Andrew Garfield is back as everyone's favorite web-slinger, with real life girlfriend/onscreen love interest Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. Back when we had left these two in 2012's "The Amazing Spiderman", Gwen's father had died in the fight with Dr. Connors/"The Lizard". His dying wish after discovering Spiderman was really the boy dating his daughter, was to stay away from her in an attempt to keep her safe. The story picks up after the 2 have graduated from high school. Peter is still trying his hardest to maintain that promise, but finds it incredibly difficult between Gwen's persistence and his own natural attraction to her; they're simply drawn to one another. However, things become complicated when Gwen announces she may be studying abroad in England for college.
As if that wasn't enough, Peter/Spiderman has even more to worry about with the emergence of villains we're all very familiar with; the sequel introduces both The Green Goblin (The Place Beyond the Pines' Dane Dehaan) and Electro (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx) as antagonists for Spidey.
Overall, the sequel improves upon the first entry in this rebooted franchise; the pacing of the plot has increased significantly, and the action scenes are choreographed much better. In addition, the winning chemistry between Garfield and Stone (which was the best thing about the first one) is still as on point as ever. In fact, when the film hits its lulls (and there are quite a few) their chemistry keeps you emotionally invested in finishing the film to its ending.
That being said, there's just something missing from this franchise that keeps it from being as good as the original 2 Spiderman movies (I don't mention the 3rd one, because I like to pretend that it never happened), with Spiderman 2 being a masterpiece. Ultimately, this film makes a huge mistake in packing too much into the plot, and having a longer than necessary running time, much like the 3rd film from the original trilogy. Between Electro, and the (rushed) Green Goblin story arc for the sake of advancing a major plot point. It would've befitted the film if it stuck with one villain (preferably Electro), and went with it. Yes, the pacing has improved, but looking at the finished material, that's not saying a whole lot.
There's also the emergence of another main player in the Spiderman story, which is whittled down to such a frustratingly small and thankless role, one wishes they didn't bother with it at all. Anyone that's a Spidey buff knows Black Cat is a huge supporting player in Spiderman's world. In this film, she's played by the incredibly talented Felicity Jones (Like Crazy), but never actually establishes herself as her alter ego, which reminds me of the way Iron Man 2 hastily threw in Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanov/Black Widow, and wasted her in the process. Jones is a very capable actress, but the film wastes her as simply a face in the background for the sake of throwing her in.
Ultimately, The Amazing Spiderman 2 ends up being incredibly misleading. It's a step up from the first Amazing Spiderman, but doesn't end up web slinging to "amazing" territory. We know what Spiderman films are capable of; Spiderman 2 remains one of the best superhero films, and films in general, ever made, which is why these 2 reboots feel like such disappointments. The talent (Garfield, Stone, Foxx, Jones, Dehaan, even Sally Field as Aunt May) is there, but director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) isn't the man for the job. Though he's adept at handling the emotional side of Spidey's story, the action sequences and overstuffed screenplay left me wishing a director with experience in the comic book genre was on deck to be able to deliver both sides of Spiderman's story. These films need more capable hands to make them truly "Amazing".
Grade: C-
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