Amazing? Not quite

Rating: 6/10 (5 May 2014)

Especially if compared to it's most recent predecessor in the Marvel realm, Captain America 2, this one falls very short of meeting its bold title. A noble attempt none the less. This film is an upgrade over 2012's "The Amazing Spiderman" which I found mind numbingly boring. There's definite improvements as well from the Sam Raimi "Spiderman Trilogy". All in all though, the biggest fault lies in the words on the page. The Amazing Spiderman 2 wields superior special effects, and a gushy on screen romance; However it tries to tell far too much at once, never getting a grasp on the fine details of the seemingly endless subplots.
The most painstaking thing about this film for me, is that watching it I realized I had seriously already seen 80% of the key plots points in the trailers for the film. It's no surprise though seeing as how Sony released some 4 full length trailers, and then who knows how many teasers. What's even more frustrating, is that some really interesting story elements from the trailers weren't even in the film! What's happening here? There's a whole mini clip in the trailers where Harry Osborn reveals to Peter that Oscorp has had him under surveillance for some time now. And it's never in the movie. Not a single reference to it. This is a blockbuster trend I despise. LEAVE THINGS TO BE DISCOVERED. I don't want to know what's going to happen next! And I knew what was going to happen next throughout 2/3 of this film.
I'm making it sound like I absolutely despised this movie, but I promise I didn't. It's just not near as 'amazing' as it wants to be. It's astonishingly ordinary. I mean yeah the special effects and CGI are top rate, but so what? Impressive CGI is dime a dozen these days. The strongest arm the film has is the love story. It totally makes sense that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are a couple in real life, because they really do have undeniable chemistry on screen. You do care about their relationship.
With a totally constipated plot, an overlong runtime, and payoffs that just aren't good enough it's a shame to say that we have yet another underwhelming Spidey film. There's probably enough here to keep the young ones engaged, but for me it's just more of the same. There hasn't been a really well done Spiderman film since 2004, and even that one had it's flaws. And with an already confirmed third installment in this series, as well as a "Sinister Six" spin off, there's definitely opportunity to improve; but I won't be holding my breath.