The old trilogy was NOT campy. They were cheesy and goofy alot of the time, but that's not the same as "camp" because they did mix it with some genuine drama and serious action. If that's camp, then what do you call the original Stee/Ditko/Romita Spidey stories? And personally, I think Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are equally great Peter Parkers, Kirsten Dunst and Emma Stone are equally good love interests, and all Raimi trilogy villains were better than The Lizard. Except maybe for Sandman.
Also agree that Captain Stacey was Bad Ass and I miss Jameson. But if they can't get JK Simmons to reprise the role, then the character is best left out of this new series.
And besides, camp isn't entirely a bad thing. Narm Charm is when we still like it, you know.
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The Start of Something Good.
A new retelling of the Spider-Man mythos? Well colour me intrigued. I was a fan of the original trilogy when they first came out, but looking back my god they were campy and Tobey really wasn't that good as Spider-Man. Here though, things feel more serious but there's still plenty of humour to be found, as should be the case with Spider-Man. And Andrew Garfield's portrayal of the character? Great, real solid performance. He's a social outcast, but still has an air of nerdiness about him, most notable in his interactions with Gwen. His scientific skills are also shown, and the fact that he build his own web-shooters is fairly believable.
The action is much more fluid and Spider-man fights with more agility and web-play, and is never short on snark. When he starts fighting with Lizard it's pretty awesome, watching the two move around each other with great speed and ferocity. As for the lizard himself...Eh, very tragic villain and well acted, but his design really isn't great. He looks like a scaley ape, not a lizard. And he is rather different than his comics counterpart, forming grand schemes. Then again, it's probably be hard to run the plot of Spider-Man hunting down a snarly monster.
Supporting cast is also awesome. Captain Stacey is a pro-badass, with a great sense of humour. Gwen? Also awesome, better chemistry in the romance, and she proves to be more than some Damsel In Distress. Sadly though, going by Gwen's fate in the comics...It probably won't end well.
The film does have problems though. The sub-plot with the mugger is never resolved, nor is the issue with Peter's parents and what killed them. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt though and say these are things to be covered in the inevitable sequel.
My biggest gripe with this reboot though? No J.Jonah Jameson! He was easily the best thing about the old trilogy!