Poor plotting and weak characters

Rating: 4/10 (6 May 2014)

Once again Sony has tightened it's grip on the Spider-man franchise to stop the likes of Disney getting a hold of it and expanded on the amazing spider-man franchise. Unfortunately whilst they may have this power over the character they do not live up to their responsibility to make a decent franchise, instead creating a lack luster film with weak characters, poor designs and an overwhelming lack of a coherent plot structure.
The weak structure largely comes from the fact that the film is stuffed with far too many sub plots with each villain and supporting character seeming to get one leaving little room to develop any of them. But the film's main focus though is on the relationship between Gwen and Peter as after the events of the first film Peter is uncertain about being with Gwen and putting her in danger. At times this relationship is extremely effective, largely due to the natural chemistry of Garfield and Stone which does help the romance work. Unfortunately the romance does suffer from some weaker elements such as when Peter tells Gwen that he's been following her around. This is thought of in the film as romantic, but it's not. It's creepy and makes spider-man a stalker! If someone were following you without your knowing, would you consider it romantic?
Another problem with the love plot taking up the most time it also means we get more Parker than we do Spider-man. This is a problem because just like the first film it seems like Garfield does pretty well as Spider- man, being very funny spouting one liners in the most dire situations, but fails as being Peter Parker, being annoying and awkward on screen. Also the only relationship of meaning that's developed in the film is with Gwen, his interactions with the other characters don't really go anywhere. He doesn't even get that much screen time talking to any of the villains, making there relationships feel fairly genetic and lacking interest.
One of these villains that the film introduces is Electro, who's design looks like a reject from the blue man group. At first the film tries to develop his character and show him as this innocent person who has an obsessive nature, but then in the midpoint of the film deteriorates to a bland "I am evil now and must kill Spider-man" with little build up or reason for such a sudden character shift. Also, whilst in the adverts he was hyped to be the main villain, the reality is that he doesn't have much impact at all on the plot. You could have removed his character from the movie and it wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever other than removing some fight scenes.
Then there's Harry Osborne and his alter ego, the Goblin. He has some good scenes early on, particularly one scene where he's talking with his dying father which is probably the best scene in the film, but then he becomes weaker as the film progresses with he film seemingly uncertain as to whether it wants us to sympathise with him due to being alienated by everyone or hate him for attacking evil. Also the relationship between him and Peter feels very unnatural and forced since we don't see them build any relationship to begin with with only one or two lines of dialogue giving any explanation as to why they could be close.
Then to top it off you have rhino. If you thought Venom didn't get enough screen time in spider-man 3, wait till you get a load of this five minute cameo. He is only there for 2 scenes and becomes the Rhino off screen. Worse yet rather than trying to give him any character whatsoever, he's degraded to an angry, shouting hired gun who would seem more suited for a role as a side villain in a Schwarzenegger film from the 80's. His character serves as nothing but a cheap ploy to fill more cinema seats and to tease a sinister 6 movie.
To top this off, the ending to just about every story in the film ends up feeling either unfinished in an attempt to lure in viewers to the next film or rushed in an attempt to create a forced conclusion. This film feels too focused on building a franchise and because of it the individual films feel less complete. For example the back story to what happened to Peter's father gets a big build up, but then after one small revelation the film just drops the plot, becoming more interested in getting some more mindless action in the film for the last few minutes.
Though the film doesn't get everything wrong. Seeing Spider-man go to his best to save every citizen is cool and a nice call back to the likes of the original Superman film. This is helped even further when we see how kind he is to everyone he saves, at one point saving a kid from some bullies and then complimenting his arts and crafts project. These scenes are probably the best since they nail the character and make him extremely likable. Also at times the mixture of comedy and action feels just right, being a good reflection of the comic books.
But these small positives do not stop Amazing Spider-man 2 being a great disappointment being a significant step down in comparison to the recent standard of Superhero movies. It has a few decent moments, but these are mixed in with far too many badly written characters and a plot that goes all over the place, lacking focus and not gauging an interest for these characters. The franchise has a lot more potential than this is given and I hope the potential is met by future instalments, but so far it is not looking good for this franchise.