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| The Amazing Spider Man |
Watch The Amazing Spider Man - According to film critics, the predicament for Marc Webb's superhero sequel The Amazing Spider Man is that it's overstuffed with plot lines, set pieces and villains, although stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone do their best to give the movie heart.
The Times' Betsy Sharkey writes, "'The Occasionally Amazing Spider-Man 2' might be a better way to think of the not-always-spectacular but sometimes satisfying Spider-Man sequel." Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post agrees, declaring "ASM 2" a "strenuously chipper but nonetheless saggy, baggy and mostly ho-hum addition to the Spider-Man canon." USA Today's Claudia Puig gives "ASM 2" solid marks. "Garfield makes an appealing, multidimensional teen superhero," she writes, and "his potent chemistry with Emma Stone, as Gwen Stacy, is the propulsive force behind this sequel."
While the movie is "overlong and grows hectic at times," it also "cleverly balances lighthearted thrills and emotional heft."
Morgenstern's coup de grace: "This franchise needs more than a reset. At least two more "Amazing Spider-Man" sequels and two additional spin-offs (about the villains Venom and the Sinister Six) are already in the works.
"The Occasionally Amazing Spider-Man 2" might be a better way to think of the not-always-spectacular but sometimes satisfying Spider-Man sequel as it sprawls, brawls and wall-crawls over New York City.
Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone remain the best things about the reimagined superhero franchise, even better in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" than they were in the original 2012 reboot. As Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy/budding beauty and biochemist, the actors bring much more than their considerable and much-teased offscreen chemistry.
Garfield gives Peter a touching sensitivity and Spidey the playful wryness the Marvel Comics creators first envisioned. Stone's Gwen is flinty, flirty and super-smart.
INTERVIEW: Andrew Garfield tries to preserve a shred of secret identity
Marc Webb is back in the director's chair, and with the help of an extensive special effects force and the very talented cinematographer Dan Mindel, delivers a great many sticky stunts involving building-hopping, crime-stopping and the crashing and crushing of roughly a million cars. As the film opens, Spider-Man is doing a little street cleaning in Manhattan, specifically a crime caper and a get-away driver named Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti), who must be stopped. Aleksei's a bit of a monster already, but will morph into a heavy-metal foe and one of "Spider-Man 2's" three major villains.
In "Spider-Man 2," all things evil exist in the towering skyscraper where Oscorp is headquartered. RELATED: More movie reviews by The Times
DeHaan fares a little better. What doesn't work as well in "2" is the human factor, the one beyond Peter and Gwen's complicated entanglements or the superhero showdowns.
Spider-Man's real struggle is always between taking care of the people he loves and the world he's destined to save. That story arc is there in "Amazing Spider-Man 2" and provides some of the film's most moving moments. But frankly Electro has a better chance than love does of surviving all the pyrotechnics, and that is ultimately what brings this high-flying Spider-Man down.
