Kernel Rating (out of 5):
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Length: 142 minutes
Age Appropriate For: 12+. It’s a PG-13 superhero movie, so it has all of the genre conventions: large-scale action sequences, lots of destruction to urban areas, the implication of injured police officers and citizens, and diseases that create grotesque villains; in the latter area, there are some scary images of baddies with open wounds, decaying skin, overly long nails, etc. Otherwise, some kissing and some beloved characters dying; it’s acceptable for tweens, but not much younger.
‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ is a few different movies in one: a romance, a hero’s journey, a setup for a spinoff film, an ode to family. By trying to juggle all of those story elements, the film doesn’t quite gel—but the individual components are fantastic.
By Roxana Hadadi
From its onset, people have doubted the Spider-Man reboot, thinking it was too early to redo director Sam Raimi’s trilogy starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. So 2012’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” did better internationally than it did stateside, even though Andrew Garfield put his own solid spin on Spidey and his chemistry with costar Emma Stone was hypnotizing. Now, two years later, in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” Garfield is still great, his rapport with Stone continues to be fantastic, and new cast addition Dane DeHaan provides sympathy to a classic villain. But the film’s separate components don’t quite come together, and all of that awesomeness exists in demarcated parts of the movie instead of coming together as one whole.