It's Good but Not "Amazing"

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2014)

Marc Webb's follow up to his rebooted Spider-Man franchise still leaves much to be desired but remains a worthy installment.
The film originates with a confused Peter Parker (Garfield) struggling with the morality of what is best to do for Gwen Stacey (Stone). Eventually deciding to stick to his promise to her deceased father (Denis Leary) of keeping her out of his business, he is soon thrust a further set of challenges when his sudden new best friend Harry Osborn (DeHaan) reveals he needs Spider-Man's blood to save his life, Jamie Foxx reeks havoc as the villainous Electro while trying to piece together his father's past.
While I commend Webb for trying, his efforts to strand all these plot points together hinders the film more than it helps. It's comparable to trying to cram twenty DVD's into a stack which hold 19, it just doesn't fit, unless you cut parts off the other DVD's to make space. This is exactly what Webb does. If you have viewed the trailers, you will realise already that many scenes did not make the final film due to the scenes being removed; this is most probably due to time restrictions on the duration. However, rather than delivering a complex and engaging story-line, Webb leaves us with numerous unfinished - some rather basic - plots and sub plots.
Expanding briefly on this point, I would like to commend Dane DeHaan's performance. An excellent young actor for sure, his lines and performance throughout gave his scenes gravitas, and were the engaging. In interviews prior to the release, he stated he "doesn't think I'll ever have a character that has this big of an arc (again)" and that Harry is "completely different" from at the beginning to what he is at the end. This is true however that character arc to me felt very rushed and not very complex at all; judging by the edited out scenes I'm guessing there was a beefier run through of his transformation which unfortunately as viewers, we were unable to witness.
Instead, Webb focuses on his hit-and-miss villain "Electro", the touching relationship between Stone and Garfield (on the screen, although maybe off also) as well as the dreary recollection of Richard Parker's past.
Let's begin with "Electro". To me, his inclusion feels like a CGI prop to be perfectly honest, for the most part, while Jamie Foxx doesn't really feel suited to the role of this flying electric ball (this is from someone who thinks he's a great actor, and loved 'Django').
The romantic scenes - as you may expect - are done remarkably well by Webb with his experience under the helm of '(300) Days of Summer' playing a key factor here. He also chose the cast for Peter and Gwen with great precision as the chemistry is clear for all to see. Both these factors deserve commending.
The sub slot however of his father and his dealings with Norman Osborn feels half baked. A James Bond style opening is followed by a rather uninteresting reflection on what makes Richard Parker such a good man.
One final qualm is the action sequences which feel labored and never particularly engaging. Battles with Electro are just an overloaded CGI frenzy while the Paul Giamatti's eagerly anticipated Rhino makes an appearance for about two minutes (in costume). Equally irritating is DeHaan's appearance as the Goblin being very short and its fair to say his transformation leading up to that was hardly detailed on the final cut.
However, having focused on the criticisms, the majority of the cast were first class and the on-screen chemistry between Stone and Garfield was a lovely touch. DeHaan steals the show with his performance as Osborn (which fills the cracks about his character development ever so slightly) whilst most importantly, I can look to the next installment with optimism. Optimism stemming from a cliffhanger ending, more DeHaan and a host of possibilities for Garfield to forefront.