Aah Spidey, oh Spidey … where do I begin? The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was not as highly anticipated than the first despite having such a huge budget and the addition of one of Hollywood heavy hitters, Grammy and Academy award winner Jamie Foxx. It was not ass good as I expected and I only give it a B, not even a B+. And why did they have to kill off Gwen Stacy. Now they’ll have plenty of room for Shailene Woodley’s Mary Jane Watson in the next sequel, if there is one that is. And maybe they won’t go with Ms. Woodley at all the next time around despite shooting scenes with the talented and pretty Hollywood up and comer.

It starts off about a decade and a half ago with Richard and Mary Parker, Peter’s parents on a plane after dropping off young Peter at Ben and May Parker’s house and discussing their love for their only son and how they can no longer live normal lives after a recent secretive incident.  Apparently they have stumbled onto something big and have to flee New York and possibly America but on the plane they encounter trouble and are almost killed but they manage to kill their attempted assailant and survive to send encrypted information to a source which eventually turns out to be Peter, some fourteen years later. I am not sure if anyone else got the message. But it’s strange because they used laptops which weren’t that common back in those times but it apparently got hooked up to a network, not sure if it had wifi.

Anyway the plane with a now dead pilot went down and the Parker parents are supposedly dead and eventually have their names smeared. Now in present day we see Spider-Man swinging through the streets of New York city saving individuals and helping to thwart chaos in the busy city and he ends up saving Jamie Foxx’s character Max Dillon who is a scientist at Oscorp who designed the entire power grid system in the city. He was very grateful to Spider-Man whom he became obsessed with and touted as his hero and was even considering him a friend. Dillon and his crazy messed up mind. but Dillon was a nobody who was taken for granted by Oscorp and his immediate boss who had no regards for him or his contributions whatsoever.

But Peter while swinging through New York was being late for his high school graduation and Gwen Stacy, the girl he never ended up getting at the end of the first movie dialed him on his smart phone saying he was missing the service. Petey was coy and never admitted why he was late. He eventually arrives but has to stop Paul Giamatti’s character who eventually becomes the infamous spider-man villain “The Rhino.”

It was an intense fight scene and pre-Rhino essentially gets humiliated and demeaned. It was a great struggle and Peter eventually makes it right on time to receive his diploma. On receipt he plants a huge kiss on Gwen with a curiously surprised Aunt May sees. After the ceremony Peter is about to join Gwen and her family for dinner but seems to be haunted by the figurative ghost of Gwen’s dad played by Denis Leary who makes cameos throughout the movie. Gwen detects this and complains about always having to make up and break up with Peter over the fact that her father wanted Peter and got him to promise that he would stay away from Gwen to keep her out of trouble.

Peter then says he can’t go on and Gwen says it’s her decision to make to be with Pete and not her late father’s. She says she has had enough and breaks up with him for good and while heartbroken rejoins her family at dinner. Then Dillon goes back to Oscorp and is ill treated by his boss even further and meets up afterwards with Gwen some time after and they exchange pleasantries but has been over the moon that Gwen actually notices him and Spider-Man as well even saving his life and rescuing his research documents on the day of graduation.

Unfortunately for Dillon he becomes involved in an accident that saw him being electrocuted in a tank with electric eels and massive amounts of electricity turning him into a blue mutated freak. He awakens in a lab and escapes onto the street and people start to panic on seeing him. He says no one should be afraid and he’s just confused. Apparently this doesn’t go over well with the police and they start to shoot at him. Soon after Spider-Man appears and shouts the classic trailer line “Yo sparkles!” Then Dillon now tries to explain that he’s the same guy Spidey rescued the other day and Peter remembers him.

Then after a few exchanges and with Spidey trying to calm him down he unleashes waves of electricity on Spider-Man and the citizens of New York and the police. Chaos ensues and Spidey uses a fire hydrant to stop his waves of electricity and Dillon who is now a super powered villain is captured and detained at Oscorp. We also see Peter and Gwen meet up after a text from Gwen asking him to rendezvous. She says she wants to at least be friends and it’s amicable but they both know they still love each other but it’s complicated. In addition we encounter two new figures, Harry and his dad Norman Osborn. Harry is an old friend of Peter’s from years back.

