The thing with Spider-man 3 was that it was such a LET DOWN. After Spider-man 2 and all the hype about them doing the symbiote story, they really got people thinking this was going to be the shit. Instead, the tone fluctuated way too much and felt like it stopped caring as the production went on.
Regarding the Amazing Spider-man, it wasn't as much a let down because my expectations were so low that moving pictures on a screen would be enough. It wasn't the worst movie and it wasn't too nuch of a disappointment because it initially seemed like a cash-grab film, but it did have some faults.
SPOILER ALERT TO THOSE WHO HAVE YET SEEN ASM
Peter and Gwen's relationship comes from a place of criminal stalker. He takes pictures of her without knowing (First scene), but she's okay with it when Ben tells her because Peter is cute. He then sneaks into her place of work and takes her tour, but she's cool with it and helps him because he's cute. He then tells her he CLIMBED 22 STORIES IN A FIRE ESCAPE and somehow finds her window and watched her for a bit, but it cool because he's cute. Then Peter get's into an awkward argument with her father, reveals himself to be the problem her dad is facing, and has her, a high school student, treat serious monster wounds. She wasn't okay with it immediately, but then she remember how cute he was and got over it.
In the same scene when he stalkerishly climbs his way to her window (how did he know which window), why is it the first thing Denis Leary to Peter, "So you must be Peter". Shouldn't it have been, "How the fuck did you get into my condo? I didn't see/hear you walk through the front." You might be thinking that he might have just come in and thought Peter had come earlier, and that's fair. But WHAT ABOUT THE MOTHER AND SIBLINGS? How did that not come up immediately?
The product placement in this film was ridiculous. This is not a comprehensive list: 1) Sony's smartphone makes several appearance to show off its amazing features like swipe-to-ignore-call, a touch-screen, and the ability to play bubble burst. Ironically, the phone looked so bad in this movie. The screen especially when he's playing bubble burst. 2) Brand-name macaroni and cheese is a punchline. Aunt May is so shocked at Peter's hunger that he even took the BRAND-NAME macaroni and cheese. 3) Bing. Fucking Bing. It is more believable to me that a kid gets bit by a super spider and gets superpowers than it is that Peter, or anyone, uses Bing.
Speaking of Bing, are you telling me that Peter never searched for his father ever? When he finds the suitcase, Peter searches for his father on the internet and finds so many sites about him and is shocked by it. Did it never occur to him to search for his famous father on the internet? Maybe he did using Google and couldn't find anything, so he went to Bing.
Further goofiness is all the pseudomath this movie has for the sake of drama. It's a small point, but it was really funny when there's a sinister experiment marked Double Null. If it's double null, does it mean it double negatives to all reals? Also, there is the scene with Dr. Conner. In this scene, Peter shows up to Conner's house, which is located in the 70s, to ask about his parents. But before that, Peter makes a one arm man make him coffee. Anyway, they talk and Conner reveals that his work is incomplete. So Peter, being a nice guy, decides to help him by writing out an equation for him and Conner looks at Peter like he's a genius. What should have happened was Conner should have asked him to define the variables, give values, and basically explain what the hell he wrote. It was just a series of letters and the whole function is of "x", so Conner will need some context.
This is a small point, but one of the best scenes in the film was spoiled for me because of a poor music choice. It's the scene when the Lizard is creeping around the lab and Gwen is hiding. It's tense, it's nervous, and Emma Stone really sells it. However, it only took two moments to turn this suspenseful experience into a comedy for me. At two distinct times, it sounds like the Director took a baseball bat and when to town on a piano. It wasn't a chord. It wasn't something in the scene. Just a loud sound of a whiffle ball bat to the keys that diffused the tension.
Why were there so many lizards in New York?
Why would Peter bring his camera with name on it where a dangerous will be? Why would he lie on his web with his MASK OFF playing bubble burst as his camera is going off on a timer? Why did he bring the camera at all? To get proof for the cops? The cops were already going to check it out. For the reward the Bugle was offering? Why is he concerned about that?
Why did the evil Indian guy decided to trick veterans with the serum by disguising it as flu shots? Why wouldn't they just pay volunteers, or ask for volunteers and get a waiver signed? Furthermore, whatever happened to the Indian guy in the car? The lizard attacks him, spider-man saves him by hanging his vehicle over the bridge and then he's gone. He didn't die when Spider-Man save him. Why didn't he immediately go to the police about Conner? If he didn't know it was Conner, why didn't he just continue with his stupid evil plan? Is still hanging over the side of the bridge in his car during the whole film?
The finale was goofy and cornball too. How did those construction worker get to an evacuated area fast enough to beat Spider-Man and get their machines up and running for him? I doubt they were doing construction as all these Lizard fights were going on. Also, what if Spider-Man was coming towards the Osborn building from a different direction? Or just wasn't on THAT rooftop that led to a perfect straight-line to the monster?
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Now a lot of these are small things, but it added up to being a serious detriment to the overall film. When product placement is a plot point and characters make incredibly stupid decisions just to advance the plot, it felt like a lesser experience.
e: Holy jeez this was long.
