The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Peter Parker is back as the Amazing Spider-Man, trying to save NYC from evil-doers, unravel the mystery of his parents disappearance and balance his love for girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, whilst keeping a promise he made to her late police chief father to stay away from her in order to keep her safe.

This movie has it's moments.  The leads, Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy have ample amounts of chemistry on screen (I understand they're dating in real life, so there you go) and are very good actors.  Their relationship, how Spider-Man balances his love for Gwen with his desire to keep her safe and honor her father's wishes, is very engaging, funny and emotional.  Where the movie suffers, like many superhero movies have before it, is with it's villains, as in too many of them.  Choose one and go with it.  Give us time to hate/fear him and give him screen time.  This almost felt like two movies jammed into one; a romantic comedy/drama mixed with your run of the mill Spider-Man villain story.  The villains are okay, they're not terrible, but the movie feels overstuffed, and some scenes with a mad scientist and Electro (Jamie Foxx), go over the top cheesy and feel oddly out of place.  The action and special FX are awesome.  Andrew Garfield is a much better Spider-Man than Tobey Maguire.

**1/2 out of 4.  Theater worthy if you're a Spider-Man/comic book fan.  Rentable if not.