In my 17 years I have seen many Spider-Men—I have seen the original movie, the sequel, the Broadway musical and many a Halloween costume and meme poster, but I have never seen anything quite like The Amazing Spider-Man.

Yes, it has the elements of your basic Spider-Man movie, gangly kid gets bit by a genetically altered spider, his parents aren’t in the picture and his uncle dies; but this film takes a few really interesting and fun turns from the usual. For example, there’s no Mary Jane to fall in love with, Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) doesn’t have a fan base anywhere near as large as usually portrayed, he’s not a journalist at all, and he can’t shoot web (that’s right, no web powers this go around). I absolutely adored this version of the story and thought it was way more interesting than your average hero beating a villain.

Spider-Man faced opposition from every angle this time, instead of one clean cut villain, and he can’t just magically get the girl in an upside down kiss at the end in this version. While his main villain Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifan) was definitely something to fear, his crush’s dad Captain Stacy (Denis Leary) was the more formidable and relatable obstacle this go around, but the girl (Emma Stone) of course still proved worth the fight. Overall, great acting, great effects and a great adjustment of the story, I found the film engaging and not nearly as normal as I expected when I walked in.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars