The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Why Is He Back?

If spring is the season for romance, summer is the season for superheroes. Enter The Amazing Spider-Man 2, another entry in the rebooted franchise that no one was clamoring for. Spidey and his girlfriend Gwen Stacy are back to battle baddies and conduct their confusing romance, in a sea of villains, special effects and oddly dated dialogue.

There isn't much to say about this movie's plot. It follows the genre guidelines pretty stringently - Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield), is swinging around town, catching low-life criminals and being a vigilante hero. Enter Electro (Jamie Foxx), a brand new villain created as a result of the ever bumbling scientists at OsCorp (seriously, can't those people keep any of their employees away from their top-secret lab experiments?) Peter has to tackle this villain while also dealing with his on-again off-again relationship with Gwen (Emma Stone), who is thankfully a more proactive girlfriend who likes to help out with these adventures instead of standing helplessly on the sidelines. There are additional characters who hint at what's to come but don't do much in this movie except add to its distracted story line. And Peter tries to unravel the mystery of what his parents did and why he was abandoned as a child, but that potentially interesting plot thread just meanders away as the screenwriters apparently gave up on giving this movie any substance at all.

The trouble with the Spider-Man movie franchise is that it is owned by Sony instead of Marvel. Both studios are obviously in it to make money, but Marvel at least tries to come up with creatively satisfying stories in addition to blockbuster action. Sony has no such scruples. They seem to think fight sequences and explosions are all that's needed to make a successful superhero movie. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are wonderful casting choices who
always crackle on screen in their romantic scenes. But anything that involves the actual plot of this overstuffed blockbuster is simply tiresome. There end up being three villains (two too many), none of whom are remotely compelling. And the last half hour of this film has a bizarre tonal shift that ensures you will leave the theater completely dissatisfied.

I don't have superhero fatigue but after watching The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I certainly have Spider-Man fatigue. It is visually stunning but ultimately exhausting, and pales in comparison to the wit and creativity of Marvel's recent offerings. Just put Garfield and Stone in a romcom and spare us the webbed histrionics.