First of all, I really did like this movie a lot. Very cool villain who keeps his goal in sight, and some very moving scenes. That said, I--as always--have a few gripes and notable scenes to touch on. And thank God that I do! This would be a pretty fuckin' boring review otherwise!
I really, really liked the credits sequence. Very comic book-esque, and consisted of one of those "last time, on Spider Man..." type of twenty-second recaps so popular in the days of spiderman. Very retro--and I dont' mean that sarcastically at all, I think that that's quite spectacular.
That said, the opening of the movie is somewhat--how do I put this? Cringe-inducing. I mean, really. I can see what the filmmakers are trying to do--show the fact that Peter cannot seem to balance his own life with that of being a superhero--but they first of all do it so blatantly--they might as well beat us in the head with a giant sandbag with a sign on it saying "Peter! Parker! Is! Having! A! BAD! WEEK!" And... really, the public doesn't appreciate Spiderman, the villains certainly don't appreciate Spiderman, and considering what it's doing to his life I kind of doubt Peter appreciates Spiderman a whole hell of a lot either. So the responsible thing to do would be to put the super-hero-ness on hold for a few weeks--until he can get a job, get his education settled, get out of debt, pay for his bills, etc. Which, later on, is exactly what he does--only by that point it is almost moot, because much of his problems are already solved.
Furthermore, Peter Parker (movie version) appears to have the cunning security/secret identity protection of the interrupting cow. Aunt May suspects, Mary Jane knows, his best friend knows, all the villains know... As far as I can tell, practically the only person in New York city who doesn't know that Spiderman is Peter Parker is J. Jameson. Who, I must say in this cunningly-designed seguay, is a fantastic character played by a fantastic actor who did fantastically in this movie. Seriously, I want the third movie to just be about Jameson yelling at people. I would so watch it.
Also, Mary Jane--I'm sorry, I really am, but I just cannot stand her. I know that it's all part of the commic and so they have to put it in there, but that doesn't stop me fervantly praying for her squishy demise inside a meat tenderizer. Can we say "blatant fanservice!" children? Can we? Can we? I knew you could!
Aardvark was right on the money, someone needs to re-certify his physics degree, because there's a lot of stuff in there that's just plain wrong.
The last few scenes--while they are very well-done and fun to watch--make little sense and are somewhat arbitrary. Just completely ignoring the question of how Harry heard his dad's voice in his head, I want to know where Normon Ozborne found the time to make three more gliders. What, was it just in his *spare time* from making Kirsten Dunce scream, making pumpkin bombs, looking at himself in a mirror, making Spiderman his archnemesis, failing to kill his archnemesis, setting fires, bombing places, and generally being a total pain-in-the-ass villain? And I really want to know Harry's reaction--I mean, he first of all knows that his best friend killed his dad, and if he can't figure out that his dad was the green goblin by this point than he is roughly the stupidest person in the history of comic books, including the Juggernaut. So.. what? Does he become the next Green Goblin? If so, than he will have the most idiotic vendeta in the history of villains, excepting Terry Bogard from
Reforming Evil Can Be Tricky. Although, I suppose that this is a clever ploy (TM) that the moviemakers are using to make me want to see the next one. Well, they didn't have too. I'll be seing it, have no fear.
This has been... Lysander at the movies!