Spider-Man/Peter Parker - I said it before and I say it again, Andrew Garfield is a perfect live action representation of who Spider-Man is as a character. I enjoyed the montage of Peter's day to day life as Spider-Man was something I enjoyed(I think a lot of the people of the audience thought it was great as well), I like how Mark captured his casual day to day life perfectly but I do wish we saw more of Andrew and Emma interacting with more students on screen because it seemed like Emma had her own little groups of friends and helping others(Midtown High School or Empire State University) or Peter interact with J Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle cast or Horizon Labs, hopefully in future moments. I like how they handled Peter's dealing with Uncle Ben in the first movie, but they should have had Peter talk about it a little more without it feeling like Aunt May was the only one who cares, I like that they had Peter guilt about 3 important people in his life for different reasons, but yeah it felt weird that Peter didn't discuss about how he felt about Ben's death and where he was in searching for the killer. He has to deal with the guilt although I understand I was afraid that they would do a disservice Peter's intelligence and make Gwen the brains and Peter dumb but it was pretty decent handling of his intelligence (return of the electronic lock, the you tube was kind of weird but I like him trying to rework his webbing and trying different methods but mad it took Gwen using 8th grade science to help, him trying different ways to protect the webbing from electricity although I enjoyed figuring out how to take down Electro and take charge on using the power plants in order to overload him which Gwen show she was useful and knows herself but I do think showing him create webbing of his own based on his dad's research and making modifications on it or trying to create things like spider tracers and spider signal and figuring out how it can help him out as Spider-Man) but I wish they did more with it and I do think they should and I enjoyed the second in his. He is one of my favorite comic book superhero actors and is interesting on his own way. You can feel he put his all as Spider-Man and almost the same as Peter, maybe you can have a little clueless when he was crossing the street but I like him being a more confident character as Peter while still being slightly awkward. I enjoyed Andrew's portrayal of the first Amazing Spider-Man movie, but this is definitely leagues ahead of that and felt like a live action version of two of my favorite animated Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Neil Patrick Harris and Josh Keaton and a live action representation of the Spider-Man in the comics JMS, Brian Michael Bendis, Dan Slott, Mark Waid, among other modern writers as well as Stan Lee wrote. The audience was really enjoying him and I did too.
Gwen - people complained that Gwen's character arc was kind of different that how the comics. I think while Gwen in the first movie helping Spider-Man out and being a smart character and some of who she is as a character in little scenes like the bleacher scene and cleaning up Peter's wounds she was just ultimately an extension of Peter's character they actually gave her more motivation and things to do in this movie which helps she does her own things, have her own group of friends and interests, etc. but to be fair although it is unfaithful to the original comics handled Gwen's death, it is faithful to Emma Stone Gwen's character Peter was debating whether to keep her in his life or not (while it did seem kind of annoying at times it's worked to me). She was someone who thought of helping Peter out first before even worried about her own risk, even in the first movie so it doesn't make sense or is fair to complain how Gwen despite her dad or Spider-Man wanted to keep her safe, the audience didn't seem confused on how she died, but it worked and it got an effect. In this regard I would say she is very similar to Ultimate MJ who did the same things to help Spider-Man a few things, I thought Gwen is a combination of a few versions of Gwen Stacy and Ultimate MJ.
It was crushing to see Peter having to look at the Stacy family and how they are destroyed by the lost that he couldn't even go up to them. Emma and Andrew was the best part of this movie hands down. From the scene where the death actually happen until the Harry and Gustav Fiers scene, the whole audience were deathly quiet the moment it happened, I think we all did one collective gasp before it got silence. I even had to hold in coughs. I thought it also showed how he couldn't even go to comfort the Stacy family but stayed at the Gwen's cemetery which helped and a nice touch. I wished they kept the aftermath of the Goblin/Spidey fight before they arrest Harry. I don't think it was totally unfaithful to the storyline or even the moment itself, I think if Mark Webb did one thing right it was death scene because the quickness and shock of it, with Andrew trying to convince himself she was okay, before begging her to be alright. It might have or might not have worked if Spider-Man was more cocky about he is a hero because the reaction of the audience in my theater alone it worked in the long run. He wants to keep Gwen in his life, but he feels guilt for breaking the promise which tears him apart before denies. It was a memorable death in the comics because no one expected it. After many of tributes and recreations in various forms of media(three time in the nineties cartoon, Raimi film and the Ultimate Spider-Man comics among other with either Gwen or MJ) this CANNOT be done in a movie now because ever since they included Gwen in the first movie of this series fans have been constantly writing articles and making videos stating that not only does Gwen Stacy die in the original Spider-Man story but that she must die in this movie series. This went even as far as asking the filmmakers directly about it. It was repeated so many times that people who were not familiar with the comics suddenly became aware about this in regards to Gwen. You can't make something a surprise when fans have been posting the spoilers of her fate since even before the first movie premiered.
