He does whatever a spider can

(“Spider-man, Spider-man/Does Whatever a spider can.” was the opening refrain of Marvel’s 1960s Spidey cartoon. Hence the title)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2012) is a poor relaunch from the Raimi series, partly I think, because it’s trying to hard to be different. Peter, for example, isn’t the put-upon nerd as much as just all broody and emo, and Andrew Garfield isn’t as good in the role as Tobey Maguire. Nor are the rest of the cast a match for Kirsten Dunst and Willem Defoe and the Lizard definitely isn’t up to supporting the entire movie as the villain the way the Green Goblin or Dr. Octopus did.
That being said, I really wish that they hadn’t gone back to the origin again. And this holds for whenever we get the next Superman or Batman film as well.
It’s not that their origins are bad. Hell, they’re classic, great explanations for who they are and how they came to be. That being said:
•There’s a lot more to their lives than the origin. And many more stories to tell.
•The origin’s been done. In Spidey’s case, only a few years ago. So why remake it?
•Doing the origin automatically puts limits on the movie because a lot of any origin is set-up. We spend lots of time in this one introducing Peter, showing he’s constantly bullied, developing his relationship with his Uncle Ben (a rather crotchety Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). I don’t object to drama, but I’d much sooner see drama involving Spider-Man (like the classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko plotline in which Dr. Octopus’ latest experiment requires a chemical component that’s the only thing that can keep Aunt May alive).
The film makes a conscious effort to rework some of the details of the origin (on a minor note, it occurs to me that both this and the Raimi film slightly soften Peter’s fatal mistake. In Amazing Fantasy #15, he doesn’t stop the hood because he’s had his first taste of success and he figures it’s not his job to go catch a crook. In both film origins, he has a grudge against the guy who’s getting robbed so it’s not quite as jerky) rather than follow it faithfully as the first movie did (updated to the 21st century, of course—no reference to Spidey debuting on the Ed Sullivan Show). Not to mention adding a lot of stuff regarding Peter’s father and the dark secret that sent him away. So why not go all the way and skip the origin? It’s unlikely anyone who’d want to see this doesn’t already know it.
Another problem is that as usual, the movie has the usual Hollywood impulse to tie all the origins together: Peter’s origins and the Lizard’s come from the same experiment which it’s clearly implied will ultimately create the Green Goblin. I understand the logic—mainstream audiences only have to accept one weird element this way—but I kind of like the comics premise that weird things happen all the time (someone’s been mutated by a freak accident? It’s Tuesday). And I think comics have percolated the mainstream far enough that the audience can probably handle that.