The Amazing Spider-Man 2

In comic book adaptations I am always in favour of Meta Origins.

So the reviews are coming in, and I'm noticing a lot of "very good despite" phrasing popping up. The general consensus seems to be that, yes, there are too many villains, but the Peter and Gwen arc keeps us caring.

So perhaps the Spider-Man 3 comparisons might not be unfounded, but in a good way. Like 3 this film also has too many subplots but unlike 3 it averts a Romantic Plot Tumor. That's something I knew Marc Webb would be able to do right in the last film, and seemingly has done right again this film. My hope for this film is growing a little bit more.

So it's messy, but it's fun messy?

Just and saw it and...Hmm.

First of all, if the symbiote was there it was a well-hidden easter egg because it was not as obvious as the wings or Oc-tacles and "venom storage" meant something else entirely. Harry, while acted well, seemed to go evil very quickly. The same seems to go for Electro but I got the impression that the event that gave him his powers also messed him up in the head a bit. Harry, though, seems to jump from troubled to evil a bit too quickly, although it may have been more believable if it just took a bit longer so that's kind of understandable. Electro was OK, just a little boring. And the Rhino...Why even bother advertising his presence? He's in like 5 minutes before becoming the Rhino and then about 2 minutes after becoming the Rhino. We don't even get a whole fight. Even though Electro's supposedly dead, I guess that gives us the probable Sinister lineup though: A revived (we see his head-monitor is still there, so he's probably alive but stuck in that) Electro, a freed Goblin (Hopefully in a greener costume), whoever takes up the Vulture wings and Octopus tentacles, Rhino with more than 10 minutes of screentime and Venom. In terms of other possible hooks, there's a woman called "Felicia" but she isn't Black Cat yet. There's also the Spider Slayer guy for all of ten seconds. For Gwen Stacy's death, the scene was probably better for somebody who hasn't read the comics. It was too obvious and although there were a few maybe moments within her death scene, it was obvious she was going to die in that fight. The romance was definitely better than the Rami stuff though.

So, without that cavalcade of spoilers, it was a pretty good film, the romance and the action was pretty good, but I feel like the bar has been raised for superhero films now and it could have been better. The villains were also a little boring. It manages to handle multiple villains much better than 3 did definitely and sets things up for Amazing 3 fairly well but it certainly isn't perfect.

edited 17th Apr '14 9:09:17 AM by TenebrousGaze

Well, if the trailers hadn't blatantly given away that someone would be dying, and oh look, here's Gwen Stacy, it would be mildly more surprising. That may as well be the character's thing.

edited 17th Apr '14 9:14:22 AM by edvedd

It's funny- I was really surprised to read that Gwen does die in the movie because the hints were so obvious that I assumed it would be Not His Sled and when she fell, as shown in the trailer, Spidey would successfully save her.

I thought that until I heard that they cast Mary Jane.

Have you folks seen that Evian Spider-Man baby advert yet?

Cos I like it, lots.

Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyV57QlGUGI

I knew Gwen was a goner for months, reading that apparently that was one of the conditions on which Emma Stone would take the part.

I done gone watched me some spider-man.

Damn this film has heart.

The pacing is terrible, so there are scene's you'll be watching simply to explain the plot, but damn these characters have emotions and this film is brilliantly directed.

Now for spoiler thoughts. The beginning of the movie which is just Spider-man being Spider-man was just brilliant and felt like the most triumphant presentation of spider-man we've seen to date. He chases bullies away from kids and then honestly praises them on their science projects. Peter trying not to loose any of the plutonium was brilliant to watch because it was just a brilliant realisation of how Spider-man moves.

That acting of Peter, Gwen and Harry are really what set this incantation of Spider-man above the previous continuity, because they act like young adults, not in an annoying or immature way, but in a likeable out of their depth way. It actually makes major scenes of the movie incredibly hard to watch because you get the sensation you're watching kids go through all this trauma.

