+ Spider-man's movement, action
+ Denis Leary
+ Andrew Garfield (75% of the movie)
- Weak Villain
- Poor build up, pacing
- Pointless story arcs that go no where
- Characters with no conviction
- Spider-man suit looks real cheap in certain scenes
- Weak 3D
Garfield was great for a major part of the movie. There were a few scenes he could have done better but I guess he did his part enough for me to like him more than Tobey. Denis Leary was great IMO, best of the side characters. He nailed his part as good as Simmons nailed Jonah Jameson in the Raimi movies. I didnt like Uncle Ben/Aunt May as much even though they had a lot more screen time than their characters in the previous movies. Dont have anything to commend about Emma as she was just being Emma and nothing more.
I guess the biggest disappointment for me is Webb's treatment of the characters. Sure he got the awkward love story correct but the chemistry is just there, it doesnt go from 0 to 100.
Connors goes from being angry on Parkers to having no morals about them meeting their fate to having morals again about testing on veterans to then no morals on inflicting harm on innocent people as the lizard to becoming the king lizard and being dismissive of human being a weak species to then conveniently in the end having morals again to save Peter in the end. If there was one villain that is all over the place then Connors is definitely the very definition of it.
The origin stuff was also very poorly conceived and executed. I mean from the spider bite to Peter realizing his powers to the training montage on his skateboard, it all felt flat and cheap (the humor too - lady's tshirt sticking to Pete's hand and OMG lol I saw that woman's bra LOL LOL). Compare that to Raimi's SM1 and the shot of Tobey climbing the wall for the first time and it is shot so beautifully. Here we have Garfield doing a few finger pushups on the tower and then jumping off the building on a gadget that he just frickin' built, I mean the danger in that scene was as much as the tension in the final battle, nothing.
As for the 3D aspect, IMO not worth it. I had so much hopes on the 3D for this movie, so much that I argued with Sculli on it ..
.. I had higher hopes on the 3D of this movie more than Hobbit, thats how much my expectations were and I was let down. I'd say even the 3D in Transformers 3 was better. The web slinging and action was great though and easily the best parts of the movie. The action was better than SM2's, thats how good it was. Especially the closing sequence was the best choreographed and it could have kept going forever.
The Spidey suit also looked terrible in certain scenes, especially the ear part - it was sticking out like a sore thumb. I know they somehow cover the ear part with the mask but here you could clearly see the ear and the overall shape of Spidey's head was out of whack. Its just a minor detail but if that was intentional then they surely got it right :/
Also Webb doesnt know when to end a scene for example, when Garfield is angry on Uncle Ben & Aunt May, walks out slamming the door behind them, it was unnecessary as the audience were connecting with the emotional Garfield and on this everyone started laughing their asses off, it was just really off. And to make things worse, Uncle Ben walks out and looks back at Aunt May through the broken glass, it was like a final piece of laughter left in to ruin whatever that was built earlier.
And a few things are best unsaid, Emma turning around and saying "Oh, he made you promise, didnt he!!!1" was also unncessary IMO. That is what made SM1's end so great, Peter walking off with the monologue on why he chose that way. Here we have, promises blah blah *wink* *wink* LOL LOL. It's like to stand out, they did exactly the opposite of the first movie. Bah.
I'm just too bummed out with the movie right now. Maybe if I catch it a second time depending on my friends, my opinion will change .. slightly
