There is no apology made in re-tracing all the familiar origin steps we saw in Raimi’s Spider-Man. Although it follows a beaten path, conscious changes, some more subtle than others, had to be made to set the two films apart. But as long as Peter Parker get s bitten by a radioactive spider, learns that with great power comes great responsibility after the murder of his Uncle, and fights crime as a masked vigilante known as Spider-Man, we’ll all be OK.

Fanboys may nitpick some of the latest adjustments to the mythos, but casual moviegoers won’t really have issue with them. Here Peter uses mechanical web shooters (as he does in the comics), whereas Raimi chose to make them organic. Details in the lead up and fall out regarding Uncle Ben’s tragic murder, which is what drives Peter to become a masked hero, have been adjusted as necessary. But ultimately the same origin story is being told.

While Norman Osborn (who ultimately becomes the Green Goblin) does not appear in the film, his presence is felt throughout as his Oscorp Tower is a primary setting for numerous crucial plot points of the film. Here the baddie is Oscorp scientist Doctor Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), also know as the Lizard.

The first hour is methodically paced and centered on developing and re-introducing the characters in this entry. Webb and his excellent lead cast of Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Rhys Ifans (Conners), and Denis Leary (George Stacy) pour more depth into what’s going on inside these characters heads than you would ever think a film like this would allow. I found the dialogue driven interactions between Peter and Gwen, Peter’s quest for answers regarding his parents abandonment, Peter’s relationship with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and Peter’s ultimate calling to follow his repsonsibility to become a hero more interesting than what was going on with any of the paint by numbers hero versus villain elements concerning the Lizard.

But when it comes to Ifans’ Lizard, sometimes the gray area villain who is more victim than pure evil is not as easy to root against as the all out badass is. The simple beauty of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight was that there was no origin to the character or any reason to sympathize with his reign of criminal destruction. The Joker was a villain by definition that was meant to be destroyed by Batman. But when the gray area has so many shades, a villain is kept from committing true super villainy.

Don’t get me wrong, there are diabolical deeds the Lizard eventually gets around to doing, but Doctor Conners is set up here so much as a victim of his own circumstances and not as a baddie on the level of Doctor Octopus or the Green Goblin, that he falls too far on the side of needing to be helped rather than be defeated. Incidentally, I was surprised to be underwhelmed by the CGI work that brought the reptilian monster to life.