The romance was good, really good. These two characters had real genuine problems which they discussed with each other, they weren't struggling due to miss communication of either of them jumping to conclusions, they were having troubles because it makes perfect sense for it to be difficult for them at this time.

Max. Max max max was brilliant to watch. Okay, his character was simple, he was a guy who's be trodden on too many times, but damn did this film employ that spectacularly. You didn't get the sense that it was contrived that he had been trodden on either, because Foxx's acting really conveyed how he unintentionally slipped into the social shadows. So scenes where Peter was struggling to remember his name, where he saw times square lit up on his face where all incredibly engaging to watch. But the absolutely best part of the movie for me is when Harry is locked up and it is Harry who comes to him, begging for him to murder his way through Oscorp, and he says that he needs Max and it's just incredible to see that despite this is a movie about how Spidey can give people hope, the only person who can give Max that hope is Harry, and the same is true in the posit direction.

But dam, Max deserves a second paragraph because knock me down is his powers brilliantly realised. The scene when he escapes his mummification is as powerful to watch as the scene where Doc Ock's arms kill all the surgeons. When he's staggering about the streets and suddenly all the car alarms go off, brilliant. When he realises he can see electrisit; brilliant. When he looks up and sees Times Square lit up, oh god it was brilliant and instantly told us what was about to happen wordlessly. His thoughts are audible to dubstep. That shouldn't be a good thing. But it is. I hate dubstep. But this movie makes dubstep awesome. But then it gets cranked up to eleven when he gets to full power and can leave his body; it's glorious to see. He looks coo, he sounds cool, he is cool.

Harry is great to watch as well. Unlike the previous movies, you get the impression that he and Peter really are great friends and could return to that at any moment. His villainy is motivated by desperation rather than anything, and it is hard to watch him turn to Peter and Spider-man for help and peter just not being able to help him. It sucks to be Peter, but it also sucks to be Harry. His transformation scene as well was great to watch. His realisation too when he saw Gwen with Spider-man was brilliant to see and it was hard watching Harry realising that it was Peter that turned him down. But the problem is that the resulting fight scene, as brutal as it is, is too short, and they don't get enough talk between them to appreciate what's brought the two of them here. I wanted Peter to try to explain to Harry that the venom will only work on Parker blood and he just can't help him. And I wanted to see Harry show Peter just how little hope he has actually given people and that it was he, not Peter, who had given hope to Max. But he got knocked out far too quickly.

Which brings me to the main criticism of the film. Too many storylines. The storyline of Peter finding out why his father left wasn't all that engaging after the last film showed that Peter was more concerned with helping people, and during the film he had much bigger things to worry about. the plot line exists to explain that the spider cure will only work on Richard Parker and his genetic relatives (and also clear up why Kurt Connors turned into a giant lizard in the previous film). It seems like a lot of time if given to this subplot just for that, and I wonder if it wouldn't have been more fitting and quicker if Harry discovered it instead in Oscorp files. Like I said before, this plot line doesn't join with the others because Peter doesn't find the time to talk about it in the final fight. Really I think the problem with the multiple plot lines is that they don't conclude together. The final fight scene which could easily bring together everything which has been happening in this movie was surprisingly free of dialogue. The plot lines do cause each other and all further each other, but it's frustrating that Peter never really learns about what's been happing to the villains, and Harry doesn't learn what's been happening to Peter. That conclusion isn't there which mean the plot lines all conclude, but separately.

Minor thoughts. Rhino was effectively the Underminer from The Incredibles. I absolutely do not believe Normon Osborn is dead, his actor seems perfect for the role and all the sides to it. If he didn't fake his death so he could manipulate his son into during human testing on himself for the cure I will eat my hat. (That sort of plot is so fitting to his character counterpart, and of course, it will be just another way Harry has failed Norman.) The eastern European mad scientist was a really strange thing to see in this film. I still want to know what the deal with the guy in the hat is. Gwen Stacy's death was perfect,her head just hits the floor with an audible thunk which happens so quickly you're not sure what you've just watched, but you know.

Also, Spider-man uses Google in this one.

