After hearing about Sony hating “The Amazing Spider-Man”, it became clear one of two things had happened: either Marc Webb had bombed, or he’d made a movie that was actually worth watching but wasn’t as “commercial” as Sony had hoped, because it focused on that whole “insecure teenager” thing that execs would like to cut out of the franchise so they could hire somebody in their forties who plays well in Thailand.
It’s starting to look like the latter is the case. Kotaku’s critic thinks the movie has some odd directorial choices (honestly, some of which are probably a reflection of executive meddling from the sound of them) but notes that we finally get the smart-ass Spidey we always wanted. Rotten Tomatoes has a good summary of the British critics, who for some reason have seen it already, and even the worst review has little nasty to say.
Honestly, it’s something of a relief. Granted, a Spidey reboot seems kind of excessive when the last movie in the previous set is five years old, but this could have gone wrong in a lot of ways. Clearly, though, it went right.