An over-ambitious and overlong blockbuster sequel

Rating: 6/10 (18 May 2014)

Despite the decidedly mixed reaction to 2012's reboot, I appreciated the film although I still very much preferred Sam Raimi's debut film. However, it's an entirely different matter when it comes to my opinion on this film. Besides the obvious argument that a sequel to an already unnecessary reboot is even more unnecessary, this film still had an unlimited amount of potential in terms of character development and exploring intersecting story lines. And to be honest, it does try to do this, maybe too much on the intersecting story lines aspect, but it never manages a balance between an individual story and the overarching storyline already slated for the upcoming Sinister Six spin-offs.
The result is a mess of a plot, an utterly waste of over-the-top in a bad way cliché villains with even more cliché motivations, numerous jarring tonal shifts which already affect the film when it's started barely ten minutes ago. For instance, the opening chase sequence featuring an throwaway cameo by the great Paul Giamatti, here utterly wasted as an constantly screaming villain with a terrible Russian accent, shifts constantly between trying to be suspenseful, funny, dramatic and violent all at once. Certainly the fault lies in Marc Webb's inconsistent direction throughout the entire film and his inability to decently and creatively stage an action sequence and Pietro Scalia's choppy editing, which takes out the entire momentum of this 142 minute long film, trying to make an epic superhero film out of one that really didn't need to be all that big.
On the positive side, most of the acting performances are still solid, particularly Garfield, Stone and Field, even though they can't make miracles with the cliché-ridden script they've being handed to. DeHaan's performance suffers from being provided with a whiny and underdeveloped character, and Jamie Foxx, another great character actor, is also terribly wasted here as the one dimensional Electro.
But most importantly, because of trying to be so many films at once, forgets the most important element the previous Spider-Man films had, even Spider-Man 3, despite its undeniable flaws; the human aspect. The only scenes that really touch this are any between Garfield and Stone, but despite their undeniable chemistry, they also end up becoming nothing more than a tiresome on and off couple, which undermines the proceedings since we already know the ending of it.
If Sony wishes to make the next film work, they better come to realize that sometimes, less is better.