The Amazing Spider-Man, Seven magazine review I have always had a soft spot for Spider-Man. Unlike some of the other stars of the Marvel comics, he's a superhero with a soul. Beneath the mask, the science whizz Peter Parker has had a difficult start in life: his parents died mysteriously, he is taunted at school, and the beloved uncle who raised him is murdered by a street criminal. Although a bite from a radioactive spider renders him super-strong, quick, and with the rare ability to shoot sticky rope from his fingertips, Parker remains modest even when swinging through Manhattan, bouncing off skyscrapers. He knows that in the midst of his biggest battles, he still has to remember to buy eggs for his Aunt May. It doesn't seem long since the last of Sam Raimi's zesty, humorous Spider-Man trilogy, starring Tobey Maguire, but in Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man Andrew Garfield - diffident and confident, polite and stubborn - makes the character his own. Garfield might look absurdly young and lanky (his shape, like his jumpy movements, has an arachnid quality) but his acting has an instinctive wisdom. Even in a short scene, his expression can convey several shades of emotion before he even opens his mouth, and Emma Stone matches him with easy elan as his first love, the police chief's daughter Gwen Stacy. Drawn to the lost pieces of his own jigsaw, Parker tracks down his father's former partner Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans, minus one arm but with his ego deliciously intact) and his risky cross-species experimentation. Urban chaos ensues. The plot might be predictable, but this fluid film has free-ranging fun with the physicality of what it feels like to be a spider, especially when tied to the emotions of a teenager. This review also appears in SEVEN, free with the Sunday Telegraph