The Good: Okay, let me start by saying that my husband rated this as "The cheese is strong with this one". And he's not wrong. It's got its fair share of campiness. Since our hero is 15-ish, he's in high school and you get the typical high school dilemmas (like whether the cute girl will notice our nerdy hero if he uses his alternate identity to smooth the way). High school drama is not my typical movie preference, but it really works well for Peter Parker. It gives him a level of innocence he wears well.
This ties into the way Iron Man is inserted into this movie. I found Tony Stark's inclusion to be a good addition, overall, although for someone who isn't familiar with anything Iron Man related, it might be confusing. That might be an issue in several years as parents have kids watch superhero movies out of order, but right now, I don't find a problem with that. So I liked how adding Iron Man (and the Avengers as a whole) to this reality made several details work better than they might otherwise. It played to several different gags, plus gave Spider-man a sort-of mentor figure for him to try to impress or disappoint or just converse with over the course of the film. However, I will admit that I didn't care for Tony Stark's character here all that much. He isn't the star and comes across as a absent, neglectful parent. I mean, it stays true to his character, I think, but I still didn't like him.
The villain in this story is probably the best villain in all of Super-hero movies to date and earns this movie an extra star just by itself. Finally a bad guy who isn't just a card-board cut-out "evil dude" trying to take over the world (or otherwise be evil for the sake of evil). The bad guy has a story arch that shows a realistic motivation and a descent into evilness that feels genuine. The actor who played him did a great job!
The Bad: Probably the one character I didn't care for was Ned, Peter's best friend. He's not from the comics, and was probably created so Spider-man had someone to talk to, but I didn't care for how he constantly pushed Peter to do things he didn't want to. While not intentionally written that way, he came across to me as almost bullying with the level of peer pressure he exerted.
Mom View: Overall, I really enjoyed this. If the writers had held back on the language a bit more, I'd have been even happier. As it is, it's probably appropriate for about an 11 year old and up.
This ties into the way Iron Man is inserted into this movie. I found Tony Stark's inclusion to be a good addition, overall, although for someone who isn't familiar with anything Iron Man related, it might be confusing. That might be an issue in several years as parents have kids watch superhero movies out of order, but right now, I don't find a problem with that. So I liked how adding Iron Man (and the Avengers as a whole) to this reality made several details work better than they might otherwise. It played to several different gags, plus gave Spider-man a sort-of mentor figure for him to try to impress or disappoint or just converse with over the course of the film. However, I will admit that I didn't care for Tony Stark's character here all that much. He isn't the star and comes across as a absent, neglectful parent. I mean, it stays true to his character, I think, but I still didn't like him.
The villain in this story is probably the best villain in all of Super-hero movies to date and earns this movie an extra star just by itself. Finally a bad guy who isn't just a card-board cut-out "evil dude" trying to take over the world (or otherwise be evil for the sake of evil). The bad guy has a story arch that shows a realistic motivation and a descent into evilness that feels genuine. The actor who played him did a great job!
The Bad: Probably the one character I didn't care for was Ned, Peter's best friend. He's not from the comics, and was probably created so Spider-man had someone to talk to, but I didn't care for how he constantly pushed Peter to do things he didn't want to. While not intentionally written that way, he came across to me as almost bullying with the level of peer pressure he exerted.
Mom View: Overall, I really enjoyed this. If the writers had held back on the language a bit more, I'd have been even happier. As it is, it's probably appropriate for about an 11 year old and up.