As for Peter having no part in this event, Peter was the one that wrote the "I Love You" message to Gwen on the bridge and scooped her up so that he can be with her AFTER she was the one who left a message to him telling him she is leaving him. This is why Gwen followed Peter because Peter went out of his way to get her back. Had Peter let Gwen leave to England then she would've still been alive, or let her go at the beginning maybe she would have lived. This is probably what the third movie will deal with like how this movie dealt with Peter facing the guilt of George Stacy's promise. They made they made "time" a big theme in the movie. The time people spend together, the choices they make of what to do with their time. I think they connected everything very well: Richard Parker's watch, Gwen Stacy's speech about time and in the end, when Spider-Man was literally fighting against time (the watch that cut the web, resulting in Gwen's death). She probably would have still been alive if Peter just sent her a text to hope she can find happiness in England. Peter felt guilt for just letting Gwen get on with her advice. May and Gwen in her valedictorian speech wanted Peter to live life to the fullest and not let death keep you from living, just incorporate it into your life. It worked in the context of the movie.
Aunt May - I only have three favorite types of Aunt May: Ultimate/ Brian Michael Bendis Aunt May(the younger tough mother figure who doesn't play and always worried about Peter but at the same time has soft caring mother figure and has a job of her own and be her own character instead of just being a doting overprotective mother figure and felt like she can hold her own like shooting Electro in Death of Spider-Man or threatening Eddie Brock jr in War of the Symbiotes), TSSM Aunt(A perfect meld of Ultimate, 616 or the Raimi films) and JMS Aunt May and Sally Field's interpretation reminded me of those three in a lot of ways. Sally Field brought a new life to Aunt May. I like how she gave a lesson without resorting to monologue/speeches when trying to get Peter out of his funk like the last scene between Peter and May where she says simply saying "The heavier the box got, the lighter I felt" before he watches Gwen's graduation speech, I enjoyed her trying to help out around the hospital(I thought there would be a scene of her scolding someone and putting him or her in their place acting up in the hospital and I would have honestly enjoyed that). Sally Field might be my favorite actresses to ever portray May Parker. Her scenes with were always a joy to watch and her interactions with Peter was fun (laundry sheriff, the chimney scene, not wanting to reveal the truth about Peter's parents but Peter comforting her telling her she's his everything, etc) . I like the little twist of her trying to hide the fact that she was taking nursing classes in fear for fragile Peter. I do think we should have had a Uncle Ben Flashback on Peter's part. She felt like she did more to do than the previous movie and felt more fleshed out in this movie as well which is a huge plus to me.
Electro - Visually he was exciting to watch in, power wise he is probably the most dangerous and powerful out of all 9 of the villains in the Spider-Man films and I'm glad that we got to see them use the Ultimate look instead of the 616 look in this case because of half of the things he did like when he was reacting to Kafka's experimentation or when he was angry or charging up (Sad they cut out parts of the time square in the Power Plant scene but they must have been brutal), easily beating out Sandman. But the worst part of Electro is his character arc which was seriously lacking and some dialogue which I guess post transformation is faithful to comic Electro, I saw some people in the audience just laughing at some of Max's scene(I couldn't tell if they liked it not) but that scene where he imagined himself grabbing Alistair Smythe shocked some of the people(I heard a couple of gasps) including me and two friends I was with. Jamie Foxx as Electro, though it a different story. I liked seeing the ramifications of Electro's actions but I wish we got more stronger explanations to things like when planes were about to crash and May at the hospital. I can see where some of the complaints come from. Compared to some of the Raimi villains and even Lizard in the final draft, he is way more simpler in character arc and motivation, He might definitely be a darker Jim Carrey Riddler but not as far to be considered as campy as Freeze, Two Face or Personality but he was definitely more interesting in personality than say Red Skull or Ivan Vanko. But in terms of motivations, it was simple: He wanted attention, he was obsessed, craving for attention because he felt inferior due to how some-most people treated him as Max Dillon, Oscorp passed him by and kind of treated him like dirt,even when Donald Menken and Oscorp guards were talking about his accident. Spider-Man from what I could tell was the first person who give him any kind of positive attention so he thought the world of him and then he took it to obsessive extremes(I have seen and heard people who went through similar