I was never into Marvel comics as a kid. I didn't particularly like the Tobey Maguire Spider- Man films either. I disliked the first Andrew Garfield Spider-Man film so much I still haven't bothered seeing the second.

But Marvel Studios (now owned by Disney) have been doing it right. Since Iron Man I've enjoyed every MCU film that's been released, pretty much. Granted the Iron Man sequels were flawed, and the first Captain America film meandered a bit, but on the whole I've enjoyed them all.

Except this one.

Maybe it was built up too much for me - everybody was raving about it - but I just didn't get the appeal. Couple of good moments... but I found James Gunn's script so irritatingly weak - like a first draft with the gags put in as placeholders until better ones could be written. And so much ham-fisted talk about teamwork and overcoming adversity, topics which have been tackled so much less clumsily in the two Avengers films.

Perhaps the aim was for this one to be a little more obviously child-friendly (it is a 12A after all). Even so, child-friendly doesn't have to be dumbed down. Maybe I'm getting too old for all this nonsense.

On the plus side, the fact this one was such a huge hit was a nice two-fingers-up to Sony, who still can't capture the world's imagination with one the most famous superheroes of all time. Spider-Man gets right on my wick.

Verdict: I thought it was crap, but what do I know?

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