It's hard to pin down why The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is so inessential. After all, Andrew Garfield is a damn good Spider-man, and Emma Stone is great as Gwen Stacy. Sally Field is a good Aunt May, and Paul Giamatti is fun (if underused) as Rhino. It looks gorgeous, with none of the effects problems that plagued even the best of the Raimi bunch. It even has one of the best scenes in the five Spider-Man movies*. It's a movie that is the lesser sum of its parts, and I'm not sure why.
