Review of the Amazing Spider-man 2
The Amazing Spider-man 2 swung in theaters May 2 and has caused a split in moviegoers everywhere. Some praise it as the best movie the wall crawler has been in while others says its cluttered, boring and confusing. Now as all good movie reviews go, I will break this up into two sections a spoiler free section and a section chalk full of them.
Spoiler Free Section:
The Amazing Spider-man 2 details the story of Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield, after the events of The Amazing Spider-man 1. Peter Parker has gotten better at being your friendly neighborhood Spider-man. He spends time with his girlfriend and love of his life Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone, as they face the ups and downs any superhero couple have. When Gwen and Peter separate after they graduate from high school, Gwen continues to work at Oscorp while Peter continues on as Spider-man. Oscorp is a leading multi-national multi-billion dollar company owned by Norman Osborn, played by Chris Cooper. His only son is Harry, played by Dan Dehaan. Harry Osborn and Peter were childhood friends but Harry went off to boarding school for many years. Harry returns to find Norman on his deathbed. Norman relinquishes Oscorp to Harry and passes away from a hereditary disease. Harry Osborn and Peter were always childhood friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. Also at Oscop is Max Dillon. He is one of the main antagonist of this movie. His character is so envious of Spider-man and his powers and fame that he attempts to fix a broken suspended power coupling and falls into a vat of genetically altered eels. This transforms him into the Ultimate spidey bad guy Electro. After an initial showdown between Electro and Spidey in the middle of Time Square, Electro is put in an institution and is not seen in the movie till the last 3rd. The rest of the movie is broken into 4 recurring plot lines. The first being Peter and Gwen, the second being Harry Osborn looking for Spiderman as his blood is the cure for the hereditary disease, the third being what’s happening to Electro, and the Fourth being what’s happened to Peter’s parents. There is a whole subplot in this move that could be its own plot in other movies but more on that in the spoiler section. The final fight takes place when the Green Goblin, appears after Spider-man has taken out Electro.
The strongest part of this movie in my opinion is its romance. The chemistry between Peter and Gwen is so genuine that you believe they are in love. They act like they are a confused young couple trying to make it work and they pull it off so beautifully. The next strongest element is the action. Spider-man in this movie mimics the fighting style of the comic books so much more than any previous movies. Director Marc Webb has said that to make to this movie more believable, they added physical analysis to all the stunts and fight scenes to make them appear accurate. The only detriment to these scenes are the slow motion shots. There are so many slow motion shots that it feels like if you pulled them out the movie’s run time would be cut in half.
I my honest opinion, I think that people dislike this movie too much. It has great comedy, romance, and action. It makes up for all its shortcomings by keeping the flow intact and the characters thoroughly enjoyable. I think that this movie is a must see for both Spider-man comic fans and your everyday moviegoer.
Spoilers: Lets make a list
Villains: The posters for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 show spiderman facing off against 3 unique villains, but in the first 98% of the movie it is just Electro and the Green Goblin. The third villain is Aleksei Sytsevich a.k.a The Rhino who appears from 10 minute mark to the 12 minutes mark without his Rhino suit and then again at the last two minutes. This angered all fans who went to see this movie as The Rhino was advertised as a main villain. The posters for the movie showed him as a main villain and he barely had any screen time.
Peter’s Parents: Underneath the semi-action and the romance , the movie forces a full sub plot having to do with Peter’s parents. We see what happens during their plane crash and how they are fleeing due to Norman Osborn framing them as traitors and Russian spies. This is in fact accurate within in the realm of the comics. Peter’s parents are framed as russian spies, but this “spoiler” is shoved in and has almost nothing to do with the overall plot. This could have been the plot of a whole other movie, but Marc Webb (The director) had to shoehorn it in there. This is a big weakness of the plot and flow of the Movie.
Gwen’s Death: The biggest plot twist in this movie is the death of Gwen Stacy. Once the Green Goblin comes into the picture, he and Spider-man fight on top of a clock tower with Gwen hanging to a web. When the web snaps and she falls, Spider-man goes after her and tries to catch her with a web, but the sudden change in acceleration causes her neck to snap.
In theaters, all I heard was “ohhhh” when this happened. It was ripped right out of the comic pages. The cinematographers matched the comic and movie almost scene from scene and gave all movie goers a chance to shed a tear.
Final Thoughts:
The strongest part of this movie in my opinion is its romance. The chemistry between Peter and Gwen is so genuine that you believe they are in love. They act like they are a confused young couple trying to make it work and they pull it off so beautifully. The next strongest element is the action. Spider-man in this movie mimics the fighting style of the comic books so much more than any previous movies. Director Marc Webb has said that to make to this movie more believable, they added physical analysis to all the stunts and fight scenes to make them appear accurate. The only detriment to these scenes are the slow motion shots. There are so many slow motion shots that it feels like if you pulled them out the movie’s run time would be cut in half.
The worst aspect of this move is the villain situation. This movie has been compared to Sam Raimi’s Spider-man 3 for their many similarities, but this movie has a clear advantage to its predecessor. The characters here are developed, they act in character, they’re interesting, and they are intelligent. You won’t be seeing a smooth jazz number in this one or renditions of Twist and Shout like confused fans saw in Spider-man 3. You will see a clear strength in this movie that doesn’t appear in the previous trilogy and down to earth characters. The villains on the other hand are much more interesting in this iteration. Electro and the Goblin have such amazing costuming and whenever Rhino makes an appearance, you can’t help but laugh. Even Though this is true, Rhino has no personality or identity. He is just a mad russian in a Rhino suit. I would have liked to see Rhino cut from this movie, so that he doesn’t feel like he’s jammed in at the end.
I my honest opinion, I think that people dislike this movie too much. It has great comedy, romance, and action. It makes up for all its shortcomings by keeping the flow intact and the characters thoroughly enjoyable. I think that this movie is a must see for both Spider-man comic fans and your everyday moviegoer.
And as a note if you go see this movie look for Stan Lee’s cameo, and wait for the mid credit , and post credit scenes. Trust me they’re great!.
