'The Amazing Spiderman 2' Review

The Amazing Spiderman 2 Movie Review:

An Even Less Amazing Sequel

BY IAN TAN

Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spiderman) returns to direct The Amazing Spiderman 2:Rise of Electro, the much-anticipated sequel to the 2012 franchise reboot kick-starter The Amazing Spiderman. Despite the mixed reactions the first film received, audiences are still lining up by the droves to catch this sequel. So, how does this film fare compared to its predecessor? Unfortunately, this second installment in the rebooted Spider-Man franchise fails to live up to the hype and expectations of anticipating fans as well as regular audiences alike. It’s a slightly overlong, convoluted mess of a film that’s punctuated only by a few key emotional moments between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey.

Much like the first film, the ensemble cast does a job well done and gets an A for screen presence. Andrew Garfield, whom I disliked in the first movie  (he kept trying to say things, then stopped, stuttered, and kept looking down) definitely feels more at home with his role and is able to capture the essence of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in a way that truly brings the comic book character to life in ways the Sam Raimi films didn’t allow Tobey Maguire to. Emma Stone again delivers a strong performance as Gwen Stacey, providing us with a much stronger female companion for Peter Parker compared to Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane, which is a plus point for the film. Both Garfield and Stone share great chemistry with each other and provide the film with some of its most heartfelt, funny, and heartbreaking scenes. The scenes between Peter and Gwen are definitely the best parts of this sequel, and show that Marc Webb is at his most comfortable position when directing these scenes (as you’d expect from the guy who directed 500 Days of Summer). Jamie Foxx is at his best when playing the bumbling buffoon Max Dillon. When he turns into Electro, however, things start going downhill, not just his performance, but the rest of the film too. Jamie Foxx does a good job with what the script gives him, but there really isn’t much depth given to him as Electro as there is with him being Max Dillon. This results in a rather bland villain with too weak a motivation to want to destroy Spider-Man. Dane (Dehaan) as Harry Osborne is a whiny brat that really doesn’t seem like the kind of person Peter would ever hang out with, and although his (spoiler alert! If you weren’t already spoiled by the trailers) transformation into the iconic Green Goblin is a much better transformation scene compared to Willem Dafoe’s in the very first Sam Raimi Spiderman film, his character feels rather shoehorned into the film just so that Sony can expand the Amazing Spiderman film universe. Like Iron Man 2, this is another sequel that suffers from studio’s wants to create an expanded movie universe. So, in all fairness, the film’s downsides might not be Marc Webb’s fault, but Sony’s instead.

This film does have its plus points though. The shots of Spidey swinging around New York, for one, are far better than the original Raimi films in terms of angles, Spidey’s agility, and use of web-shooters, making a 3D viewing of the film a necessity, especially in IMAX. Almost every shot is elevated by the entire IMAX 3D experience, especially the film's opening shots of Spiderman swinging through New York and the climactic showdown between him and Electro, where both characters truly pop out of the screen. Also, without giving anything away, there is a key emotional moment towards the end of the film that comes totally unexpected, and goes against typical action/superhero movie endings. You can’t help but to appreciate it when a superhero takes such risks to its ending, and Marc Webb handles the emotion perfectly for said scene, leveling up the emotion high enough to make audiences tear up. Webb is no stranger to unexpected endings (if you’ve seen 500 Days of Summer, you’ll know what I mean) and The Amazing Spiderman 2’s ending deserves much praise to Webb.

To sum it up, The Amazing Spiderman 2 feels either like the Transformers 2 of the Transformers series or the Iron Man 2 of the Iron Man series, which isn’t really a good sign. However, whenever director Marc Webb is given leeway to direct the film the way ­he wants to, the film works well with its Peter/Gwen romance and its unanticipated ending. P.S., it might be this very ending that acts as the film’s saving grace, for comic book fans at least. Almost everything else from character intentions to coherent storytelling feels handled rather poorly, almost like a rushed film production that tries to be too many things at one go.

5.9 out of 10 stars

Note: If you want to see how Marc Webb originally intended the film to look like, click the link here http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/sony-pictures-and-director-marc-webb-consider-releasing-a-directors-cut-version-of-the-amazing-spider-man-2-to-the-general-public-on-blue-ray-and-dvd  and sign the petition for Sony to release a Director’s Cut of the film on Blu-Ray later this year.