Amazing Spider-Man 2 is visually stunning, at least it is in 3-D.
Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man/Peter Parker is the funniest, wise-cracking
Spider-Man to date. The movie does hold your attention with its use of
special effects. Lines and characters are often over-the-top in just the
right way. And if you sense there is a "but" coming in my
review, you're right...
But...
The plot of Amazing Spider-Man 2 is kind
of a mess. The actual through story line is more about the romance
between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and less about being driven by
the villains, and there are more than a couple, villains. For some
inexplicable reason, Hollywood has decided that at some point, particularly in
the Batman and Spider-Man franchises, the hero needs to face off against as
many villains as they can shove into a movie. Most of the time, it
doesn't work. 
Take for example both of the more recent
Batman series. The best in both series have a single major villain, The
Joker. The least in both Batman series has two or three villains or more villains that make an appearance. This combination of too many villains (Sandman, Goblin, Venom and the Venom/Spider-Man combo) in the
first Spider-Man franchise probably contributed to its demise. The problem with
too many villains is they tend to get in the way of each other's plot lines.
The same is true for Amazing Spider-Man 2.
There are simply too many bad guys and too many minor story lines. While the
audience is dealing with the difficulties of Gwen and Peter, we don't really
have enough screen time left for the other subplot lines that director Marc Webb
tries to develop. There is the story line of the sympathetic and somewhat
psychotic, Max Dillon (Jamie Fox), who becomes Electro. There is the
story line of Harry Osborne (Dane DeHaan), the lost and badly treated son of
Norman Osborne (Chris Cooper) who we barely meet. There is the story line
of Harry and Peter whose friendship is extremely important to the story line of
the Green Goblin (DeHaan). There are the story lines Peter's Parents, Mary
and Richard Parker (Embeth Davidtz and Cambell Scott) and their tragic murders
and subsequent character assassination by Oscorp. There is the evil
corporate executive, Donald Menken (Colm Feore). There is the story of
Peter's relationship with Aunt May (Sally Fields) There is the "man in the
shadows" now identified as Gustav Fliers (Michael Massee) and his strange
connection as the sinister voice at the end of Amazing Spider-Man 1 and again
at the end of Amazing Spider-Man 2 and possibly as the assassin of Mary and
Richard. Finally there is the book end appearance of the villain
Rhino/Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti). Get the point? Too many plots and
villains and so we don't really get time to feel for any of them. 
The central bad guy is Electro. The
effects and battles are spectacular as is the constant banter and crowd
interaction by Spider-Man which is fun and humorous. (Possible Spoiler) The
love story, which for fans follows the same outcome as it did in the original
comics, is damaged by the over-abundance of mini-story lines and villains.
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is fun and worth
the watch, but it is not as tightly knit as the first movie. It suffers as
many of the comic book movies do from that dreaded disease villainititus.
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