Spider-man (out early in Japan, which is very unusual. Normally i avoid this thread like the plague due to spoilers):
It's pretty solid, overall. I enjoy almost anything Spidey-related so I am hopelessly biased. I doubt many here will LOVE it, plenty will piss all over it and if you don't like superhero movies generally, this isn't going to be the one that bowls you over.
Some aspects were great - Garfield and Stone are great separately and sizzle together, could easily carry a straight rom-com. It mostly looked great, and it took pains to make you care about THIS Peter Parker. There were many fun little moments, and plenty of twists on the stock story to keep the first act origin story stuff from getting too dull (unless you read Ultimate Spider-man, that is...).
Other parts were weak - as most expected, the Lizard was a pretty forgettable antagonist, both in action and appearance. The humor that was there mostly worked but there was way too little of it for me (and the wife - she hated it, and far preferred the first two Raimi films 'cause they felt more like comics). Overall the tone was just a bit too pompous and emo and Dark Knight for me. There was a scene near the end that I think will come in for mild derision, but won't go into it here. That part isn't BAD, it's just a bit overly earnest and tone-deaf in presenting a rather silly idea where Raimi just went for it and embraced the cheesiness and pulpiness of it all. Some of the CG stuff was a bit ropey.
The big problem, which we knew going in, was that there is a bunch of set-up and the plot is nothing startling. You'll all know exactly where it's going long before it gets there, but then that's pretty much true for every action movie these days.
Cast-wise, there is no pleasant surprise along the lines of J.K. Simmons' star turn in the Raimi films.
The IMAX 3D looked great, I was totally sucked in.
All in all, a good start to hopefully another trilogy or whatever.
