Here, Garfield is the cheeky, wisecracking superhero of Marvel Comic lore. He has become Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Yet the tag line on the movie’s posters and billboards says: "His greatest battle begins." How many times can he have his first, greatest battle? Haven’t we already covered much of this territory?
Once again, Peter is working through his daddy issues, searching for clues as to why his mysterious scientist father (Campbell Scott) and mother (Embeth Davidtz) left him to be raised by his aunt and uncle in blue-collar Queens when he was just a young boy.
Once again, Peter reconnects with childhood friend Harry Osborn (played in Raimi’s films by James Franco, played here by a snaky Dane DeHaan) with dire consequences. Peter and Harry’s past and future are as intrinsically tied as their fathers’ were; Harry’s dad is, of course, the scheming industrial titan Norman Osborn, head of Oscorp (played in Raimi’s films by Willem Dafoe, played here with a last few gasps by Chris Cooper), where Peter's father was a top researcher.
The massive Manhattan skyscraper that houses Oscorp Headquarters represents all that is untrustworthy and duplicitous about corporate culture. It’s also an unsafe work environment, it seems, as evidenced by the fate of Jamie Foxx’s character, engineer Max Dillon.
Max is a nerdy stalker obsessed with Spider-Man and depressed by the tiniest perceived slight. (In case you were wondering, playing a needy dweeb isn’t the best fit for Foxx’s considerable charisma.) While working late one night, Max falls into a vat of electrified eels and becomes the high-voltage villain Electro—although, with his pallid skin, hooded cloak and lightning bolts shooting from his fingers, Electro amusingly (and distractingly) resembles "Star Wars" uber-villain Darth Sidious.
And so Peter must deal with Electro, as well as with the dark, destructive force Harry will become. There’s also a third bad guy waiting in the wings in the form of Paul Giamatti, lumbering about Midtown in a giant, metal rhinoceros get-up. He goes by the name Rhino, in case you’re unfamiliar with the canon. And he’s kind of adorable. He also shows up so last minute, his inclusion feels like a wedged-in tease for the next installment (which surely is unavoidable).
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