The Amazing Spiderman 2 Review
As
long as this blog has been alive, there has been talk of the future of
Spiderman. Spiderman is one of my favorite superheroes. As I have stated time
and time again, I am a huge Marvel guy, and one of the most important characters
that transformed me into a Marvel guy was Spiderman. He was instantly iconic in
my eyes because he was one of the very first young superheroes I ever saw. The
idea of a young man being super was an idea I thought was really cool,
something I could never get out of my head.
Sam
Raimi’s run with character may not have been flawless, but he made two great
movies and one severely mediocre one. I don’t think “Spiderman 3” was the worst
thing to happen in 2007, I felt “Spiderman 3” had some great ideas, but too
many ideas. Sometimes too much of something is a bad thing, and in the case of
“Spiderman 3,” it was way too much of a good thing. Still, Raimi made two great
films, even though his Spiderman deviated from his comic book counterpart quite
a bit. But what Raimi made was a fully-emotional, deeply valued character and
that is what ultimately sold me on his two films.
I
liked “The Amazing Spiderman” but my love for that film is not even close to
the amount of love I have for Raimi’s first two films. “The Amazing Spiderman”
was directed by Marc Webb, who also made this sequel, entitled “The Amazing
Spiderman 2.” Marc Webb’s Spiderman was much closer to the comic book
counterpart, but everything in the first film was refreshed from Raimi’s films
that a reboot almost seemed redundant. That somewhat changes in “The Amazing
Spiderman 2” but it somewhat does not too. “The Amazing Spiderman 2” is an
interesting sequel, because it is a step in the right direction for Webb and
the story he is trying to tell. The movie is really ambitious, and I loved that
about the sequel. Sadly, what made the first film a little unbearable carries
over to this sequel. Plus, there are several bizarre character choices made
that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Did I like “The Amazing Spiderman 2” more
than the first film? I honestly do not know. I am going to have to think about
it, perhaps watch both films together. There are some big choices that I liked
in this sequel, but there are also some glaring problems about it as well. I
didn’t expect this sequel to be a mixed bag, but that is exactly what “The
Amazing Spiderman 2” is, a mixed bag.
The
film opens with one of the film’s best moments. We reconnect with Richard
Parker and Mary Parker (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz), Peter’s parents who
mysteriously died when Peter was young. We see Richard Parker delete several
documents off of his computer, then he boards a plane with his wife. The
plane’s pilot attempts to kill the Parkers, which leads to a tussle. This scene
outlines the fate of Parker’s parents and a chaotically awesome scene. The
action beats are well-staged and the actors squeeze out enough emotion for the
scene to matter. It was a great way to open the movie.
After
the opening is over, we swing right into an action sequence with Peter Parker
as Spiderman (Andrew Garfield) who facing off against Russian mobster Aleksei
Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti). The scene is really cool, but I can’t help but find
Giamatti’s scenes a little too over-the-top. Giamatti said himself he’d be
hammy, but that ham-handedness was a little too much at times. Especially since
the action scene that features Spiderman fighting Sytsevich is paralleling a
scene where Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), Parker’s girlfriend, is giving her
Valedictorian speech at her high school graduation. It is suppose to be a big
emotional moment, but it falls flat due to the silliness of the action scene.
We’ll get into the villains in more detail in a little bit. During this big
fight, Peter Parker has a vision of Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary) the
deceased father of Gwen. At the end of the first film, Spiderman made a deal
with Captain Stacy to stay away from his daughter, but that is harder than
Parker thought.
Not
only is Parker having serious girl problems, but his old best friend Harry
Osborn (Dane DeHaan) is back in town after a long absence. It seems his father
Norman (Chris Cooper) is dying, and soon Harry will be too as the illness is
hereditary. Harry needs Spiderman’s blood in order to make a cure for the
illness, which Parker is not willing to give. He needs all his blood he has in
order to survive against Electro (Jamie Foxx), a new villain in town which was
the product of Harry’s family company, Oscorp.
So
as you can tell, “The Amazing Spiderman 2” has numerous storylines going every
which way. This was an issue in “Spiderman 3,” but that does not mean anything.
Christopher Nolan proved with all three of his Batman films that the number of
villains in a movie does not matter, just how you tell your story does matter.
For the most part, Webb does okay. That should be taken as more than a faint
praise, as Webb made some weird choices with his only villain in the first
film. With all that said, I feel that “The Amazing Spiderman 2” would have been
a much stronger sequel had the movies focused more on Harry Osborn and left all
the Electro stuff for another movie. If you took Electro’s storyline out of the
film completely, the film would have arrived at the exact same conclusion. Not
the best creative choice to remember from a movie.
