After the successful Superman of 78, the Hollywood supers never flew that high, that was, until Spider-Man released in 2002. The movie met with unprecedented critical and commercial success and revived the supers from their decades’ long limbo. This torch was carried forward by a series of superhero movies like the sequels of Spider-Man, The Dark Knight, Ironman, up to the latest billion dollar movie Marvel’s Avengers. And now we can add The Amazing Spiderman to this list. The movie was released internationally on the 29th of June and in the U.S. on the 3rd of July this year.

The movie, directed by Mark Webb, is a reboot than a sequel to the highly successful previous franchise. It has already gathered positive reviews from most critics. Top Hollywood review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has given the movie an average positive rating of 72 percent, while its top reviewers have given it 76 percent.

Considering Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man’s 89 percent positive rating, the new movie’s rating might not seem mesmerising; it is impressive nonetheless. When rebooting a successful series like the Spider-Man, much thought has to be put in selecting the cast and crew, as it is meant to be compared with the original - a wrong choice and the whole project will be in jeopardy. At this point it is agreeable that the Studio has got this spot on. Mark Webb is a very different director compared to Sam Raimi and what he lacked in the imagination that Raimi displayed in action set pieces, he more than compensated with emotional and comedic elements. Andrew Garfield was presented with the enormous opportunity and challenge to fill in the shoes that originally belonged to Tobey Maguire. Maguire had been praised sky-high for his portrayal of Spider-Man in the original movie, some critics even went as far as saying Maguire is to Spider-Man what Christopher Reeve has been to Superman. So it is fair to say that the road was not easy for Garfield, yet he pulled of spider-man in style. Emma Stone was stellar in her not so big role.

The characters in the new movie were well fleshed out and much more loveable when compared to the ones of the original series. For example, instead of the naive Peter Parker that Maguire was in the original, the new movie gives us a rather outcast, shrewd Peter with great sense of humour in Garfield. It explains very well why he is how he is and how the events would mould him to be the saviour that he is going to be. Also, Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy is actually in love with Peter rather than spider-man, a contrast to the borderline gold digger, Mary Jain Watson, of the original.

The movie managed to do away with many of the unnecessary secrecy of the original movie and has managed to bring out true human emotions a lot more convincingly.

On a low note, it has to be mentioned that the movie lacks the urgency that leads the audience to the edge of their seat as the original did. It all comes a bit predictable and gives the viewers a sense of ‘been there, seen that’. Also the villain, The Lizard, sort of gives us déjà vu, as he is a lot like Doctor Octopus from the second Spider-Man movie yet falling a lot shorter than him. But, considering that it is a reboot and a rather hasty one in that, these small issues can be forgiven.

The numbers the movie has managed to pull in the international market stands testament to the fact that the audience has already forgiven these small flaws and has taken the movie open heartedly. It even managed to pull in $6 million from the Indian box office in the first weekend, a new record for Hollywood movies in India. According to Hollywood box office revenue aggregator Box Office Mojo, the movie has managed to do $7.5 million in its U.S. midnight previews; which is impressive in its own right.