stumbles over itself by trying to do too many things

Rating: Null/10 (1 May 2014)

Crammed and cluttered sequel finds Peter Parker continuing to fight crime as Spider-Man, while also maintaining-or not-a relationship with Gwen Stacy, but then trouble begins: Parker is deeply conflicted about his feelings for Gwen; old childhood friend Harry Osborn returns and takes over his recently deceased father Norman's company which is bad news for everyone in N.Y.C.; born loser and disgruntled Oscorp employee Max Dillon has an accident that makes him a supervillain with a wicked agenda that doesn't make much sense, and that doesn't even sum up half of all the subplots going on in this superfluous comic book adaptation. Sloppy and meandering script could potentially be redeemed by a cast of this caliber, but there's too many characters, an infuriatingly unfocused narrative, and the director's attempt to stage big, grand action sequences is mediocre at best. Shows signs of life as it nears its conclusion, but up until then it goes in so many different directions that it's difficult to take any true enjoyment from it. Overlong, overwritten, and overdone, making this one of the more forgettable Marvel products. **