Would Have Been So Much Better Without Jamie Foxx

Rating: 6/10 (30 June 2014)

Good but not great sequel that manages to improve upon some things but, like the first movie, still has quite a few bugs. First, the good. Peter is far more likable in this movie. He's fun, he cracks more jokes, and seems more in line with the way Spider-Man should be portrayed. The cast is mostly solid. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Sally Field all return from the first movie and shine. Dane DeHaan is very good as Harry Osborn, although the movie would have been better served with just him as the villain and giving him more screen time to build up his relationship with Peter. The action is much improved over the first movie, with some very impressive sequences that stand out. I can't recall a notable action scene from the first movie. I also loved the ending to this one. It was perfect.
Now, the bad. Let's start with friggin' Electro, played by Jamie Foxx. Ugh what kind of crap is this? I wonder if this is yet another case of the studio forcing them to add another villain to the movie, afraid audiences would be bored otherwise. Foxx's performance is embarrassingly bad. He seems like he would be more at home in a Joel Schumacher Batman movie. They also give him goofy music in the first part of the film like Otis from Superman (78). Terrible. I hated the look of the character, as well. All too often Hollywood's crappy designers think they can improve upon costumes and appearances of characters from comic books that have lasted for decades. Well, they're wrong 99% of the time and here Electro is yet another example of that. Not to mention Rhino, but I'll let that slide. The video game climax was a bit much, with the CGI Spider-Man looking so cartoony I thought the movie had turned into an animated film for awhile. Lastly, something I didn't like from this or the first movie is the stupid plot involving Peter's parents. I don't think it was necessary and ultimately added very little to either movie.
I still recommend the movie because parts of it are excellent and overall the movie works, despite the problems with Foxx and some of the other issues. It strikes a nice balance between light and dark, even better than the first movie did. I just wish they wouldn't keep thinking that superhero sequels had to have multiple villains, especially cheesy ones.