"Not the treatment our friendly neighborhood Spidey deserves."

Rating: 6/10 (1 May 2014)

High-octane action sequences and mind-blowing fight scenes were not enough to save the day from loosely presented content and clumsy story. At first, I was pretty excited to experience the new Spidey movie which was creating a lot of buzz. After all the trailers indicating 3 overwhelming Super-villains in one movie and announcements like "HIS GREATEST BATTLE BEGINS", I was quite sure that they must have learnt from the shortcomings of the previous installment and right choices will be taken for creating a better sequel. BUT, I was WRONG. This movie moves away from the being called a Superhero movie. With all the right content in the basket to make a superb 142 min blockbuster, the movie fails to pull the right chord and falls straight in the category of average. The 142 min run-time felt stretched and slow at times as the story presents emotional melodrama most of the time rather than putting other important and relevant stuff. A movie which had a potential to be the best Spidey movie till date but in the end it turns out to be a wasted opportunity.
Would like to mention some positives after all that rage outburst:
The 3D is really Awesome. The chemistry between Gwen and Peter. Spiderman feels fantastic. The best on-screen Spidey display till date. And last but not the least, the only part true to the word amazing were the breathtaking action sequences and fight scenes. Superb, fantastic and mind-blowing. Especially, the electro-soundtrack combo was too good. Really liked that concept. And that's it.
Now lets look at the lots and loads of shortcomings: > It's a Superhero movie, Not a Chick Flick - How about putting some more time in developing the Super-Villains with story and character rather than keeping them on standby. > Creating the tense hero-villain relation which spreads the sense of threat and calls for Superhero treatment. Even this core stuff is seriously missing. > Peter Parker is a boy who tries to balance Spidey responsibilities and life as a normal guy. One who cannot hold on to a regular job, is short of cash, gets exploited at Daily Bugle by J. Jonah Jameson and lots of other troubles. That boy was nowhere to be found. > The Super-villain Trio - Electro, Green Goblin and Rhino was completely wasted. > Electro as the main antagonist is seriously wasted. His story and character development falls short and heavily underdeveloped. > Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn/ Green Goblin felt like one of the things done right in this movie. But the screen-time and space, which a villain like Green Goblin deserves is messed up. > Rhino is nothing more than a cameo. Simply putting, I didn't feel that sense of threat from Super-villains which is at core of any Superhero movie.
When it got over, I was blank and disappointed. Tried to gather my thoughts and felt that lots of things were pushed and tried to fit in a single movie. But the effort to tie them together failed miserably due to over-emphasis on the emotions part taking away the space from more important and relevant stuff. One more thing which I would like to mention was the kid scene towards the end - the only emotion which was genuinely felt. Want to focus on emotions, bring more like this one instead of going for melodramatic ones. Was this made just to set table for the next one?? Was this a remake tried making a bold move to make a difference. Well if yes, it Does Not.
Verdict: This one was better than the sequel but still disappointing. Feels like a rushed movie which tries to aim lots of targets with a single bullet but fails big time due to heavy overdose of Peter and Gwen Melodrama. I went to see a superhero movie, not a chick flick running around action sequences and wasted super-villains. This is not the Spider-Man movie fans deserve. A one-time watch which will fade from the memories soon.