Lets give a disclaimer here: I am a comic book nerd-geek and Spider-Man is one of my favorite fictional characters ever, so maybe I am inclined to be fully absorbed by this movie very easily, yet this doesn't take away from my film nerd-fan side that genuinely thought very highly of this film from a simple filmaking point of view. As storytelling goes I was very-pleasantly surprised to find a really strong grip: it never commits the Spider-Man 3 mistake of being over-crowded and maintains a brilliant balance on all the characters flowing naturally with a story that feels perfectly fine despite the pressure it had from Sony. It never tries to be over intricate but manages to pull of multiple inter-twining story lines in a magnificent way. Never does it leave loose ends and that is something I hadn't seen in a comic-book movie for a couple of years. Furthermore it isn't a banal plot, there of course are some clichéd moments but as much as they don't get me in 90% of movies they got me here (credit to director/actors for making those few feel very spontaneous), it has valid originality and keeps a core fidelity to the source material that deserves high praise. Just as good is the way in which this sequel builds on its predecessor tying up loose ends, proceeding with minor story lines of the first movie and adding great parts in it. As a director Webb proves to be amazing. The action scenes are complexly put together, with visual brilliance and continuity in them. Great improvement from the first movie. They really were breathtaking, nail-biting sequences that found me on the edge of my seat continuously. Another visual aspect that is stunning is the swinging sequences of Spider-Man: this is what I always wanted to see but never fully experienced with the other Spider-Man movies; the shots there were fantastic. Yet what I most admire Webb for is the talent he has for character development and coherence, we have seen this in his previous two movies and here it is firing once again in all cylinders. There just isn't one character in whom I did not believe, I never spotted the stereotypical comic-book person in here. Everybody had there chance to shine. Sure a couple of characters have minor short-comings and I understand if somebody doesn't believe in Electro's personality, but I found that it walked the line between movie acceptability and comic-book campyness in the perfect dose. To this I also have to give credit to the soundtrack which blew me totally away when Electro is introduced to the public: that was some serious use of music and sounds for storytelling, brilliant, intelligent! Adding to this is a really powerful score from Hans Zimmer, one of the better ones I have heard from him and generally in recent years. Our introduction to Harry Osborn/Green Goblin was positive on the character part (indeed there was no need for him to be green goblin in this one but I honestly did not mind him), yet from an acting point of view I think Dane Dehaan overacted in some scenes, nevertheless he was good enough. There have been many criticisms of this movie in regards to messy tone, unoriginality and rushed villains and as much as I see where people are coming from and I would indeed have appreciated a more untraditional villain(s) introduction and story I just never thought of that during the movie: there are many movies in which I simply cannot be taken in because of originality issues, but for some reason this one felt to me so fluent I never had any problems with this and actually felt it kept a consistent tone throughout. Yet I must address the fact that watching it twice I could feel the studio putting too much of its hand in the movie: they were way to manipulative of this and I think that by leaving Marc Webb just some more creative power this movie could have been enormously better. The CGI wasn't always seamless but great in many moments and anyways it never bothered me because the story was always the driving force behind it and what I was most interested in: this also speaks to the fact that the action was used to propel the plot so it never felt out of place, that is something really hard to pull off. There is lots of humor in the film and I can safely say that it actually is very funny and very faithful to who Spider-Man is and how he acts and to expand on this the humor fits both the tone of the movie and the storytelling, speaking again to the fact that, just like the action, it is used appropriately for the character development or the story, it is never gratuitous. I was excepting more fan service, but I can't really fault the movie for not satisfying my unsatisfiable thirst for it, that was nevertheless kept at bay. "The Amazing Spiderman 2" truly was a comic book movie. It took the best aspects of the two world and combined them in what I always figured in my head when I read Spider-Man comics. Yet, I have been holding back this for all my review and here it is: what truly is the best part of the movie, the most riveting element, the thing that Webb does best in a really majestical way, the driving force behind this film, the main reason and thing that kept me most absorbed in the drama and what gives it honest emotional depth is the relationship between Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker. honestly do not know how Webb is so amazingly good with romance and character interaction but what we have here (and in the previous movie) is something really special.
