I have to agree... he served no purpose other then being a cg fest of cool visuals. Sandmans story didn't flow well with the rest of the movie.. and it was very easy to forget about him. They tried to make him meaningful, but it honestly took away from the film, the uncle ben arch was just annoying, and rehashing old ****... i know with the comics, were always saying "let gwen rest in piece dammit, stop rehashing her, yet the movies keep doing that with uncle ben, there was no reason to include that at all.. and there only reason for that was to A) give sandman a emotional connection to peter, and B) make the movies go full circle, but didn't harry's story do that? yes.. sandman was also suppose to be about redemption and peter forgiving him, but again.. wasn't that the same story with harry and peter? yup... and it was played out much more well done. Sandman was also suppose to be what started peters decent into darkness.. but without him, brock and harry would have been enough. He was just a rehashed idea over and over, and was a waste of screen time, which was needed to flesh out brock and gwen, brock wasn't interesting at all.. and you really don't feel for him, they made him come off as a little hot shot prick, who honestly was very pathetic, you don't feel for him even a little, especially in the church scene when he asks god to kill peter parker.. that was rubbish, and it should have been really powerful