The Not So-Amazing Spiderman Movie...

Rating: 5/10 (17 April 2014)

I felt something was off from the moment I laid eyes on the first trailer for this movie.
And here's the gist of it: Whatever bad impressions you got from the movie based on the promotional material, I'm sad to say that all the negative impressions came true in this 2 hour action flick.
What's wrong with it? Plenty. TAS tried to imitate The Dark Knight and it did OK. This one, however tries to take the same approach: One main antagonist that spawns another major antagonist, but everything here reeks of Spiderman 3.
But these villains are simply all setup with next to no payoff. Jaime Foxx's character is billed as one of the central antagonists, but really nothing more than a hired muscle with a motivation that would make even Joel Schumacher cringe. He also wears an outfit that feels like a rejected Fantastic Four costume. Harry Obsborn at the beginning has some promise but ultimately he's barely a presence in the movie. He's Two-Face, if he were written by The Farelly Brothers instead of Jonathan Nolan.
Oh and that amazing revelation 'bout Peter's parents and their tragic "accident"? All this setup (with a fairly impressive opening scene) for a 3-minute grainy Youtube video in which Pete's Dad gives us some exposition that can summed up in "Oscorp is evil". Thank you, I wasn't aware of that.
Romance is still awkward, the actress who plays Aunt May seems to have forgotten how to act.
You can argue that TAS did too much in trying to expand upon Peter Parker's life, Ben's death and the hunt for said killer and all that. But the sequel on the other hand seems to think that "less is more", when really it feels like "stuff just happens".
Since when did Spidey develop Jedi-like evil sensing powers? Why does Pete only see Captain Stacey when the plot demands it? Why are the police and firefighters more than willing to let Spidey call the shots since he is still technically a vigilante? Was Gwen fired from Oscorp? And if not, did they pretend she didn't exist after she walked out of the building? They were keeping tabs on Harry hanging out with Peter and the electric guy that nobody gave a flying hoot about and nothing was done to the one random employee that happened to search for Max Dillon's name? Oh and Harry doesn't get killed yet because he knows his way out? How does that work? Is Peter in colleague yet? 'Cause it's a little hard to tell, since he's either fighting crime or making a meager wage sending photos to the Daily Buggle. How come a genius like Peter doesn't know 8th grade science? How does a damaged webshooter work to magically save a whole lot of people from being shocked? Who is Mr. Friers? And does Harry get back to normal?
So much stuff that doesn't work...