Another GREAT Spidey movie! Spoiler Free!

Rating: 8/10 (22 April 2014)

When Mark Webb first relaunched the Spider-Man franchise, there were many who criticised that it was too soon after Sam Raimi's originals. With Spider-Man 3 spelling the demise of the original trilogy, Webb stepped in to tell a new set of stories of our beloved web slinger. One thing Webbs movies have done so well is to introduce new villains that we haven't seen on screen before, and for me that is what i was most excited to see with this movie!
Amazing Spider-Man 2 picks up some time after the first (the actual time frame isn't really acknowledged)and we see Peter (Garfield) is still loving being Spider-Man. He joins in on Police chases and whilst being his usual wise-cracking self, he still manages to kick ass and save the day. We see that despite Peters promise to her Father in the first movie, he and Gwen (Stone) are back in a relationship. She knows he is Spider-Man and so the movie doesn't waste time with silly plot points about him having to be secretive towards her.(it saves those for Aunt May). There are sub narratives a-plenty, including the introduction of Harry Osborne, as well as Peters on-going search to find out what happened to his Parents.
The Bad Guy/s: We are introduced to Max Dillon aka Electro who is given the usual Supervillian intro. We see that he is an outcast and that no one at Oscorp even knows he exists despite him being a seemingly important designer. Cue massive accident involving electricity and Electro is born. This for me was one of the Highlights of the film. Electro is BADASS!! Not only did they completely nail the look of the character, but the power he has, makes you genuinely question just how Peter will defeat him. Jamie Fox plays him with vulnerability (at first)and then pure anger. It's a great performance for a comic book villain.
The film was not without faults however...a few things that annoyed me slightly were: 1) Rhino was billed to be one of the villains, yet his screen time is less that 5 mins. plus Paul Giamatti's Russian accent is awful! 2) The whole plot around Harry felt very rushed. Maybe some elements could have been saved until the next film. 3) On several occasions Gwen helps Spidey out of bad situations, both physically and intellectually. Peter is supposedly a child genius, now with Superpowers..he didn't need her help!.. it felt like Gwen helping was forced in to give Emma Stone more to do.
All in all it was another great addition to this new franchise. The final showdown on the power grid and in the clock tower are worth the admission price alone, even if the film takes a while to get there. Garfield is great, Fox's Electro is awesome and the movie has many little nods to expanding the Spidey universe (look out for whats behind the glass in the 'Special Projects' wing).
Top notch entertainment.