James Horner's score is nowhere near among his best, some of it pedestrian, some of it over-the-top, neither of which Danny Elfman's scoring had. The script is never terrible nor is it ever exceptional, there are sweet and emotional moments as well as tense ones but too much of the humour is forced and it interferes with the serious tone. The story does have its fair share of well-done moments but does suffer from an over-familiarity that feels like a more seriously toned rehash and uneven pacing, sluggish in the first half and while much better rushed in some of the second half. Irrfan Kahn's performance and his character is little more than an extended cameo, not very much to work with and Kahn does little with it. I never really warmed to Andrew Garfield though, he did seem too quirky for Peter complete with some forced humour and wasn't enough of a nerd, he wasn't a whole lot better as Spider-Man either, he had charisma but did come across as rather smug and not brooding enough for such a serious tone to the story here. On the whole too there is some good chemistry between the actors. Rhys Ifans does bring some creepiness to Curt Connors/The Lizard if not the tragedy(the writing didn't help him though) and Denis Leary is delightful in how churlish he is. The performances on the whole are also good, Sally Field and especially Martin Sheen are great as Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and Emma Stone is a charming and amusing Gwen.
It was also very intriguing with the mystery of Peter's parents which was done quite well. The action sequences- of which there are a lot in the second half- mostly are exciting with some cool stunts(the one exception is the climax which seemed like it was played and written too safe) and very creative use of Spider-Man's powers, and there are some parts in the story that work, the dynamic between Peter and Uncle Ben is really quite emotionally powerful, the romance between Peter and Gwen is somewhat sweet and the part where Spider-Man saves the little boy is tense and heart-felt. The Amazing Spider-Man did have things to like, it is very stylishly made and has some very impressive special effects, even if the Lizard takes some getting used to. For me, the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man films are better, and while Spider-Man did plod and had too many villains all but one of which were underused personally it wasn't that bad. That said though, from personal opinion The Amazing Spider-Man was not a bad film, or at least nowhere near as bad as has been said(again personal opinion), but it doesn't live up to its name. And, while I think about it, why, oh why didn't they include THE most important line in any Spider-Man film-Uncle Ben's line "With great power comes great responsibility"?! It is the perfect summation of who the character is and according to Stan Lee it is Spider-Man.so why is it missing?! And because of this, it's spectacular to watch but nothing more.nothing.
The characters and dialog just didn't seem all that important. It's ALL CGI and special effects-and nothing much more. Also, the Spider-Man costume and movements are all great. The CGI was incredible and for the first time it really looks like Spider-Man is flying. It's decent but there are better products out there.
That's because with all the many, many super-hero movies out in recent years, this one loses a bit of something-especially since there are clearly better films of its genre (such as "Iron Man" and "The Avengers"). I can't take credit for the summary-my oldest daughter said that when we left the theater after seeing "The Amazing Spider-Man".