15 Most Disappointing Films Of The Decade (So Far)

9. The Amazing Spider-Man 2

If it wasn't so depressing, what Sony have done to Spider-Man would be pretty impressive. In just three movies they managed to take the most popular superhero this side of Batman and turn him into an corporate mess nobody over the age of six cares about.

Spider-Man 3 was an overblown misfire created by a mixture of nonsensical studio demands and a filmmaker who was spent (it was, after all, Sam Raimi's idea to retcon Ben Parker's death). Half-hearted reboot The Amazing Spider-Man - one part hipster reimagining, one part strict adherence to the superhero origin formula - was met with a resounding "meh" thanks to an over-reliance on setting up subsequent instalments. But it was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a glossy, scattershot take on the character, that finally buried the series.

Much of the hype for Amazing 2 came from promise - Marc Webb and co. had publicly admitted they'd made a lacklustre film with the first one (something that was less of a disappointment given the innate pointlessness of a reboot) and were well aware of what the character needed. Yet, perversely, in trying to learn from the previous film, they just repeated the mistakes of the one before - too many villains, campy digressions, forced emotional moments. And even through all that it was still bogged down by the desire to build to a massive (now defunct) Spider-Man universe.

Here's hoping Marvel can save the character.