SILVER TONGUED SILVER SCREEN: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

I know I'm a little late with this one but I have to put this one out there, simply because it was the first movie of the summer season and the first movie I went to this summer. 2 years ago the Spider-Man movie franchise was rebooted, a legitimate from the ground up reboot throwing out the previous films altogether. It was the first major franchise to do such a thing (I can argue any others you'd like to throw at me). I thought it was a good move. I like the actors, the script, and direction. I'll go as far as to say that the Amazing Spider-Man is my favorite of the spidey films.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 unfortunately falls short of it's predecessor. The previous film retread the origin story a bit but it moved fairly quickly through the rehashed material. This film enters into familiar territory barely a decade old (now I realize that some of the audience members may not have been born when the first film came out but the movie is PG-13. Those kids shouldn't even be in the theater). I'm okay with the retread on old material but don't stay there. Move on, please. But it doesn't.

It feels like a mish-mash of the 3 original Spidey films along with thematic choices and acting choices derived straight out of the Joel Schumacher Batman films (Jamie Foxx's character is almost exactly like Jim Carrey's Riddler, at least at first). I don't know about you but modeling my choices off of Batman Forever or Batman and Robin is not something I'd do willingly.

Emma Stone delivers another great performance. Andrew Garfield and the actor playing Harry Osborn fall into some acting choices that vaguely resemble Kirsten Stewart and Robert Pattinson's Twilight romance (that acting style may accurately capture today's youth but to me it just looks like bad acting). There are few lines of dialog that are witty though. The interplay between Peter and Harry when they first meet in the movie is well done and well written. Paul Giamatti as the Rhino is a total one off joke.

And that goes into where the movie fails for me but maybe succeeds for others. While being rated PG-13 the film feels quite juvenile, moreso than any of the other spidey films. Almost like they intentionally injected judicial amounts of Adam West camp directly to its veins. Again, not a choice I'd make nor one I care to see. But for younger audience members (anyone below age 13 should not be here) it probably works for. Keep Spidey kid friendly is the approach then I guess but yet there are still dark moments in the film.

All in all I think it ties Spider-Man 3 for worst film in the franchise. It portrays a more juvenile kid friendly Spidey yet remains inconsistent at that too. But if you saw the trailers and followed the movie hype the film delivers exactly what it promises. What you saw from the previews and screenshots is exactly what you get. No surprises and no let downs unless you were let down to begin with.

Overall Ranking: 5 out of 10