YES! FUCK YOU, BING!

...erm.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but the trailers were awesome and the word of mouth seems promising. And there's this:

I am pretty damn hyped ^_^.

Fuck yeah that song is brilliant. I've been listening to it ever since I got back from the cinema.

It really works well in the context of the scene. Perfectly.

Saw the movie. I agree with Whowho on most things but I thought Harry was better in the first 3 movies thanks to him and Peter actually spending 2 movies as friends while AS 2 has them as friends from 10 years ago that spend maybe 15 min as friends before Harry turns bad. I liked Harry after he turned bad but he really needed to have shown up in AS 1 because I felt nothing for him.

On the Rhino: What Rhino? All his scenes are in the trailers. They should have saved him/the suit for the Sinister Six movie.

On Gwen: 10/10. Sad to see you go.

On Max: Best part of the movie!!! Loved everything about him!

On Norman: How did the Green Goblin in the Ultimateverse work? Was he like in the 616verse or was he different? Norman can't be dead.

On the Man in the shadows: Who is Mr. Fiers(sp?) in the comics?

The soundtrack was great.

Pacing was worse than anything I have ever seen. They could have cut about 45 min without changing the movie too much.

Still like Tobey more but towards the end of the movie I started liking the new one.

I have to agree with the newspapers here in Sweden and give the movie 3/5.

On the Man in the Shadows: he's never actually been in the comics to my knowledge. He was the main antagonist in a trilogy of Sinister Six novels where he acted as their backer.

Here's some info.

edited 19th Apr '14 5:00:59 AM by HeisenDoof

So the general consensus is this is Spider-Man 3 only with Good Acting and no Emo!Peter?

Well, the romance is actually good in this one where it really wasn't in 3. And the villain overload was an actual problem in 3's story and isn't in Amazing 2, although it still suffers from too many plotlines.

Who is more sympathetic, Sandman or Electro?

edited 19th Apr '14 9:56:27 AM by Lionheart0

Electro isn't sympathetic as he is pitiful. Incredibly pitiful. It's one of the things which makes him so watchable.

Also, I like the villians of Amazing 2, because none of them go crazy. All of their turns to villainy are justified by their character.

I've got the complete opposite view of that. I don't think that the villains were developed well at all. This is the one area in which the Raimi films are still far, far ahead of the Amazing series, and I'm tempted to include Spiderman 3 in that.

Electro was painfully cliched and has no real motivation at all. Compare with the previous trilogy: Octavius, mad with grief at the death of his wife. Osborne, revenge for his father and betrayal by his best friend. Sandman, his daughter. These are big things; human things, real things. Electro has nothing like that here.

Also, Harry Osborne. Jesus, was this mishandled. The Raimi films made a good decision in bringing him in early and letting us see his relationship with Peter. We get to see them as friends (actual friends) and we get to see all the things that build up to bringing that relationship down, leading to Harry's fall from grace. In this film, they're pretty much two strangers who have two scenes and have nothing in common. The Green Goblin itself was completely tacked on just to recreate Gwen's famous death.

This film should have been about Peter's relationship with Harry Osborne, and Harry's relationship with his father. All the important screentime was taken up by Electro (unnecessary and boring) and Peter and Gwen.

Now, I think that the relationship between Peter and Gwen is the best thing about both Amazing films. Garfield is a great Peter Parker, he has a great chemistry with Emma Stone and they (and the writing and direction) blows Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst clean out the water. But in this film I think it went in an unnecessary direction. I think that the "I can't be with you because of my enemies" thing was dealt with in the last movie, when that cliche was subverted in the end. This feels like an unnecessary reset button for the sake of drama we didn't need.

This film should have been about Harry and Peter, and we needed to see a real, human bond between the pair which would make Harry's ultimate fall an actual tragedy for them both. It didn't come close, sadly.

edited 23rd Apr '14 5:10:25 PM by TheBatPencil

I really hope the last sentence of your third paragraph was just speaking figuratively and not the enormous spoiler is sounds like.