Canon 50mm 1.4 lens too soft under f/2?

I’m trying to understand the merits of a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. I got that lens because of the low f-stop; however, when I took pictures yesterday using f stops below 2 (Canon T2i, shutter 1/80-1/150, cloudy, but during the day, 20ft and 2 ft from objects), the objects come out to be extremely soft, almost full of noise and unusable. Am I doing something wrong or can this lens not produce sharp photos below f/2.8? I tried the very same photos with f-stops above 3 and they came out much sharper, but still no sharper than my kit lens of 18-55mm. Any clarification would be appreciated.