My favorite Spider-Man movie so far!

Rating: 8/10 (13 May 2014)

People who criticize this movie either can't move on from Raimi's trilogy or just wanted to see a regular action flick which happens to feature a superhero. Everyone else should love this, for so many reasons.
I have seen many complaints regarding the amount of time that was spent developing the Peter-Gwen relationship. I found that to be the strongest point of the movie (same as it was for TASM1), mainly because of their surreal chemistry. Emma Stone is adorable, they're a sweet couple (this is coming from a guy, OK?). I have never watched a superhero movie where the "regular guy" scenes were just as (if not even more) interesting to me than the "superhero" scenes. SPOILER: Gwen's death scene was truly heartbreaking (both well-written and greatly acted by Andrew Garfield, who basically had to watch the most important thing in his world fading away through his fingers).
Spider-Man's trademark light-hearted comments were put to good use on multiple occasions (both as Spider-Man and as Peter - his childish excuses to Aunt May were hilarious) and actually managed to amuse me (unlike most comedies that try so hard to get a laugh from you but fail to do so).
Visuals wise, the movie uses more daytime scenes than TASM1 and most of the CGI looks very natural (by today's standards), unlike Raimi's trilogy (subpar even up to that date). Spider-Man's suit is the best representation so far, as well. The small, yellow eyes from TASM1's suit were replaced by bigger, white eyes, the overall suit design being both classic (almost straight out of the comics) and modern at the same time.
As for the audio, lots to praise as well. First of all, Andrew Garfield has mastered the Spidey voice. He sounds young and joyful, as he should. The soundtrack (composed by Hans Zimmer - everything this man touches is pure gold) is heart-pounding, emotional, it flows with every scene. There's Electro's suite which is goosebumps inducing every time the dubstep mixed with the whispering voices starts filling the theater room. Then there's the emotional piano sequences, that fit perfectly with the Peter-Gwen scenes. The soundtrack feels like part of the movie and not some random generic music added into the final stage of editing.
Villains, the necessary evil in every superhero movie. Many people complained that Max Dillon's transformation was rushed and unbelievable. I disagree. During the first half of the movie we can see multiple events that build up Max's frustration and you could tell that at some point he was going to crack, he just didn't have the means to unleash his frustration and anger, prior to his accident. When he becomes Electro, Spider-Man's betrayal (as his messed up mind perceived it) was the drop that spilled the cup. He's a victim, but he turns into a threat, so Spider-Man had to deal with him, helped by Gwen (who isn't just Peter's girlfriend, but the force driving him forward as both Peter and Spider-Man).
Then there's Harry Osborn (whose encounter with Peter was believable and beautifully done as well). He's desperate for saving his life, he feels betrayed by his best friend (unlike Max being delusional, they were actually friends), as well. His motives make sense. His transformation into the Green Goblin is raw, powerful and frightening. No more silly costume or cheesy voice delivery (sorry, Sam Raimi and Willem Dafoe).
Rhyno was more of a filler, I was really surprised to see such a small screen time from him (but I didn't feel he needed more, having Electro and Green Goblin already).
If you're trying to nitpick, you can probably find some minor plot holes or things that you think should've been done differently. I'm not saying that it's a perfect movie (no movie is flawless), but I consider it to be an almost perfect superhero movie (faithful to the source materials, checking all the right boxes on my list of things I wanted to see). During its runtime - 142 minutes - so glad it wasn't shorter, I basically relived my childhood (I grew up with the 1990s Spider- Man cartoons and reading Spider-Man comic books). That's what good movies do, they make you forget about real life while you're watching them.
Marc Webb achieved what Cristopher Nolan did with his Dark Knight trilogy, taking all the needed elements that fans love, giving them the right touch and creating the ultimate Spider-Man experience for us to enjoy (web swinging in 3D genuinely felt like you were on Spidey's back). I found TASM1 to be solid, but TASM2 is superior in many ways.
Don't trust the naysayers, watch it!