The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - C+

Rated PG-13, 142 minutes

Meet the new, not-so-amazing "Spider-Man 2"

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone

With great power comes great responsibility...to make an amazing superhero movie, and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is not that movie, maybe more like "The So-So Spider-Man 2." This Spidey installment is a little bittersweet, a little dark and filled with plenty of action and exciting visuals, but it's also too long and lacks the emotional gravitas and grit of "The Dark Knight Rises," which this is clearly trying to emulate. Peter Parker/Spider-Man's (Andrew Garfield) battles this time out include Electro (Jamie Foxx), once a normal schlub and OsCorp employee who by accident turns into a mutual electrical generator, as well as his old friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), who longs for a piece of Spider-Man to stay alive, all the while trying to save the most important thing in his life: his longtime love Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Entertaining but uneven, "The Amazing Spider-Man" is a sequel to "The Amazing Spider-Man" (2012), the (and what some feel was an unnecessary) reboot of the beloved Spider-Man franchise; this outing is enjoyably overstuffed with too much - villains, special effects, loads of unnecessary backstory - except what it really needs: a good dose of heart (not to mention a better script), which this lacks. Director Marc Webb is back for this outing and fills it with some nice touches and some serviceably enjoyable action sequences, especially the Times Square showdown early on, though the clunky storytelling drags it down (do we really need all this backstory? not so much). A miscast Garfield remains a lanky, somewhat wimpy Spidey, crying at every turn, giving way to villains who steal the movie from him: a scowling Foxx as Electro and a brooding, well-cast DeHaan as Harry/The Green Goblin, whose dark vibe will cast an interesting glow on the next Spider-Man outing, of which he is clearly set up to be a major part of. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" goes on too long and its last act in particular could've been trimmed, and on that note some won't care for the bittersweet ending, which finds a major character killed off. I didn't hate "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" but I didn't love it, either. Spider-Man isn't my favorite superhero (my favorites are still Batman and IronMan) but some still find him amazing. In this outing, he's simply mediocre.

Wes's Grade: C+