In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has settled into his hectic double life of battling crime on the streets of New York as Spider-Man, while keeping up with his everyday responsibilities as Peter Parker. Upon his graduation from high school, however, Peter finds this delicate balancing act to be too much, forcing him to reconcile his own desire to keep his love Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) in his life, with the knowledge that he will forever be putting her life in potential jeopardy by doing so.
Things become even more complicated when Peter’s old childhood friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns to our hero’s life – carrying some dangerous secrets with him. Meanwhile, down-trodden Oscorp electrician Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) is accidentally transformed into the dangerous force of nature that is Electro, forcing Pete to yet again battle a science experiment-gone-wrong birthed by his dad’s old workplace. This leads Peter to learn more about his parents’ disappearance so many years ago, while starting to uncover the truth about what is going on behind closed doors at Oscorp Industries.
It could be argued that the first installment in Sony’s rebooted Spider-Man cinematic franchise, Amazing Spider-Man, is a film at odds with itself: one-half is director Marc Webb’s grittier retelling of Peter Parker’s origin story, while the other half is a shiny, yet empty, comic book movie blockbuster. Mirroring how young Peter has changed from gawky teenager to a more confident young adult between movies, Webb’s direction is steadier and bolder on Amazing Spider-Man 2, giving rise to an overall enthralling (and, in some regards, better) installment with elements of greatness – but, like the eponymous superhero, is still guilty of committing mistakes that are too significant to overlook.