Call it what you want - a re-boot, a re-invention, or probably more appropriately, just having another crack at it - but there's no doubt with a new director and cast on board, The Amazing Spider-Man swings this franchise back into life.
It's been five years since Tobey Maguire as Spidey last web-slung his way across our screens in director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3. Raimi's adaptation of this classic Marvel comic began in 2002 and even though all three films were commercially well received, it was clear after the third film, a re-think was needed. Raimi and Maguire were initially interested in a fourth film but pulled out in 2010 and in stepped director Marc Webb (yes, seriously, his real name) and British actor Andrew Garfield (The Social Network).
The result is a film that stands up against its predecessors, is an improvement on Spider-Man 3 and has the added bonus of 3D technology to make the action that much more exhilarating. The Amazing Spider-Man returns to the beginning of Peter Parker's story and his transformation into Spider-Man, but it's not a prequel, as a lot of this material has been covered before, nor is it hugely different from Raimi's vision.
Rather it's a fresh take on events with subtle differences; for example Webb introduces us to Peter's parents in flashbacks for the first time, and his love interest isn't girl next door Mary Jane, but fellow student Gwen Stacy (Stone) who featured in Spider-Man 3.
A high school student, Peter becomes interested in the mysterious death of his parents in a plane crash and his father's secretive scientific work. His curiosity leads him to the Oscorp research laboratories where his father worked alongside Dr Curt Connors (Ifans), and fellow student Gwen Stacy is an intern. It's there Peter has an encounter with a spider giving him his arachnid-like superpowers which he uses, initially, to find the murderer of his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen).