things, and my friends joked that Max was a more obsessive version of a friend we knew), When Gwen said goodbye to him, he fawned over her as well, snapping when his picture was replaced by Spidey (muttering that Spider-Man was so selfish) and people were booing him and calling him a freak,. He only decided to help Harry when he begged him and said he needed him and gave him access to knowing the Oscorp power plants which he created but never got the credit for and also then. If he wasn't played as campy and they fleshed out his insecurities and inferiority complex more, at least fleshed it out and explain his containment suit he stole from a Ravencroft guard and how it works and how he redesigned him and he said more in dialogue when he was sharing time with Harry, He's a man who wants to be recognized and treated with respect and or fear and he did a classic Electro plot to get it. These three quotes quote Max Dillon said to Magneto in perfectly shows Electro's motivation and character(the first from Tom DeFalco's Spider-Man The Ultimate Guide,the later two from Fred Van Lente Web of Spider-Man#2) :
But though he wears a flashy costume and wields a power that should make him virtually invincible, Electro has always had a bit of an inferiority complex. She told When Max informed that he wanted to be an electrical engineer, she convinced him that he didn't have the intelligence for such a career. In the end, he settled for a job as a lineman with the electric company. But though Raised by an overprotective mother, Mac Dillon gained new confidence as well as power on the day a fluke lightning bolt transformed him into Electro.
"My moron ex-supervisors will never catch me siphoning this much power away from the grid. Better than drugs. better than sex. This is what being born must feel like. and to think they called me mad at Atlantic Gas and Electric. Oh, wait. Actually, they called me the best damn lineman that ever lived. and pretty soon...they 'll call me god."
(to Magneto) "What? You think you can control me? Huh? That's it? Let me tell you something bullet-head: my whole damn life nobody ever missed a chance to make me feel small. But that lightning strike? That was karma, baby. That was somebody upstairs saying I don't have to take other people's garbage anymore! Now they jump when I talk! and that's all that means! you hear me?"
Would it have worked more if Max Dillon was more of a straightforward slightly arrogant man with mental issues like the original comics or MTV Cartoon instead of a Jim Carrey Edward Nygma type Max Dillon, or we see a flashback with his overbearing mom not thinking he's intelligent enough to be an electrical engineer or a phone call with her forgetting his birthday, more scenes of Alistair Smythe or Donald Menken and other people ignoring him or using him(it would have been great for Max to imagine them in the Time Square crowd or imagine them as Spider-Man or Max pre transformation making fun of him which makes him snaps) and tie it in with his mental breakdown/deterioration as he turns into Electro(I might have kept at least the tooth gap and maybe the glasses but nothing more as Max before the transformation and show how it affected him after) and try to flesh out the character out more. But it was pretty faithful to Electro's motivations and characterization in the comics and the Party of the MTV Series although it wasn't as fleshed out (we're talking about a guy in the comics who gathering other outcasts and misfits into a group known as "Power To The People", which targets right-wing newspaper baron Dexter Bennett and the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of the 2008 Financial Crisis in order to find a way to restore his powers to a controllable level,also tried to take over New York City's power supply in an attempt at glory and respect, tried to recreate a previous breakout in freeing all the prisoners because of what some criminals at a bar told him that he isn't important any more but ended up killing most of them and blaming it on the Superior spider-Man experimenting on him) . But if someone can clear it up, he got his name Electro from a random bystander in the Time Square scene.
Richard Parker's storyline/Oscorp conspiracy - It's basically what happened in Ultimate Venom arc with a little 616 sprinkled in, only instead of the venom symbiote being only able to work for specific people, it's the radioactive/genetically engineered/genetically mutated spider that bit Pete. while Richard Parker is branded as a terrorist and traitor. I thought it was an interesting combination and I enjoyed it remember when Mark said that the spark hitting the spider in the first movie bit had a more powerful effect on the spider,they should have talk about that in this movie. I like the radioactive isotope nod, I wish it was a little more complex procedures in trying to make sure the spiders won't work for anyone else and the other cross species created and why they were used. But it does show how Norman Osborn is so powerful and manipulative to get whatever he wants, he doesn't care about who's life he ruins in order to get his wishes. I wish they did. I enjoyed the storyline for the most part
