Grade (D+)
This was too much of a boring, repetitive love story that took center stage over what is most important in comic-book films, the villains and the adventure.
Synopsis
To be honest who knows what the true story-line was in this one as there were so many things going on in this single script. The love story between Peter Parker (Garfield) & Gwen Stacy (Stone) took center stage. Harry Osborn (DeHaan) assumes control of Oscorp and immediately begins to focus his attention conveniently on obtaining Spider-Man’s blood.
While this is going on Parker is dealing with his Aunt and her life after losing Uncle Ben. Not to be forgotten is the sub-plot of Oscorp employee Max Dillon (Foxx) who has a personality like that of the lead character in “Cable Guy” who ends up having a tragic accident that transforms him into something inhuman.
My Opinion
I really enjoyed the first entry of the web-slinging superhero’s reboot and also felt Andrew Garfield was very capable in the lead role. The first film was an albeit similar, but refreshing take compared to the Tobey Maguire trilogy of the past decade. With a trailer that showcased potential in the aspect of new villains and a continuation of a decent story, I was highly anticipating this film. This self imposed hype, could have assisted in elevating my disappointment as the end-credits (finally) began to roll.
What was advertised as a nonstop comic-themed adventure turned in to a slow moving love story with heavily special-effects laden action-sequences merely thrown in due to public demand. There has been past films in the genre where a love story has taken precedence over the action and the result is not always disappointing. But in this film it completely killed the flow, and enjoyment of the overall experience.
The scenes between Garfield and Stone started with a (meet-cute) approach about their possible love, and moved on through several repetitious scenes with forced emotions and by the third-act they seemed like a couple of dumb teenagers who just needed to figure it out already.
It wasn’t the love story itself that killed this film but how it was written into the extremely messy plot. There were so many things going that the lack of focus killed the ability to connect to the story. Other then the dramatic element between Garfield and Stone, none of the other subplots really were able to get up off the ground, or even come close to completing their arc in the script.
The entire role of Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro seemed as tossed into the script as the Harry Osborn/Green Goblin arc did, by lacking substance and feeling too convenient. Also missing was the build-up of suspense between Spider-Man and his trademark enemies. Their appearances in the film were rushed and none had any depth in creation or motivation. It seemed as if the writers for this one have one word on their mind throughout the creative process, convenience.
In a comic-book film villains are a key to success, this one showcased a nice trio but after the film was finished I could not help but feel they were highly wasted. The action-sequences felt neatly placed into the choppy flow of the film. Some were fun to watch and the slow-motion effects added to the visual appeal of the scenes but were simple neat, with any real impact.
It just wasn’t enough to carry my enjoyment through the two plus hour run-time. I was just left feeling like there could have been much more organization and editing done to this script that ultimately would have made it a strong sequel and not the false advertised film it turned out to be.
In the end it’s a shame the film turned out the way it did. The special-effects were great at-times (although overused), the look and design of Electro and the Green Goblin were also very good in my opinion. The largest hindrance to this film was the writing, from the story down to the dialogue. There were too many forced lines, forced moments and with a film that had so much to offer, the sporadic flow of the story-line had me completely detached.