Decent sequel with mature tone & listless story, but excellent (shocking) final act

Rating: 6/10 (8 July 2017)

Released in 2014 and directed by Marc Webb, "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" stars Andrew Garfield as the troubled, but likable hero with spider powers who struggles with relationship issues with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and battles Electro (Jamie Foxx), a humble electrical engineer transformed into a living electric generator. Dane DeHaan is also on hand as Harry Osborn, who has a startling transformation of his own. Sally Field plays Aunt May while Felicity Jones appears as Felicia.
It's best to watch the first film before this one because some story elements transfer over. It features the same main cast and has the same tone, so if you liked that one you'll probably like this sequel. Thankfully, they fixed Spider-Man's costume, noticeably the mask & eyes. While I like the mature, sometimes reverential tone, the story feels listless, particularly the part revolving around Electro (which is thoroughly changed from the comics). Foxx is fine; I just found the character, as written, uninteresting. Ditto with the other convoluted subplot. DeHaan works better as the second villain (I'm not going to say who, but it's obvious if you know anything about Spider-Man).
Thankfully, everything perks up in the final act where the creators do something bold. I didn't think they'd do it and found it almost shocking, although they didn't milk it for it's potential (but they did well enough). Even the Rhino shows up.
The movie runs 142 minutes and was shot in New York (The City, Rochester & Long Island) and Los Angeles. WRITERS: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci & a couple others.
GRADE: B- (6.5/10)