Man, this is like a time machine for me. Back before ASM was released, I was getting on people's nerves with my constant pessimism about it. The trailers and promo images made it look like dreck. Then it came out, there was much rejoicing, and I thought "maybe this might not be so bad after all." I watched it, and it surprised me twice. First, I was surprised at how much better it was than I expected. Then, once I adjusted my expectations accordingly, I was surprised at how much worse it was than I expected. Peter Parker worked rather well, but once he put on the suit things went downhill. The changes made to the Connor/Lizard character made him less interesting than in the comics, Spider-Man was more annoying than funny, and all in all it was mediocre. Of course, compared to Raimi, mediocre is an improvement.