The performances in this film are excellent. Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey continues to be excellent and the romance scenes between Gwen and Peter are once again among the best in the film. Jamie Foxx's troubled Electro is phenomenal, as is Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn. However, Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker is oddly British at a few moments here and there (I suppose they attempted to cover that up with him having a British mother?) and while he plays a great Peter otherwise, as with all the characters, the stilted dialogue continues to be a slight problem, although not as much as it's predecessor.
The stilted dialogue is, however, the least of this film's problems. The plot is too convoluted for its own good. Electro's plot line? Fascinating. Harry Osborn's descent into madness? Equally, if not more, interesting. Peter's long and drawn out search for answers about his parents? Overall completely useless to the story. This leaves the completely interesting villain plot lines crunched for time and makes for characters that only possess a sliver of the dimension they could have. And somehow the script left me, a long time Spider-Man fan, rooting for the villains, and my sister, who saw it with me, agreed.
The movie does leave off with the exciting promise of a Sinister Six film, but alas, with the direction the rest of these films have led us, I worry about getting too excited for anything other than Dane DeHaan's performance and one-dimensional appearances of famous villains.
Although, on a positive note, I must say I found the film perfectly entertaining, and would encourage anyone who's interested in the film to go ahead and go. But if there are any doubts in your mind, don't bother. But fans of the comics can look forward to a perfectly executed famous death scene (You all know the one I'm talking about) and film fans can look forward to cinematography that makes one feel like they're reading right out of a comic book.
Overall:
6 out of 10 stars
