THE GOOD
- The cast is great, and they have great chemistry. Any flaws with the characters came from the script and the direction.
- The relationships between the characters are amazing. Even when the dialogue itself is on the goofy side, the actors manage to sell it.
- Some of the shots in the action sequences are pretty amazing.
THE BAD
- The is way to complex. By complex I don't mean complex in an Inception kind of way where the multiple plot lines intersect and are dependent upon one another. This movie is complex like the knot of tables which are stuffed in a box in your garage. It's a bunch of individual things crammed in a small space and coincidentally tied together, but they have nothing to do with each other. It really feels like the script was written by a committee. The director had some ideas, the studio had some ideas, the writer had some ideas, and they wanted all of it to setup a franchise. The end result is a mess.
- The tone is all over the place. The film starts with a thematically and dramatically series 10 minute prologue. This feeds into a minute actions sequence filled with slap stick humor and goofy jokes. The entire movie plays out this way. One character is played very down to earth, and the next comes off like a cartoon.
- The music is strangely heavy handed. Multiple times a song starts playing which is so over-the-top it pulls you out of the movie. There's a romantic scene about a third of the way through the movie which comes off like a scene from the TV show Friends because of the music.
- The villains' motives make absolutely no sense.
- Some of the action sequences feel more like boss fights from a video game than a realistic battle.
- The section after the climax doesn't work at all.
- There's multiple sequence where a super villain attacks a crowd of people with either explosive electrical bolts or bullets from a machine gun. For some reason the crowds stand around waiting to be put in harms way rather than fleeing certain death.
THE WEIRD
- The Max character feels like he's from a different movie.
- They hired Paul Giamatti to play the Rhino. He's in the movie for may be 3 minutes. Why would you hire Oscar level talent for 3 minutes of yelling?
- Chris Cooper plays Norman Osbourne...for about 3 minutes. He's covered in makeup, and he barely moves. Why would you hire Oscar level talent for a 3 minute sequence?
- There's a scene with a child in a Spiderman costume which makes absolutely no sense. You'll know what I'm talking about.
OVERALL
I enjoyed the film, but I can't imagine watching it again anytime soon. It's a poorly scripted film, but the cast, humor, and action sequences keep things from ever getting boring. I'd give it a 6 out of 10.
