I'm just home from seeing it. I went into this movie with a huge open mind wanting to love it with all my heart. First of all I start with the positives:
- Andrew Garfield was much more likable in this as Peter. It was great to see him actually feel guilt at breaking the promise to Captain Stacy. It irked me at the end of TASM 1 how he smiled and quipped that breaking that promise is the most fun to break. Here we got to see Peter conflicted over that. His chemistry with Emma Stone was impeccable. His Spider-Man had better humor in this one, although some of the one liners were really cheesy and unfunny, but overall they worked mostly. Spider-Man himself had a great hero vibe. There's a really heart warming scene with a nerdy Science kid he saves from some bullies.
- Emma Stone. She is Gwen Stacy. I cannot fault anything about Emma. Not a single thing. She was a joy to watch in every scene and provided a huge emotional anchor for the movie. Perfection. Best Spidey love interest of the movies by far.
- The action. Webb stepped up his game in the action department. When the action gets going it looks fantastic. Some beautiful visuals.
- The Spidey costume was GORGEOUS. What a huge step up from the previous movie's one. Spidey was a visual delight in that new suit.
- Sally Field as Aunt May. Although she is used very sparingly, she's solid in all of her scenes. Her and Peter have one wonderful scene in particular in Peter's room. I'll say no more on that one but it's a great scene.
- [BLACKOUT]Gwen's death scene. Masterfully done. Heart wrenching.[/BLACKOUT]
- The resolution of Peter's parents. Glad to see that one wrapped up, and done well.
- [BLACKOUT]Gustav Fiers. Anyone who reads the Sinister Six novels knows who I'm talking about.[/BLACKOUT]
The negatives:
- Electro. A weak villain through and through. Max Dillon is a cheesy caricature of a character. He talks to himself in the most cheesy fashion. The scene in his apartment is painful to watch. He's singing Happy Birthday to himself just before he has his Electro accident. Awful. When he becomes Electro he is barely used, and his motivation is pathetic and too paper thin. He is not menacing. He is not bad ass. He just comes off as an attention seeking loser trying to show off his electric powers and [blackout]ultimately becomes Harry's lackey[/blackout].
- The Harry and Peter friendship. Too brief to make me care. They share two scenes together before Harry goes psycho. Not nearly enough to make you feel the emotional punch you should feel when best friends become enemies.
- The Goblin. Almost as much screen time as Rhino. [BLACKOUT]He literally comes in, rants at Spidey for a minute before he grabs Gwen. Spidey and Goblin fight for like a minute before Harry is defeated. The only positive is he lives and is being set up for the Sinister Six spin off.[/BLACKOUT] DeHaan gives a good performance as dark Harry, but there's more to Harry than just being dark and intense. Webb's Harry is very limited. The only time we get a glimpse of Harry's nice side is in the one scene with Peter where they go for a stroll and have a chat. As the Goblin he was not scary, he was not creepy. He was over acted by DeHaan. Again the Goblin is barely in it, guys. I'm talking like 5 minutes screen time. All one scene.
- Not enough fight scenes. We have three villains in this. And we get two fight scenes. Both in the finale. One with Electro and one with Goblin. The Electro one was really well done, and I loved it. Goblin's was too brief. Those of you expecting a fight scene in the Times Square scene with Electro will be bitterly disappointed. It's [BLACKOUT]literally a scene where Electro charges up, Spidey tries to talk him down, Electro flips out and starts zapping stuff, and Spidey takes him down with a fire hose.[/BLACKOUT] The worst part of this scene is they play some kind of RAP SONG. I am not kidding. I thought I was hearing things. It was a rap like song with lyrics about hating Spider-Man. Bloody awful!
- Rhino. I don't know if it was intentional but Aleksi was the most OTT character ever to appear in a Spidey movie. Paul Giamatti is walking ham in this. If his role was bigger I'd say he deserved a Razzie. It was so corny. His dialogue is woeful. When he appears in his Rhino suit we don't get to see him do anything cool with it [blackout]besides shoot at the Cops, before Spidey shows up. Rhino charges at Spidey the movie ends[/blackout].
- Dr. Kafka. Think of the most cliche OTT German doctor. That's Dr. Kafka in this.
The villains all fall short big time. They are under developed, short changed screen time wise, and in Electro and Rhino's case they are both too cheesy for my tastes. Webb's weakest element in these movies is how he handles the villains. Lizard, Goblin, Electro, Rhino....none of them come up to scratch. Like I said the only possible saving grace is some of them may appear again in the Sinister Six spin off. But what we've had so far has not impressed me. All of them are played by competent great actors. It's the material and direction that lets them down, not the talent. They're not lacking in that.
Overall I give the movie a 6/10, and that's mainly for Peter and Gwen, which is essentially what the movie is about. Everything else is under developed sub plots that get little look in. Because Andrew and Emma were so good in this, and basically the movie is about their relationship predominantly, that saves the movie. I really get what all those reviews were saying when they said that. They are the saving grace of the movie.
