Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro review — good fun if you don’t want to think too hard

LIFE is good for Peter Parker, but for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 it means a distinct lack of fizz.

LIFE is good for Peter Parker, as played by Andrew Garfield in this franchise, successfully rebooted in 2012.

Sure, he’s got troubles, but they’re pretty run of the mill for a superhero: Russian mobsters who are no match for a good dacking, a nosy aunt wondering why the laundry is coming out all red and blue, predictable news reports about vigilantism being bad for the city, seeing his girl’s dead father everywhere …

You know, the usual.

While the relatively good times roll, The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise Of Electro plays it light and bright. In fact, as Spidey wisecracks and high-fives his way through each hero moment, the humour is so goofy you may wonder if the movie is set in 1954 rather than 2014, or if you’ve mistakenly walked into a screening of the dire Brandon Routh Superman reboot. Heaven forbid!

Perhaps all this grating goofing around is director Marc Webb’s overcompensation for the darkness that is to come as Spidey faces his arch enemy, Green Goblin. As aficionados of Spider-Man comic-book lore know, the battle between this pair does not end well.

So it’s a relief when the real trouble sets in and Garfield is able to stop hamming his way through the film.

First, Peter’s mate Harry (Dane DeHaan) returns to New York to inherit his father’s business, Oscorp, as well as the affliction that killed the old guy. He and Peter bond over their daddy issues, but look headed for a fall-out when Harry learns that Spider-Man’s blood could save him.

Then Peter’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Gwen (Emma Stone) declares she’s moving to England. And buzzing away in the background is Max (Jamie Foxx hidden under a nerdtastic makeover), who swoons over Spider-Man like a tween girl swoons over One Direction.

Max is invisible — not in a superhero way, just by virtue of being an uber-geek, who is trampled on by his Oscorp colleagues. That is until Max falls into a tank full of electric eels in an Oscorp lab and emerges a glowing blue beast capable of tapping into the electrical grid and shooting energy out of his fingertips.

No one could fail to see that.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is by no means unenjoyable; it’s just all kinds of stupid.

The best approach: don’t think too hard about it all. Questions such as: “Wait, didn’t Peter and Gwen break up at the end of the last movie?” or, “Gee, Max went from Spidey’s biggest fan to his worst enemy for no good reason, didn’t he?” and, “Would a smart girl really wear a skirt that short to an Oxford entrance interview?” will only ruin what fun it does offer.

The film packs in a couple of great-looking fight sequences (including Spidey and Electro’s first showdown in the neon-lit Times Square) and Garfield and Stone still give good fizz.

DeHaan (last seen in a tortured romance with Daniel Radcliffe in Kill Your Darlings) is a fine choice for the nemesis role; more real actor than Hollywood cutie, playing a trust fund brat comes easy to him.

Outside the core cast, Kiwi Marton Csokas ought to be checked into the same institute for the criminally insane in which we meet his inexplicably camp German doctor. And Paul Giamatti must have been in serious debt to bother turning up to play tattooed Russian baddie Aleksei (who becomes comic book villain The Rhino).