( CNN ) -- When it comes to rebooting Marvel 's tale of an adolescent web crawler , Sony seems more than happy to sing the same old song with today 's release of `` The Amazing Spider-Man . '' Only 10 years have passed since Tobey Maguire started swinging through the urban jungle in `` Spider-Man , '' and now Andrew Garfield is stepping into his flight path in what often feels like a straight-up remake . Considering how important the idea of evolution is to this story , is it unreasonable to expect something more inventive than the same origin tale ? Note to Sony : The entire planet saw Sam Raimi 's `` Spider-Man , '' and you guys know this better than anyone ! Copping iconic scenes from `` Superman , '' `` Batman '' and `` King Kong '' only makes matters worse . Yes , there are variations ; `` Amazing '' is n't a carbon copy . And , to some extent , there are improvements . The biggest plus point has to be Garfield , the Anglo-American actor who played Mark Zuckerberg 's former friend and ally in `` The Social Network . '' At 28 , Garfield 's slightly older than Maguire was when he played Peter Parker in 2002 , but his combination of fresh-faced innocence , nervous agitation and wry humor is immediately appealing . Garfield 's Peter is still very much a boy -- the prologue introduces him as a child , searching for the father he 's about to lose . He 's a good-hearted , curious kid who is n't prepared for the hormonal surges that sweep his body shortly after he 's been bitten by a genetically modified spider in the research laboratory of one Dr. Curt Connors ( Rhys Ifans ) . The next thing Peter knows , he 's climbing the walls . He 's stronger , stickier and getting a good deal further than he ever thought possible with Gwen Stacy ( Emma Stone ) . Not surprisingly , director Marc Webb -- whose last film was the sleeper rom-com `` ( 500 ) Days of Summer '' -- employs a deft hand with the relationship scenes , and Garfield and Stone have a nice , frisky rapport . The dialogue scenes are light and `` on point . '' But none of this can dispel the whiff of déjà vu . At least we get a new bad guy . When the semi-sympathetic Dr. Connors rashly doses himself into a poor man 's Godzilla -- a Middle-aged Mutant Ninja Lizard -- Webb dutifully strings together three or four wham-bang set pieces , including a novel interlude in the sewers , where Spidey spins his own advance warning system , a welcome breath of presumably foul air after all his usual zip-lining antics . The action is mostly coherent and the CGI is a notch or four up from the first Sam Raimi movie , but not a significant advance on the last of them unless you 're crazy for 3-D. ( A couple of dizzying subjective close-ups do make the case for it -- but they 're the exceptions . ) This is yet another blockbuster sprinkled with numerous continuity errors , ridiculous coincidences , contrivances and gaping lapses in logic . To take just one minor example : An 8-foot reptile rampages across the Williamsburg bridge during rush hour , and no one gets a photograph ? And just because it runs two-and-a-quarter hours does n't mean you should expect the filmmakers to tie up loose ends . The sinister billionaire who is bankrolling Connors ' work , some chap by the name of Osborne , remains ominously off-screen , and we never do find out what happened to Peter 's parents . But I suppose that 's not carelessness as much as it 's confidence . `` The Amazing Spider-Man '' is slick and entertaining and artfully packaged , and Andrew Garfield is utterly engaging , so yes , you can count on seeing more of the same . Prepare to be unamazed .
`` The Amazing Spider-Man '' sings the same old song as its predecessors . There are some improvements , with the best being Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker . But none of its positives can dispel the whiff of déjà vu .