Okay. I'm gonna attempt to spin the web of my opinions on this film. It's a big one for me because the first ASM film was the reason I joined this board in 2012. And my excitement for the Spidey Cinematic Universe has ramped up every day since.
I went into the film knowing Gwen was to die. I spoiled that for myself and while I felt that it was unfortunate (because I wanted her to last until ASM3 due to the Stone/Garfield chemistry, my love for the character and my desire for decompression in this series) I was willing to accept it and had no negative feelings toward the movie before seeing it. Nor while seeing it for that matter.
Might as well start at the end and work my way back. I loved the death scene I thought the end of the film was just non-stop full throttle emotion. Electro battle scene was awesome, it was great that Gwen made her choice and wanted to help. I think Dehaan's Goblin character was great. His acting is phenomenal. But I don't love that he's the goblin. Especially if Norman is truly dead for good.
Which brings me to the major reasons I'm torn with this film. It is a good film. Right?
I mean, the acting is great. Garfield, Stone, Field, Foxx, Dehaan, Giamatti, Cooper, even Feore, Novak, Jones and Csokas were a pleasure to watch. No problems there.
The directing, everything from action scenes, love scenes, death scenes, everything was fantastic. Spider-Man has never looked more like Spider-Man. I didnt cry but I came close and that's saying something. I love Webb. 500 days of summer and the first ASM were personal favorites. He seems to get my generation.
The music is also freaking phenomenal. The soundtrack (just like ASM1) is really cool, dare I say it "hip." And what Pharell and Zimmer did with he score is perfect.
The story is also just fine. It's more engaging to me than Raimi's and please don't take this as me insulting Raimi, those movies are good for what they are. To me the two films have been cohesive and I'm excited to see what comes next.
So what is wrong with this film?? And why am I forced to give not only this film an 8/10 but drop my score of the first film to 8/10? I almost want to blame the marketing. The marketing for the first film was also terrible. Advertising scenes that didn't exist, lines of dialogue that didnt appear in the film and spoiling the mid credits scene in the trailers! Unforgivable! Yet I forgave it for 2 years. And now they did it all over again! They teased Gwen's death WAY too profusely. They truly spoiled the appearance of Goblin even though he should have been a surprise. Why do this? Who benefits from any of this?
I almost want to blame Sony or Avi Arad for stuffing so many villains in again when it worked SO well with Spider-Man 3. Utter stupidity. Although I didn't even have a huge problem with it in this film. It's just so unnecessary. Make Electro THE antagonist. He's a good enough villain for it.
IDK. I gotta keep on thinking it over. I like the film. I had a blast seeing it. It's still in the top two Spider-Man films in my eyes (TASM1 probably has the edge over this one).