A fun film that kept me invested and left me satisfied at the end

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2014)

I have seen a lot of remarks about this movie. People just don't seem to like it that much. Personally, I thought it was fantastic. It was just as good as the Raimi films.
The characters were great, the action was great, the chemistry between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy was amazing (let's be honest, that's because they are dating in real life, so there isn't much acting required). Peter and Gwen spend much of the movie apart, because Gwen breaks up with Peter at the beginning because he keeps trying to distance himself from her because he is haunted by visions of her father, who he promised in the first film that he would stay away from Gwen to protect her. Gwen is planning on leaving for Oxford, which makes things harder for Peter in dealing with things
Jamie Foxx's Electro was awesome. I was worried that his character would suck, because in the comics, Electro isn't really that interesting of a character. I love how he's portrayed in this film. He's this lonely guy who has no one who seems to really notice or care about him, so when Spider-man (arguably the most famous person in the city in the film) notices him and calls him "Partner" and "My eyes and ears out here", Max feels pretty special. His motivation for attacking Spider-man comes from the fact that he feels Spider-man is selfish and is hogging all of the attention and spotlight Max feels he deserves. In some ways, that seems like a stupid reason to want someone dead. Okay, in a lot of ways. But Jamie Foxx pulls if off.
Dane Dehaan's Harry Osborn is introduced in this film, and watching his desperation to find a cure for the disease that killed his father and is killing him is interesting to watch. Because Dehaan pulls it off. You can feel his desperation, especially in the scene when he meets with Spider-man in his office. He believes Spider-man's blood can save him, but Spider-man refuses because he doesn't know what it would do to Harry. He's cautious because he saw what experimenting without proper testing did to Curt Conners in the first film.
After Harry is framed for having prisoners (including Max) experimented on at Ravencroft, Harry goes to Max for help. I love the reasoning Max had for actually helping Harry, a guy he had every right to want dead (head of Oscorp, Oscorp is who turned him into a freak), but when Harry tells him he's dying and that he needs Max, Max is willing to help. Because a guy who has no one feels pretty special when someone actually needs him. They break into Oscorp, and using the venom from the spiders (that bit Peter and made him Spider-man), becomes the Green Goblin. He puts on an armored suit his father designed to try to save himself, and the Goblin is complete.
Peter and Gwen team up to stop Electro at the power grid, and in the ensuing fight, Electro is overcharged and explodes. It plays it up like he's dead, but I don't see this version of Electro being done in by it. Harry shows up and deduces that Spider-man is Peter, which throws him into a rage. When Spider-man refused to help him, it meant Peter refused to help as well. So he grabs Gwen and drops her into the clock tower.
SPOILERS:
While holding off Harry, Peter is holding onto Gwen with a web-line, it breaks and he tries to catch her, he manages to snag her, but her neck breaks when her head hits the ground.
Andrew Garfield's acting in the scene where he cradle's Gwen's body was the best part of the film. It really made the scene work. People have argued that "character wise, Gwen's death made no sense", but I think they pulled it off.
The graveyard scene following it was great, it showed that Peter's free time over a period of several months was spent at Gwen's grave. He has given up being Spider-man. But after Aunt May tells him about putting things where they belong, Peter finally watches Gwen's graduation speech (which he missed because of Spider-man), and her words make him put on the mask and become Spider-man again.
The ending scene has Rhino finally making an appearance, and he is the first volunteer in Harry's group (which we all know is the Sinister Six). With no Spider-man around, Rhino feels pretty confident. A small boy dressed as Spider-man steps out to confront him, and the police are scared of trying to get him out of the way because Rhino might hit the kid when he shoots at them. Spider-man appears and tells the kid to take care of his mom, and the final shot has Spider-man in mid-attack. Many people have argued against this ending, thinking that it leaves an unanswered question. Not true, we all know how it ends. Spidey wins, roll credits. The scene worked for me because it showed that now that he was back in action, Spider-man was going to keep fighting.
I recommend this movie. There are a lot of bad reviews for this film, but the good ones aren't seen as much. See the movie and form your own opinion. Personally, I enjoyed this more than most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films (especially Iron Man 3).