The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (12A)

Verdict: Thunderous, but forgettable

Locke (15) Verdict: Clever British thriller

STAN LEE, who conceived Spider-Man more than 50 years ago and is now in his 90s, evidently approves of the way his creation has evolved for the 21stcentury: as in most films featuring Marvel super-heroes, the old boy has a fleeting cameo in the amazing Spider-Man 2.

But Spider-Man’s biggest battle in this film is with the 3D computer-generated effects which, impressive as most of them are, begin to get in the way, making some of us — if not Lee — rather pine for the days when he was content merely to do whatever a spider can.

Still, andrew Garfield again proves himself a perfect fit for the iconic redand-blue suit. We would never guess that, very much unlike Spider-Man, Garfield was raised in Epsom and is actually quintessential Home Counties Man, no kind of name for a super hero.

as in his first outing, in the amazing Spider-Man (2012), he imbues Spider-Man with wit that feels unforced, and his alter ego Peter Parker with awkward, neurotic vulnerability.

In Marc Webb’s thunderous sequel — which at two hours and 22 minutes is as over-long as it is over-loud — Peter grapples with the mystery of why his parents abandoned him so suddenly, and whether to let his aunt May (Sally Field) in on his webby secret.

this latter dilemma yields some nice wry gags, as when aunt May wonders why everything in the washing-machine turned blue and r ed, and Peter claims unconvincingly that he was putting the american flag through a spin cycle.

at least his girlfriend Gwen (Emma Stone) knows who he is, and as before there is some appealing chemistry between the two — not surprisingly, as Stone and Garfield are an item in real life.

However, this film is l ess about chemistry than electricity. the literally electrifying villain is Electro (Jamie Foxx), who in his early incarnation is Max, an anonymous but respectable underling at the shadowy Osborn Corporation, notable only f or a particularly greasy comb-over.

then a high-voltage accident turns Max reluctantly bad, sending him entertainingly bonkers in times Square and giving him the power to plunge all of Manhattan into darkness.

Like the ravens leaving the tower of London, Manhattan losing its light is symbolic of a worl d gone terribly awry. It is a modern american nightmare.

Spider-Man springs, swings and abseils