An improvement, but its too much, way to much!

Rating: 4/10 (1 June 2014)

I flat out hated the reboot when it came out two years ago. I stand by the fact it was unnecessary and really not as much fun or as entertaining as the previous Raimi films. Well, I still think its a pretty poor film and an even worse reboot considering it basically retells the original film in a much more unintresting way. But I digress, I still went into the sequel with high hopes for what they pull out of the bag for a second time around the bend.
They squeezed a lot into the films two hour and twenty minute runtime, I mean a tone, too much in fact, way too much. Electro, Harry Osborn, The Green Goblin, Relationship problems, Rhino, set up for Sinister Six movie, Norman Osbourne, Conspiracy involving Oscorp and Peters parents, Peters parents... Jesus do you think thats enough. The film simply tried to pack into much into short a time span, its that simple and thats the fatal flaw here. Webb promised that this wouldn't be another Spiderman 3 situation but it actually ended up being worse because believe it or not we actually have a villain who has an even worse set up that Venom.
Electro was just awful in terms of character. Max Dillon is a complete dork. He looks like a cliché nerd, he talks like a cliché nerd and he is just the most boring of characters. Webb wanted us to clearly sympathise with him but I don't sympathise with characters who have almost no clear motives for what they do and when there transformation is as forced as the Symbiotes arrival in Peters pocket in S3, yeah forget about it. Electro is awesome however in terms of his look and power. He looks incredible and his power is clearly shown and it looks awesome, the suit he wears is a little to comic book for the tone of the film but whatever.
Paul Giamatti is wasted, I don't need to say anything more, just a clear cheap setup for a spin off. Harry Osborn is actually a very interesting character and he is sympathetic until pretty much the last 40 minutes or so when I swear to god he gets one of the fastest transformation sequences in history, its so rushed its actually funny.His Goblin is actually quite good, I like the look and his laugh and his general performance of the character. BUT IT MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE. His character is a complete departure from what he was before and don't you dare claim he went insane because I ain't accepting that.
So what saves it, what makes this film worth a six and worth the watch. The effects are brilliant, the best iv seen. Spiderman swinging through the city is the best iv seen of any spider man film, animated or live action, TV or film. The music is pretty great and Spideys theme is really good (not as good as Elmans theme, but pretty good). The dubstep that is used in Electros scenes really works well and I actually really like it, it isn't annoying.
But the key thing that I recommend this for is the relationship between Peter and Gwen, they are so cute its not even right. They have so much chemistry and their scenes together feel like scenes from a really good indie-film, in fact you care more about them than you do about the action, the action interrupts the film really.
Overall, mixed bag here but its worth a watch. All I know is, Sinister Six and Venom better be great or all this set up with have been pointless and I will never forgive Sony for not giving the rights back to Marvel... Good luck Sony, don't f#@k up/