Didn't Sony learn their lesson from Spider-Man 3?

Rating: 6/10 (14 November 2014)

While I wasn't initially excited about having this franchise rebooted so soon, I did enjoy THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN even if it did rehash the same old origin story that fans are all too familiar with. Here, the sequel is bigger but not quite to its advantage. First off, I'll say that Andrew Garfield is excellent as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Even if he's not quite an awkward, geeky character, he at least has the wisecracking down to a 't.' Emma Stone also does an excellent job as Gwen Stacy. And the relationship between her and Peter is done rather well. In general, the cast gives good performances, with a couple of big exceptions though. The special effects are also top-notch, and Electro has a few scenes to show off his powers that really impressed me, even on my laptop.
However, the area where this film falls short is the script. I'm no fan of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and they deliver an overstuffed narrative that tries to juggle too many characters and subplots, to the point where several of them feel shoehorned in as fan service. For this film to have been effective, Electro should have been the sole villain. You would have thought that Sony learned their lesson with Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN 3, but they obviously didn't. Green Goblin's introduction (and one of its consequences) feels rushed and tacked on to the end, while Rhino was completely superfluous. And to make matters worse, Paul Giamatti completely hams it up in the worst way possible.
To touch on a couple other things, the plot is so unwieldy that certain scenes stick out as the contrivances they are, merely excuses for characters to meet and exchange information, or for exposition. Overall, this movie's greatest sin is that it tried to do too much and as a result it was a good half-hour too long. Certain characters and subplots could have been left out so that more time could be devoted to fleshing out the main story. In the end, what you're left with is a visually impressive comic book movie that feels like a stepping stone to something else, in this case a Sinister Six movie. If you're a fan of these movies, or the Spider-Man character, just go ahead and see it if you haven't already. For everyone else, just stick to Sam Raimi's trilogy.