We’ve had five Spider-Man movies since 2002 and what’s really amazing is that the latest, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, is still packing them in. It made something like $92 million last weekend.

This reviewer is not a big fan of superhero movies, but the first two Spidey movies weren’t bad. Avoided the third one because of the terrible reviews and missed the fourth (which rebooted the franchise), but find nothing much has changed as the producers seem to be making the same movie over and over again. However, you can say that of most franchises.

Spidey (Andrew Garfield) is still fumbling his love affair with Gwen (Emma Stone) and fighting nasty villains. This time around there are actually three villains, although Paul Giamatti’s role gets short shift. Jamie Foxx is the main villain (Electro), but the only acting involved is his early scenes as a nerdy technician before he becomes a big, blue glowing villain. A rich friend (Dane Dehaan), also turns villainous, but the outcome of the three battles is never in doubt for long.

Too much of this film is animated. You know that is not Garfield or even a stunt man swinging from building to building through the streets of New York.

It’s mostly computer-generated and okay at first, but we could do with a few less of those scenes to reduce the almost two and half hour running time. Some nice action scenes, but it’s too much like an overlong cartoon.

Rating: two deer out of five

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Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.