The destruction of possible franchise!!

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2016)

My first review on this site is of COURSE the second instalment of The Amazing Spider- Man series envisioned by 500 Days of Summer director, Marc Webb released by Columbia Pictures with a screenplay written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinker and James Vanderbilt. It was produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach.
I think many had very high expectations, which is one of the problems I will discuss later from an abundance of trailers that has been pumped towards TV SLOTS in the advertising campaign. One of the amazing things about the sequel, which definitely improved from the previous is the dramatisation. The first 30 minutes of the action flick provided a lot of set-up that was at the right balance and pace. Following a brief opening scene of the titular hero's parents (continued from the first movie), the current picture picks up Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) two years since the death of his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary), Peter continues his crusade to fight crime as the web-slinger. He briefly humiliated Aleksei Systevich (Paul Giamatti) in a car chase, who with his mobsters were attempting to steal vials of plutonium.
After graduation from HIGH SCHOOL with a moving speech from Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), Peter struggles to maintain his relationship with Gwen and the duties as a superhero while trying to keep a promise from George's dying wish to stay away from Gwen. To not let her daughter get between the responsibilities of crime-fighting. However, trouble brews on the horizon as now Peter as Spidey must deal with the return of Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) and formidable Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx).
What this chapter of Webb's vision of the movie got right was the threat level. It was exceedingly high as the character of Peter has to deal with his inner conflict with Gwen, the lack of a father figure and the physical duress with three antagonists. My problem with the Lizard in the first trial run was the villain lacked a credible motivation and did not pose much of a challenge in terms of scale. The threat was real but not the intensity. A villain on the lackey axis than mastermind axis.
The cinematography and visuals were stunning Sony did a real nice JOB with the special effects and digital animations. There were some mistakes during the edit – I will mention later but Webb's interpretation of the 'spider sense' was smooth. The acting was mostly believable as what cannot be denied is the chemistry between Garfield and Stone. Foxx managed to pull one head out in the role of the fiery, invigorating, Electro and wear the hat of socially inept and cryptic Dillon whilst DeHaan played a very menacing Harry Osborn.
There were many problems with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which did not live up to the hype as seen from the trailers. Although many of the performances from the main cast were at the very least satisfactory to brilliant; with Garfield nailing the Peter character this time around. Stone did well as Gwen, though my problem with the performance was Giamatti as Rhino. There was not much left for the actor to play with as the character and his accent as a Russian was too 'hammy' as Giamatti described. The let-down was the script, not so much story but more so dialogue, which affected parts of Garfield's portrayal in places, as well as the comedy being forced.
Unlike Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, the scope of villains for the flick was not the problem. Each nemesis Spidey faced in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had a plausible motivation, which knit together in a joint 'arc'. The main issues were time to unravel major plot points and character development. Leave R.H.I.N.O. out of the picture, but in my opinion, Harry's transition from C.E.O. of Oscorp to crazed lunatic as a result of induced mutation through chemical mutagens felt rushed. The pacing was a lot better this time round but was a bit rapid.
Another one of the many flaws this has is the fight choreography was quite weak here. First round with Electro was too easy (forget the water there is actually a scientific explanation in regard to salts in the water used to short-circuit). I won't even get into the second round and the fight against Green Goblin could of been a bit more of a struggle. It seems a lot more thought was put into the set-up to the eventual formation of the Sinister Six (look this 'team' up).
Performances from Garfield, Stone, DeHaan and Foxx were mostly admirable but were affected by clunky use of crying-out-loud quips of dialogue. Best lines were "Let's go catch a spider", "Yo Sparkles!" and "You don't give people hope, you take it away! I'm gonna take away yours!" Aside from some out-of-place shots and underwhelming fight scenes, the visual effects, set-designs, props and costumes were stunning and the soundtrack was helped to be spectacular thanks to Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer's magic, even a nice end-credits wild-track from Alisha Keys and Kendrick Lamar was terrific!