The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) functions less like a film than a catalogue, and the reason is plain: Sony was trying to build a universe with it. Electro, the Green Goblin and the Rhino are packed into one film, alongside the thread about Peter's parents and his relationship with Gwen. None of it gets enough room. The plan was to continue with Sinister Six and Venom films. None were made. The one thing that genuinely works is what happens between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. They were together in real life at the time and it shows; some of their dialogue was improvised. The final sequence restages one of the best known moments in comics. Gwen Stacy's death was published in 1973 in Amazing Spider-Man issue 121 and is treated as the end of an era in superhero comics: until then the hero saved the person he loved. The film reconstructs it almost exactly, down to the clock. Underperforming commercially pushed Sony to change direction, which produced the deal with Marvel and moved Spider-Man into the MCU. It runs 141 minutes. Good for: superheroes and comic adaptations. Less good for: it is crowded and unfocused, the villains' motivations are thin, and the ending is genuinely upsetting.