Shaky, mixed feelings about it.

Rating: 7/10 (29 October 2014)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was one of the movies I was looking forward to the most in the beginning of summer 2014. When I saw it in theaters, I was blown away. Now that I own it and have had a chance to study it, I've come across some issues.
Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker is weak in this movie compared to the first Amazing Spider-Man movie, where Garfield's Peter was excellent and Spidey not so much.
Truth be told, I want to like Andrew Garfield's portrayal because you can tell he genuinely loves Spider-Man and I'm happy that he gets to be Spider-Man, but this was weak. Hopefully future movies will allow him to fully express the Spidey persona.
Now, as for Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy, I couldn't care less for her. Sure, she helps Spider-Man here and there but eh. I could do without her.
The one character that redeemed this movie (in my opinion) was Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn. I CANNOT get enough of him and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him as Green Goblin. His portrayal is spot-on maniacal and dangerous, even though he wasn't in the movie for that long.
Another redeeming factor is the easter eggs and references here and there, like the notorious Daily Bugle editor...
This movie feels like a set-up rather than an actual movie. It's like a 2 hour-long preview of what's next to come and I honestly have no problem with that, except when it gets exhausting.
The plot is flawed, so are the motives of some characters and despite its great soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, even I got tired of literally every scene having too much music in the background. Can't recall a quiet scene other than the closet one.
In the end, it's not as bad as people make it seem but it definitely has its issues.