What a jumbled mess.

I've played many a Spider-Man game, but this is the first I actually quit. The "story" was really boring, every level was pretty much the same (fight main villain, they run away, fight thugs, catch up with and fight the villain, they run away, fight more thugs, etc), and the combat didn't really seem fluid at all. This game seems to be getting a lot of praise, so is there something I'm missing?