by Chris Mudd

The original “Spiderman” film released back in 2002 was one of the earliest attempts at bringing the superhero world of comic books to the big screen; now it seems “Spiderman” may be marking the beginning of the death of the genre it helped forge.

“The Amazing Spiderman 2” is by no means the worst film to come out so far this year, far from it. It’s a fun ride that’s worth checking out. On rental. Or in one of those two dollar DVD bins inside a gas station in the middle of Montana somewhere. But the ticket price asked by most theaters is a bit overkill.

For starters, one of the most aggravating things about the film is that the entire thing felt like a commercial. And I get it, films need money and product placement to bring in a lot of funding, but Sony threw subtlety out the window on this one.

The main villain Electro can control and manipulate electricity throughout the city, but that doesn’t stop the film from spending just a few too many frames checking out the Sony mobile phones that Spidey and his buddies use.

Still, all that being said, the character design of Electro himself was pretty awesome. Jamie Foxx gained a lot of my respect after Django a while back, and his delve into the superhero fray didn’t cause my admiration for his talent to sway in any way.

Andrew Garfield again completely nails Spiderman. Garfield wears the spidey suit and the Peter Parker persona comfortably, and it’s a joy to watch him perform.

The film reprises Emma Stone for her role as Gwen Stacy, and employed the very talented Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn.

DeHaan has been on my watch list since “Chronicle,” and while I feel like the script didn’t do him any favors in this film, he’s still able to make a decent character out of it. That being said, the relationship between Osborn and Parker feels completely forced and obligatory, and only serves to push dumb plot points forward without any regard to character development.

It’s pretty simple logic to follow: If you want me to care when a character turns to the “dark side,” then you have to make me care about them to begin with.

Stone’s performance was adequate, although the film spends far too much time exploring the “on again-off again” relationship aspect between herself and Parker. Frankly, in a 2 hour and 20 minute film, at least half of it is spent on whether or not the two of them like each other.

Romantic subplots in film are viable and can be really effective if they don’t resemble relationship statuses on my Facebook feed, changing from “I love him so much, best friends forever,” to “Ugh, why does love never work out for me?” every three days.

Really, the film just felt like it was trying too hard to be something it’s not. Spiderman’s character  is awesome, and the world he lives in is one that I really want to see done right. They missed the mark, and if this is the route that superhero movies are going, then God help us all when “Man of Steel 2” comes out in a couple years.