Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" deplored the film's pacing as "mostly just plods" and said it lacked humor. Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film a two out of four stars, feeling, "for every slam-bang action sequence, there are far too many sluggish scenes." David Edelstein of "New York" magazine misses the "centrifugal threat" of Alfred Molina's character, adding that "the three villains here don't add up to one Doc Ock" (referring to Molina's portrayal of the character in "Spider-Man 2"). James Berardinelli felt director Sam Raimi "overreached his grasp" by allowing so many villains, specifically saying, "Venom is one bad guy too many." Roger Ebert, who gave "Spider-Man 2" a glowing review, gave the sequel two out of four stars and thought Church never expressed how Sandman felt about his new powers, something Molina, as Doc Ock in "Spider-Man 2", did "with a vengeance"; he said the film was "a mess," with too many villains, subplots, romantic misunderstandings, conversations and "street crowds looking high into the air and shouting 'oooh!' this way, then swiveling and shouting 'aaah!' that way." "The New Yorker"s Anthony Lane, who gave "Spider-Man 2" a favorable review, gave the film a negative review, characterizing the film as a "shambles" which "makes the rules up as it goes along."