Offering Peter Parker some emotional conflict isn't a bad idea, but this sequel gets bogged down in melodrama resulting in a slightly unfocused plot and an underused villain

Rating: 6/10 (22 July 2017)

Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is still trying to win the heart of Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). Also on the verge of being kicked out of college, he seizes the opportunity to redeem himself by researching brilliant scientist Dr Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina). However, when Octavius' own fusion reactor experiment goes horribly wrong, Parker goes from researching Octavius to trying to defeat him...
It was always going to be hard to top the original film what with its charming origin story and Parker's nerdy awkward chemistry with Mary Jane Watson which automatically endeared me towards Parker and Watson. The believable way that the romance was developed also helped to involve me in the first film. What a shame then that this sequel didn't quite deliver in the same manner..
Like the first film, this sequel shows a well-meaning scientist ending up being a victim of his own success and ending up with his personality being altered due to science. As a result of this, we have another mad scientist moving to the dark side with poor old Spider-man being the only person able to stop him. Whoaaaa!! Stop there, but this sounds good like the first film. Ermm... well yes it is up to this point, but it coughs and splutters somewhat from this point onwards...
Our villain then disappears for a while so that the middle part of the film can be consumed by melodrama and sappy happenings. Parker has an identity crisis in this sequel where he cannot decide whether he wants to be Spider-man or just the ordinary geek that he once was - this is all to win the heart of Mary Jane. This was a fairly interesting aspect of the story (and one that wasn't focused on in the first film), but it was a little over used and seemed to be a long exercise in explaining the obvious (i.e his love for Mary Jane). I've put this as a spoiler to cover myself, but jeez anyone who has seen the first film surely must have spotted this?? Once the overbearing melodrama is out of the way then the film starts to get back on track with Doctor Octopus and Osborn brokering a deal; Octopus wants the Trinium and Osborn wants Spider-Man dead until he learns who Spider-man is....
It's not as good as the first film, but it does still have plenty of plus points; JK Simmons once again chews the scenery like a mad man and is great fun to watch. Maguire and Dunst are both solid again and Molina does OK despite the fact that I still felt that he was underused.
Yep it falls short of the first film; it's not as fun to watch, not as charming and isn't as entertaining, but yet the emotional struggle with Parker, his love for Mary Jane and his superpowers made the narrative as a whole just about worthwhile. It's worth the effort, but in order to enjoy it you need to go in with the clichéd mind-set of it 'not being as good as the first film'