The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) Review


Of course, a sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man would be a no brainer since it's done pretty well. But instead of getting another Spider-Man 2, we got another Spider-Man 3 with a bloated storyline and too many villains. Aside from his life as Spider-Man, Peter Parker graduates from high school and tries to keep his distance from Gwen Stacy at the request of her father who haunts him, though he can't resist fully. All the while, Gwen is offered a scholarship to England and can't decide if she wants to go or stay with Peter. Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), an old friend of Peter, returns to see his dying father and catches up with Peter. Harry tells him his father's disease is passed genetically and thinks the blood of Spider-Man can cure him, but Peter doesn't think that would help Harry and refuses in person as Spider-Man. Also, Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), a nerdy engineer, gets electrocuted and becomes Electro. Oh, there's also Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti) who becomes the Rhino at the end, and some mysterious man looking to form a supervillain group.

Just typing this synopsis was exhausting.

But first, one of the positives from the first one is carried on into this one and that is Peter and Gwen's relationship. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone still retain great chemistry with each other and the conflicts they have aren't half bad. Not only that, Garfield shared another great emotional connection with Sally Field as Aunt May. There was one scene where May shares the sad truth about Peter's father, more precisely what she thought it was. Both Garfield and Field's acting was great and it came close to having any of the same emotion from the Sam Raimi trilogy. The suit I thought was a lot better. I didn't like how the eyes came from shades in the first one, but this one looked a lot better.


However, the downside of the whole movie is trying to juggle all these new characters/villains and giving build-up for the presumed next movie when really they should be more focused on giving a good movie that could stand on its own. Firstly, having Jamie Foxx play a clumsy, geeky engineer who becomes obsessed with Spider-Man wasn't a good start. When he becomes Electro, he makes his way to Time Square where he sees his face all over the square but then Spidey comes in and the attention is taken away from him, and that's what makes him resentful to our main hero. Not a great motive. It doesn't help that he looks so absurd. Dane DeHaan is just average as Harry, compared to James Franco. He and Garfield don't share that strong a connection. In just the two-hour mark, he becomes the Green Goblin and honestly, he's not as enjoyable as Willem Dafoe and his pus-faced look wasn't any better. Last and least of all, Paul Giamatti was very over the top as the Rhino in a cringe-worthy way, appearing only at the beginning and end of the film.
Lame.

Lame.

LAME!

There were also some moments that felt kinda out of character for Spidey such as refusing to help Harry. I know he's doing what's best for him, but couldn't he find another way to help him? And the last one is killing Electro. As much as I have issues with Superman killing Zod in Man of Steel, it kinda may sense to do it since Zod wouldn't stop killing. Here, I don't think Electro posed that big a threat, just creating a huge blackout with two planes coming at each other. I felt Spidey could at least try to talk to Electro one more time, and if that didn't work, he could incapacitate him in some way. I am also very iffy on Gwen's death. While it definitely made more sense than killing Superman in Batman v. Superman, I felt they could expand their relationship a little more and make it more devastating.

Out of all the Spider-Man movies we've had, this is my least favorite. It tried to cram several sub plots and setups but it ultimately didn't flow very well. In a year where we had excellent Marvel movies like Captain America Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men Days of Future Past, this film came short. But the good part is it lead to Sony and Marvel Studios making a compromise to have Spidey in the MCU and have him alongside Iron Man, Captain America, and much more in the future. Let's hope both studios can keep it together and not cause any disasters in the making.

RATING: SEMI-APPROVAL

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