What
makes “The Amazing Spiderman 2” not so jumbled is the great acting done by
Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. Their chemistry is what drew so many to the
first film, but I feel both Garfield and Stone have grown as actors over the
last couple of years, and they are playing real humans this time. I think
Garfield in particular is much more settled as Peter Parker/Spiderman in this
sequel. I love how he jokes with the bad guys as he’s fighting them, I love a
couple tender moments helping New York citizens, and I love how Garfield
transitions from Parker to Spiderman with ease. I have been singing the praises
of Emma Stone since I saw her in 2007’s “Superbad.” She is easily one of the
most delightful actresses of her generation, and this is the best work as Gwen
Stacy she has done yet. Together, they do a good job of unraveling the
ambitious story Webb is creating. If you know the comics, you have an idea of
where this story is heading, and it is all handled well, and well acted by the
leads. The audience believes in the relationship that Garfield and Stone create
onscreen and we nearly given into the absurdities of the movie. Nearly.
Another
thing I liked about “The Amazing Spiderman 2” was I thought Webb improved upon
the action scenes. Emotionally speaking, these action scenes are better,
because Spiderman is in a much more personal fight than the first film. The
villains in this sequel are not trying to turn everyone in New York City into a
lizard, they are fighting Spiderman for personal reasons and that makes them
much more interesting. On a choreography level, the action scenes are just
plain fun to watch. They are broad, they are well-staged, and they feel like
Marvel. I also like that we are starting to get small whispers of the future
for Spiderman. We are meeting characters who may have bigger presences in the
future, and the sequel drops a few huge hints in the movie. This is all very
exciting, and I definitely soaked it all up.
Superhero
movies are only as good as their villains. “The Amazing Spiderman 2” has quite
a few of them. We have Sytesvich at the beginning, we have Electro and we have
Harry Osborn (who Osborn becomes has already been given away, but just in case
any of you live under a rock…). Any of these characters would make for a great
movie for Spiderman, but their execution is quite disappointing. I discussed
how overly-hammy Giamatti was. The origin of Jamie Foxx’s Electro is another
story too. Before Electro becomes who he is he is Max Dillon, an Oscorp
employee who falls into a tank of electrified eels. Before Dillon becomes
Electro, he is very quirky, talks to himself a lot, idolizes Spideman, the
whole bit. Then when he becomes Electro, it is quite harrowing. Sound familiar?
Re-watch “Batman Returns” and pay attention to Catwoman’s origin in that film,
it deeply parallels Foxx’s Electro character. I think Foxx does very good work,
but his character is written with sloppiness. To be a quirky idolizer of Spiderman,
then get turned into a human electrical current, then all-of-a-sudden turn evil
over a clichéd misunderstanding felt absurd and unbelievable. The scene of
Electro in Time Square is actually quite heartbreaking as Electro and Spiderman
have a great moment, but the decision made by Webb and his creative team
harbors on the ludicrous. Dane DeHaan is an actor I have loved for awhile now.
I knew he would be a great Harry Osborn and I was not wrong. How Harry is
written in this sequel is unabashedly funny. I hope that Webb has bigger plans
for both Osborns, otherwise he will have wasted the two most iconic characters
in Spiderman’s stock. Not only that, but Harry’s storyline is quite rushed and
paved over, which makes his hinted plot for the upcoming films seem forced.
I
also hope Webb can begin to make a movie that feels like his own. One thing
that annoyed me about “The Amazing Spiderman” was the feeling of “been there,
done that.” The movie felt like a continuation of Raimi’s story and not much
like a reboot. That Raimi influence is still fully realized in this sequel. The
action scenes feel like they were cropped out of Raimi’s movies. The money
problems with Aunt May (Sally Field) feel familiar, as do the reasons why
Parker can’t date Stacy other than her father’s wish. This never gets up on its
own two feet, it never becomes something of its own. This series as a whole has
felt torn from the same cloth as Raimi’s trilogy, and that’s disappointing too.
“The
Amazing Spiderman” put me on edge because I did not care for the direction Webb
was taking with his characters. My faith in him has gone up slightly with this
picture, but not by much. I still have some suspicions about certain character
and story beats, and if those come to fruition, this series will be a done in
my eyes. Linking every Spiderman villain to Oscorp seems like a narrative
dead-end to me, turning Spiderman from ordinary man given a gift into a big
coincidence seems equally moronic. If Webb can make it all payoff, then I am
all for it, if he doesn’t than I will be deeply disappointed. He made some
tough decisions, but this series is long from over and I can only hope that it
ends on a high note. Webb makes some cool action scenes, he has two magnificent
leads and he can at least string storylines together. I just hope this story is
worthwhile in the end.
FINAL GRADE: C+
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