Bigger, louder, longer. Better?

Rating: 7/10 (18 April 2014)

After copping criticism for having a weak villain in the first movie, this sequel offers up three baddies to make Spidey's life hell and in the process sums up exactly what this follow up is aiming for: more, more and more. The teen angst is amped up to 11, the romantic pulling and pushing is nonstop and the threats against downtown Manhattan have tripled. Often when bigger and/or louder is the major goal of a movie it doesn't work out so great (see Transformers 2), yet returning director Marc Webb (no joke) handles the increased excess relatively well. The CGI-laden set pieces are, umm, electric and the fights are choreographed with panache, however the screenplay doesn't hold up quite as well. Straining under the influence of four different scribes and a rushed deadline, the plot is tonally muddled and chocked with clichés whilst the dialogue is not as witty and, with the banter between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey especially, less authentic. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone's sparky chemistry remains and Dane DeHaan and Jamie Foxx bring their A-game as Harry Osborn/Green Goblin and Max Dillon/Electro respectively, but Paul Giamatti, Felicity Jones and Chris Cooper are all criminally underused. There's a hugely impactful and ballsy plot turn near the end, which would've been a fantastic note to finish on, however its effect is diminished with a bizarre coda that serves no purpose other than to set up the series' next part. Too long and with flaws aplenty, Rise of Electro is nevertheless exciting and humorous in it's own bombastic kind of way.