I’m going to start by saying that even though the original Spider-man trilogy with Tobey Maguire had its dumb moments, but I felt the story was a solid translation from the source material, with the exception of the third film. I believe that Columbia pictures had to put out a Spider-man film by a certain year, or they would lose the rights to it. Apparently, the studio decided to just reboot the franchise rather than make what would probably be a worse sequel to Spider-man 3.

So when it came to the first Amazing Spider-man movie, I felt that I had already saw a good Spider-man movie and didn’t see a need to redo it. Worse yet, The Amazing Spider-man was just not a good movie, as the changes are just not good. First, the casting choice of Andrew Garfield felt odd to me, as he was kind of a hipster Peter Parker when Tobey Maguire played the role in a much-needed nerdy look that the original comic had. Then there is the choice for Sally Field as Aunt May, who never could succeed the way Rosemary Harris played it. The only casting choice that I liked was Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey, who was definitely a step up from Kiersten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson.

The Amazing Spider-man also had some poor choices as far as the villain is concerned. The Lizard was not made very interesting, and he has a really stupid master plan. Then there is a really, really stupid way that the Lizard learns who Peter Parker really is. But I’m not here to review The Amazing Spider-man, but The Amazing Spider-man 2, the worst of Marvel’s films that I have seen this year (unless they are planning to unveil something this Christmas).

The sequel opens with a flashback scene with Peter Parker’s parents. This is interesting, because the backstory behind Peter’s parents is not revealed in the films, and I think the comic book story behind them was one of espionage and intrigue. You could have taken out that first scene, and I’m not certain if the movie would have changed much.

The film then cuts to Spider-man attempting to stop Paul Giamatti. I believe that the big news was that Paul Giamatti was supposed to play the Rhino in this film, and he does. The issue is, not too long, as the main villain is actually Electro. Electro is a Spider-man fanboy played by Jamie Foxx, who is quite a good actor from films like Ray and Collateral. When Electro gets his powers, he ends up fighting Spider-man at Times Square, which is not as exciting or good as it should be.

Then another villain is in the mix with Harry Orsborn showing up. He’s not played James Franco, but some young Keanu Reeves look-a-like Dane DeHaan. Harry’s father has died from a goblin disease, and Harry has this inherited disease. Harry finds a cure for his disease with spider venom and…you know, why is this film so complicated?

So I guess the real villain in this film is Harry, or whatever he calls himself when he’s a villain. Electro could have been taken out of this film, and it would have been a great improvement. As it is, the film has a terrific ending that I won’t spoil, but if you know the comic, it is true to the spirit of it. Then after that, the film ends on a high note which I also won’t spoil.

Now I have heard that Columbia is planning a film based on The Sinister Six, a group of villains that fight Spider-man often. Perhaps this is a set-up for Spider-man 3, but I heard that this second film of this series did not do so well. Perhaps these next two offerings will make up for the first two, but I cannot think of any movie series where this has happened.