Always along for the ride

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2014)

Keeping New York safe is no easy task, and with Gwen(Stone, sweet and her own person) possibly on a different path than him with an Oxford scholarship, Peter(Garfield, a lovable, quipping nerd that we can relate to) faces possibly losing her, in spite of how much they love each other, and this continued strong romance keeps us engaged. Worse still, as much as he desperately wants to fix everything, keep everyone safe, not everything will work out that well – there is tragedy in the air. This takes the form of the return after a decade of his troubled childhood friend, Harry Osborn(DeHaan, lost between a psychotic determination and a charming accessibility, doing justice to both), and the deadly new face, Electro(Foxx, obsessed fan turned dangerous villain, compelling as both, and largely sympathetic).
Boring origin retread out of the way, this can go into the nature of our protagonist, and deliver on the sad, "chin-up" aspect of him. This is the Spider-Man I grew up reading. The best aspects of this are the drama and character dynamics. Real people with actual problems that don't have easy solutions. There are troubles from the attempts to Avengers this franchise, with a lot of setup for the Sinister Six to appear down the line. Do not get me started on the disappointing reveal to the conspiracy/mystery parents plot, which should have been resolved in the first, not to mention never introduced in the first place. This adds up to too much going on, taking away time for the better elements. We get a fast pace that both helps and hurts the whole.
Production is, indeed, amazing. Truly captivating is the musical theme, synthesize-voice-enhancement and chilling look of our genuinely lethal electric baddie. Swooping, intense and fun action keeps us entertained throughout, and the 3D is fantastic for it – even if it is the only place that visual effect is applied. The tonal shifts can almost lead to whiplash. Humor is great, with ad-libbed dialog, tons of small gags, none of it forced.
There is some violence and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fan of everyone's favorite web-slinger. 8/10