Harry’s father Norman Osborn has a genetic disease and is dying. Ironically Norman’s voice sounds just like that of former US President Jimmy Carter. Don’t know if anyone else who has seen the film or will see will notice. Anyway soon after Norman dies leaving everything to his estranged son who is arrogant and is dictating orders to the board of directors at Oscorp. We also see a young woman named Felicia, probably Felicia Hardy, one of Peter Parker’s love interests from the successful 1990s animated series and probably from the comics who is also known as Black Cat. What a DC Comics ripoff of Catwoman. So obvious!

Anyway Black Cat is a super soldier while Catwoman is just a vigilante who just happens to be super sexy. Anyway Harry and Felicia bond and she is made his administrative assistant and everyone takes orders from Harry through her. Very cool. Then we see Peter visit Harry at the meeting and for a while it is very cold but the two eventually warm up and reminisce on old times. Meanwhile Electro is still detained and Peter and Gwen work on their estranged relationship.

Unbeknownst to Peter Aunt May is broke and the two, without Ben are almost broke and she has to hold down two jobs with a mysterious Peter living a double life always making up excuses ever since the first movie. Andrew Garfield is a great Spider-Man and almost fully erases the painful disaster of Tobey Maguire in the original trilogy. Thank God! May has to be doing double shifts and working her tail off to make ends meet. Peter has questions about his parents and May tells him which eventually leads him on a search through an old railway station that former President Roosevelt used decades ago when he was still a sitting president.

Peter uncovers the honest truth about his mom and his dad who were given a bad rap. They had uncovered scientific breakthroughs that could regenerate human tissue and Richard’s D.N.A. was what caused the spider that bit Peter to get radioactive and eventually give Peter super spider powers. Awesome, some things surprisingly come full circle. This finally clears things up. Eventually Harry contacts Peter to get Spider-Man to give him some of his blood to generate a cure for his terminal family disease. Peter brushes it off respectfully but agrees to try to get Spidey to help. Spidey appears to Harry and refuses to help saying it’s too dangerous and may kill him. Soon after Spidey leaves with Harry becoming enraged.

Now a member of the Oscorp board takes the company from him and Harry is forced to make a deal with Eletro, freeing him and causing havoc on the city. Spidey reunites with Gwen who is about to move to Oxford on a scholarship and they eventually become boyfriend and girlfriend again. Gwen helps Pete tackle Electro but Harry becomes Green Goblin using tech from Oscorp and in a struggle kills Gwen and Peter just misses saving her. It was tragic and I hated that Gwen had to die but I heard about it and totally saw it coming. I guess I was just in denial.

Gwen ultimately has a funeral and Peter is devastated and reminisces on the good times they shared together and yet again never gets the girl at the end of the movie. Then Rhino emerges and threatens the city. He taunts a brave young boy whom Spider-Man helped and the movie ends with a huge but not so huge fight scene. it was an unimpressive ending for a movie with such great promise. I hated that Gwen had to die but I am glad Peter found out the truth about his parents and that Gwen died with the love of Peter and having been a couple at the end.

It was a good movie but the plot wasn’t to my liking. It’s the first superhero movie since 2006’s Superman Returns that I am disappointed in and to be frank I left the theatres in 2006 think Superman returns was the greatest movie ever having to change my mind over time and with poor reviews and poor commercial success plus some deep retrospective analysis. I hope there is an Amazing Spider-Man 3 and that we can get a great villain. Rhino’s presence was unnecessary and the movie never needed a third villain. I loved Peter’s haircut and Gwen’s bangs. Great addition to the movie. Good try but Gwen shouldn’t have died. And does Stan Lee have to be in ever Marvel movie? Come on!