Roberto "The Decider" Orci Strikes Again!

Rating: 5/10 (30 April 2014)

(SPOILERS)
Co-Screenwriter Orci declared himself "The Decider" of all Star Trek when he threw a fit after receiving criticism over the impossibly awful "Star Trek Into Darkness" (a.k.a. The final nail in the Trek coffin). Well, Bob, you can have it! "Star Trek" stopped being "canon" after Gene Roddenberry was last allowed to be involved with the films, that is, after 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." Everything since then has been fan fiction, written by people who had zero to do with "Star Trek" before they wrote their screenplays.
And, so it is with "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," which I call "The movie no one asked for. Again!" After the 1 for 3 Sam Raimi series (like Nolan's Dark Knights, only the middle one is worth watching), Sony wants more money out of Spider-Man, which I am guessing is the only Marvel property they have access to. And, that's the only reason this sequel exists.
Thankfully, I got to see it in 3-D and Dolby Atmos for free. I never would've paid anything beyond my monthly Satellite TV fees to see it. Like Raimi's "Spider-Man 3," this sequel is overpacked by Orci and his faithful screen writing sidekick Alex Kurtzman (a guy who's thankfully far less bitchy than Orci!). Like "Star Trek Into Darkness," this movie ping pongs back and forth between this part and that part nonstop until the final oh-isn't-that-cool? image.
I think Orci and Kurtzman do this overstuffed screen writing so that everything's coming at you so fast that you're not supposed to notice the endless plot holes and inconsistencies. But, after STID, I am used to sitting there wondering "Hey, what about this?" or "Hey, what about that?" questions. People who know the Spider-Man story know what's going to happen to a major character. So, you're just waiting to the end to see how the character is killed off.
There's lots of metaphysical stuff going on throughout, but little of it makes much impact, since you know it's just the screen writing gears grinding for almost 2 1/2 hours.
Marc Webb does okay, but TAS-M2 is pretty much like TAS-M, just lots of sound and fury signifying nothing. Daniel Mindel, who (unfortunately, in my opinion) is going to DP "Star Wars Episode VII" provides fairly routine, soft images. Honestly, the great Peter Suschitzky, who shot "The Empire Strikes Back" is still very much around! It's insane that he isn't being used on any of these latter-day "Star Wars" films.
Anyway, unless you just need some background noise running on your TV on an otherwise quiet Sunday, just skip this installment. Trust me, you've seen all of it before!
***** (5 Out of 10 Stars)