there, done that for the most part, except that Rhys Ifans is nowhere near as deliciously creepy as Willem Dafoe and that the Lizard looks rather ridiculous.

So even when we finally get to the big super confrontations, they feel a bit off. Technically, a lot of the action is awesome, even though director Marc Webb (of (500) Days of Summer fame) is no Sam Raimi and the film as a whole isn’t that comic-booky, whatever that means.

I could go into some other nitpicks, like how the plot relies on all these coincidences or the annoyingly amount of times Spidey unmasks himself (way to keep a secret identity, Webhead!)… But the main thing that bothered me was the rehash thing.

Still: Emma Stone, man.