“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is a tough movie to put your finger on because it truly is a mixed bag.  The things it does right, it does very right, but there are also some problems with the film as well.

The strength of the movie is the chemistry between Andrew Garfield’s Peter and Emma Stone’s Gwen.  Their relationship is the glue that holds the film together.

This is also the most accurate on-screen portrayal of Spider-Man we’ve seen yet.   He moves, acts and jokes like the character many of us grew up reading about when we were kids.  The fight scenes are also probably the best yet in the franchise.

While Jamie Foxx’s Electro hovers close to an over-the-top performance that would make Joel Schumacher proud, he does manage to rein it in just enough to make entertaining.   Dane DeHann’s  Harry Osborn is much less successful.  His version of Harry lacks the warmth or depth of James Franco’s version in the Sam Raimi trilogy.   It is also much harder to buy into the close friendship between him and Peter.  Purists will also be troubled with the decision to make Harry the 1st Green Goblin and have him essentially take over his father’s (Norman) role in one of the most important events in Spider-Man’s history.  The choice also seems odd since we’ve been told repeatedly how director Marc Webb wanted to be true to the Peter/Gwen relationship and history, but yet gives us this big change.  Paul Giamatti is quite effective as the once and future Rhino, despite barely getting any screen time.  He is used essentially as a framing device to bookend where Peter/Spidey is at the beginning and end of the movie.

The movie is probably at least 20 minutes too long, with way too much time being devoted to showing us what happened to Peter’s parents and tying all the evils in the Spider-Man universe seemingly to Oscorp.  Beginning the film by seeing Peter abandoned again with Aunt May and Uncle Ben and spending those opening moments focused on Peter’s parents, instead of Peter himself, was an odd choice.

The reviews overall have been pretty bad, and while I think they might be too harsh, I definitely see where they are coming from.  “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” does seem often to be more interested in setting up what comes next more than what is happening now.  While it is definitely better than “Spider-Man 3,” I don’t know if I’d rate it above any of the other Spider-Man films.   Like I said earlier, it’s a tough movie to wrap yourself around (at least after only one viewing).

–  Mark J. Marble

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