As far as Spider-Man films go, I was not
very impressed with the first film in the reboot of the series, The Amazing Spider-Man, mainly due to the quality of the writing. While I was unsure
whether to watch the sequel, the subject of this review, I decided to do so
anyway in order to stay current (this being my sole reason for watching Green Lantern or Man of Steel in the first place), watching the first film in the reboot
again beforehand to aid with continuity. I wasn’t really expecting much, given
my opinion of the previous movie, though after seeing The Amazing Spider-Man 2,
I walked away a bit more disappointed than I already thought I would.
As the first movie opened with a flashback
of Peter Parker’s childhood,
this movie opens with another flashback, with the events told from Richard
Parker’s (Campbell Scott) perspective, as he and his wife Mary (Embeth Davidtz)
leave Peter (Max Charles) at a young age. While the two are on a plane, which
ends up getting hijacked, Richard tries to upload files from his laptop to a
location known as “Roosevelt”; as Richard tries to fight off the hijacker, he
eventually succeeds, only for the plane to crash into the ocean just as the
files are finished uploading. In present day New York, Peter Parker (Andrew
Garfield), as Spider-Man, tries to stop a Russian mobster named Aleksei
Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti) from stealing an OsCorp truck carrying plutonium,
while assuring Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) over the phone that he will make it in
time for his high school graduation. Though Peter is successful in stopping the mobster and
makes it to his graduation, he keeps thinking about Police Captain George
Stacy (Denis Leary) whenever he gets close to Gwen, remembering a promise he
made to keep away from her.
The plot of this movie, to put it
bluntly, has some issues. Without going into detail, since the movie is still
in theaters, the story itself is riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies
that are never filled in or explained (the least of which is the sudden costume
change on Spider-Man between films, which goes unexplained). Granted, there is
some chemistry between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, though not very much, which
is more than I can say with Peter and some of the other characters in the
movie. The movie has a total of three villains in it (as seen in advertisements),
the most major of which is Electro (Jamie Foxx), however none of them are
handled very well (explaining this would create major spoilers for those that
have yet to see the movie); I can also see why movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which excludes The Amazing
Spider-Man for those keeping track) try to avoid having a hero or villain name
themselves (real names like Thor aside), since when two of them do so in this
film, it comes off as sounding rather silly. Also, if you were looking for
resolution on Peter finding Uncle Ben’s killer in the first reboot movie, you’re
out of luck. In addition, while Spider-Man evidently has some wit to his one-liners,
rather than being funny, he comes off to me as more of a smartass, though I’m
sure someone finds more humor in them than I did.
 |
| Electro (or Dr. Manhattan in Cole McGrath cosplay) |
On the upside, I will admit to liking
some of the special effects, particularly when it involved advanced technology.
I also thought the score, this time by Hans Zimmer and The Magnificent Six, was
pretty good in setting a tone for each scene. (Also, I admit to actually
laughing at one particular exchange closer to the end.) However, these aspects
alone aren’t enough to counter the movie’s bad writing, so they don’t really
save it.
One thing that I think is worth
mentioning is the credits, mainly in that they are unexpectedly inter-
 |
| Watch for our review of (500) Days of Summer! |
-rupted by a preview of the upcoming (at
the time of this writing) X-Men: Days of Future Past. Sure, it’s another movie
based on a Marvel property (that also is not
part of the MCU), but what really makes it confusing is that it’s a movie from 20th
Century Fox, a rival company to Sony. I learned later that this happened due to
a deal Director Marc Webb had with Fox, creating a conflict between Webb
directing The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and a (500) Days of Summer sequel; in the end,
Fox let Webb direct a Spider-Man movie for Sony, but in exchange Sony had to slip
in free advertising for their upcoming X-Men movie. Even with this explanation,
it's still kind of bothering since the X-Men scene is now officially part of the
credits.
In the end, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is
a big disappointment, more so than the first The Amazing Spider-Man movie.
Though the special effects can be really nice to look at, they don’t do much to
distract from the story’s gaping plot holes. Fans of the first reboot movie,
and their kids, might get some enjoyment out of this, though I wouldn’t
recommend it to people who aren’t really impressed with the reboot to begin
with. However, if you need your superhero movie fix, this movie may or may not
be enough to tide you over until Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy in the summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment