I didn't go in to this with the highest expectations, but the 2012 Spider-Man reboot was an excellent film, and I was hoping the sequel would keep that up. It's unfortunate, then, that this film is a bit of a mess.
Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) saved the world in the previous movie, but he's concerned about his relationship with his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Meanwhile, he saves Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) from a criminal, which leads to the rather unstable Dillon forming a bit of an obsession with Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) is suffering from a fatal disease passed down from his father and is looking for a cure. Meanwhile, Peter is coming to terms with his parents leaving.
You see the problem here? It's a bit of a mess. This film has a minimum of three main plots, with a fourth coming in later. When they finally converge, it's less than clean, and serves to create a bloated, rather unfocused narrative, and the film suffers for it. Each of the different plots is intriguing on its own, but each one would have been better suited to its own film instead of being crammed in to this sloppy package.
Garfield and Stone have wonderful chemistry, and between their performances and the script Peter and Gwen make for a great couple. Their plight is intriguing on its own, and if focused on it could have made for a very interesting drama. That makes it unfortunate that it shares the running time with two other plots. Of course, Harry's plight would itself make for interesting drama, though the direction they take it in reeks of wasted potential. Meanwhile, Dillon's subplot is easily the weakest, but it'd still make for an entertaining superhero film... if only it was focused on.
The action is arguably the film's high point, including gorgeous effects and great spectacle. Each of the action scenes is well-choreographed, well-filmed, and most importantly very exciting. The 3D adds a subtle stereoscopic effect that just makes the film look that much better. The added depth serves to add a new dimension to the effects, which serves to improve them quite a bit. In addition, the first film's humour is still there, with Spider-Man spouting wise-cracks left and right. These quips are frequently very funny. However, some other characters try to give one-liners and quips as well, and these tend to fall flat.
The first film's greatest strength was indeed the characterization of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, and that's indeed still in place. It's unfortunate that they're buried under the cast, which consists of more characters than the film needed. There isn't a single subplot with less than three characters, and that just serves to spread the film's focus to the point where it might as well not exist.
There's a lot of good here. The film has far too many flashes of brilliance and good qualities to completely dismiss, but the messy script hurts it far too much to make it any more than slightly above average. Given the quality of the first film, that comes as a resounding disappointment.
6/10
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