Review and trailer: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (3D) (12A) gets unstuck ~ Best 20 Fashion Of World

The “untold story” of the web-slinger’s high school years had set the franchise swinging again.

Andrew Garfield’s younger, moodier, wittier Peter Parker was refreshingly different from Tobey Maguire’s lovable dork. It also seemed like he was getting tantalisingly close to the wisecracking hero of the old, animated TV series.

Sadly, Spidey comes crashing back to earth in this tangled mess.

Returning director Mark Webb crafts some solid 3D action scenes but the only truly “amazing” thing about Part 2 is the villain. Somehow, Webb has come up with a nemesis even less interesting than his last one.

Last time, Rhys Ifans was turned into a mildly threatening CGI Godzuki. Now we’ve got Jamie Foxx as a high-voltage Smurf following a run-in with some electric eels.

It turns his mild-mannered geek Max into power-mad Electro – a mumbling halfwit who can leap in and out of power sockets. His shocking diet leads to the film’s big moment – the prospect of a city-wide power cut.

Will Spidey save the day or will New Yorkers have to buy candles?

You’ll have to wade through a very convoluted plot to find out.

HE'S ELECTRIC: Jamie Foxx plays Spidey's gormless nemesis [Sony Pictures]

Before we get to Spidey and Electro’s showdown (no points for guessing the location) Parker has relationship issues to sort out with girlfriend Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone).

In the last film, they began a convincingly awkward high school romance. Now their relationship has hit that dreary on/off stage.

The couple keep casually breaking up throughout the film’s very fuzzy time frame with the stakes plummeting alarmingly with each reunion.

For Peter, who swings out of his high school graduation ceremony and lands as an established Press photographer, the stumbling block is the ghost of her disapproving dad.

For Gwen, it’s all about her plan to study at Oxford, which she hatches after suddenly appearing behind a desk at sinister tech firm Oscorp.

It isn’t Parker’s only relationship problem. He’s not had any contact with Oscorp heir Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) since they were in short trousers. You think that would speak volumes. Yet when he turns up at Harry’s mansion they act like best friends.

But something threatens to turn this rushed bromance on its head. From his deathbed, Harry’s dad drops a bombshell – his son has inherited the same killer disease he somehow beat for decades. If Harry is going to live to see another sequel he’ll have to get his hands on the only cure – Spider-Man’s blood.

Will Peter hand it over and risk turning Harry into a dangerous mutant? Or will he risk upsetting the best pal he hasn’t bothered to phone, text, tweet, or Facebook friend request in a decade?

You’d think that would be more than enough to get on with, even in a film with a bum-punishing near two-and-a-half-hour running time.

STUCK ON LOVE: Peter and Gwen have another tiff [Sony Pictures]

But the days when superhero movies were all about beginnings, middles and satisfying ends seem to be over. To set up the next two instalments and two planned spin-offs, Webb ties us up in multiple future plot lines.

Peter gets a new lead on the death of his parents, Harry turns into the Green Goblin and Paul Giamatti has a couple of scenes as a third villain called The Rhino. On top of that Felicity Jones appears then promptly disappears as a shadowy Oscorp employee and (SPOILER ALERT) Aunt May (Sally Field) secretly retrains as a nurse.

This over-stuffed soap opera structure (with two-year gaps between episodes) means we never get time to really click with Parker.

Gangly Garfield still looks the part but the personality he and Webb worked so hard to develop in the last film is fading fast.
Related links:

Now he’s just an amateur sleuth, an occasional snapper and a costumed vigilante with a line in lame quips.

The passable action scenes (and a shock twist) should be enough to keep this franchise afloat until the next instalment.

But two years ago, the resuited and rebooted Spider-Man seemed capable of scaling far greater heights. Cruel Webb has just pulled the legs off.