Let me start off by listing all of the changes or elements of the movie that I don't care about.
- The change in costume
- webshooters rather than organic webs
- Gwen Stacy rather than Mary Jane
- the direction
- the action
- the quips
- inclusion of Richard and Mary Parker
- The Lizard as a villain
But what I don't like is that they messed with the area that makes the character work - his personality. This is not a Spider-Man movie. It's a movie about a kind of jerky teen, who seems to be fairly smart, who doesn't become a better person by the end of the movie. Instead of helping to save the city from The Lizard because he's a hero, he saves the city because he's personally responsible for The Lizard's existence. This isn't a big distinction, but it makes him less of a hero.
The origin was re-written to make so that Peter is less responsible for his uncle's death. And he doesn't feel guilty about it either. But he's looking for revenge. Way to go. He's not a hero now, he's a jerk. He's not looking to do what's right, he's looking to do whatever he feels like. We don't really know how responsible he feels, since the killer never reappears.
Peter was reinvented as a more passive person. He's less compelled to do good, or even do well. We never see him putting in any effort at school. He carries his skateboard around, and generally doesn't project the impression of being a bright guy. He comes across as a bit of slacker, missing out on his potential. He's aware of science, but he doesn't seem nearly as fascinated by it as I expected. And besides… he uses Bing. How bright can he be?
There was one scene in particular that exemplifies nearly everything wrong with this movie.
The Lizard is on a rampage. It seems to be a weird rampage, because there doesn't seem to be a particular destination in mind. And given how lucid the Lizard is, this is very peculiar. But, the Lizard is on a bridge, pushing cars around, slashing stuff up, and so forth. Spider-Man shows up. Spider-Man is mostly just saving some people as some cars get pushed off the building. A guy points out that his kid is still in his car, which is hanging from a webline off the bridge. Spider-Man makes his way down there. The kid is scared, since he's sideways, facing the water. He's too scared to unbuckle himself and climb to Spider-Man. So Spider-Man takes off his mask, and tosses it to the kid, telling him it will make him powerful. The kid puts it on, blah blah blah.
Anyway, the kid is saved. The car catches on fire, then plunges into the water.
The writing in this scene is nakedly manipulative. Besides trying to make a heart-wrenching heroic scene (like the train scene in Spider-Man 2) it's drenched in an effort to sell the Spider-Man masks for sale at most toy stores. In fact, prior to the movie, there was an ad where a kid becomes Spider-Man after putting on one of the masks.
Spider-Man has already been merchandised massively, for a long time. Costumes…toothbrushes…lunchboxes… But it never felt intrusive. There even used to be these one-page comics involving Spider-Man and Hostess products. I didn't feel like those cheapened the character. They were clearly outside continuity. But if they inserted this kind of adventure into the middle of an actual story, I'd wonder what the hell they were thinking.
And that's exactly what's wrong with this movie. It pulls in many directions, and tries to appeal to too many audiences at the same time, instead of focusing on the character that made the whole thing work. I'd place this into the same category as Batman & Robin. Maybe in time, I'll enjoy this the same way I enjoy that.
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