Maudlin, Not Up to Par

Rating: 6/10 (4 May 2007)

Mild Spoilers but not for anyone familiar with comics: While the fight scenes are fantastic and the special effects flawless, this film---which shows moments of promise---fails because of its triteness and excessive absurdity. Anyone who goes to a spider-man film expects the impossible to happen---but not in a manner so ridiculous and incongruous. Men do not just happen upon de-molecularizer rays in the middle of the New York suburbs. Bank robbers are generally not motivated by the need to find a cure for their child (who still seems alive and well enough in the film).
The ridiculous (not just improbable) incidents hurt this film. However, it is the trite appeals to sentimentality that damn it. The film begins on a childishly happy note, and just when one thinks that an interesting moral dilemma is about to appear---one that says something to adults---the film falls back into trite maxims.
See the film if you want to enjoy some action but don't expect it to live up to the earlier one's. This is, most certainly, a kid's film---unlike the others which had something to say to adults as well.