As if the relative critical failure of Spider-Man 3 wasn't warning enough, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 bizarrely set out to reprise some of its most obvious mistakes. That's not to say that the movie doesn't work in places - the chemistry between Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy is undeniable, to name one aspect, and some of the set-pieces are rendered with CGI pizzaz. And yet it's still hard to escape the feeling that the movie was too jammed packed for its own good; too many villains, not enough focus on the human aspects. Given that the first entry in this rebooted franchise did a relatively good job in setting up what should have been a more exciting and immediate sequel, it's a shame to see that The Amazing Spider-Man has nothing on Sam Raimi's first Spidey follow-up, Spider-Man 2, which took what was great about his first movie and crafted what is arguably the perfect comic book flick. Aside from Garfield and Stone, Dane DeHaan offers up a memorable Harry Osborn... and yet despite all its efforts to please, the movie feels like a hodgepodge; messy, chaotic, forgettable.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
