Amazing Spider-Man 2

It was alright.  That is about all I can say about this movie.  It was not great, nor was it terrible.  Is that the worst thing you could say about a movie?  I suppose not.  I could say it was the worst thing ever, worse than fascism, but that would be silly. 

It reminded me a bit about how people complained that Iron Man 2 was basically one long preview for Thor.  This was how this movie felt to me.  Sony really wants to expand the Spider-Man universe and have their own Avengers type situation.  If that is the case, this movie does set-up a bunch of stuff.  Unfortunately they forgot to focus on the actual movie at hand.

Before I get into the stuff I did not like, let me tell you about what I enjoyed.  The acting was fantastic yet again.  Andrew Garfield is a fantastic Spider-Man and Emma Stone does such a good job as Gwen.  The director, Marc Webb, does the teenage love story so well.  If you took away the superhero stuff, this would still be a good movie about a boy and a girl and the complications of young love and finding your place in the world.

The interaction between Harry Osborne and Peter early on were so good.  The joking between the two was great and they did seem like two people who were friends as kids and are seeing each other for the first time in years. 

I also liked the beginning of Electro’s story.  Jamie Foxx being this loser at Oscorp who is basically invisible and a little bit crazy was excellent.  The voices he is hearing when absorbing the power was a nice take, it definitely was a different approach to why someone would be a villain.

So it should seem like I loved the film, right?  What could I possibly not like?  Well for one thing, I felt like there were no fight scenes.  The first Electro fight last a few minutes and then the climatic end fight with him is short as well.  It looked pretty awesome, but it ends quickly.  Then the fight with Harry (I guess he is the Green Goblin) happens so fast.  They hit each other a bit and Spider-Man wins the battle. 

Peter’s father has a hidden lab in the subway?  It is in the old train that was used for President Roosevelt and it just so happens to still be there and fully operational?  That was probably the dumbest thing ever.  Or maybe when Richard opens his laptop and continues to upload the file while the plane is in a nosedive.  Something tells me when cabin pressure is breached and the plane is falling apart, that maybe the internet shuts off.

Paul Giamatti’s Russian accent was terrible.  I give him credit for wanting to play the Rhino.  I even thought it was cool the way he hammed up that final scene.  It was a ridiculous scene, but it was fun.  I realize they want to do a Sinister Six movie and I am fine with that.  The bad thing is that two of the villains have already been used in the Raimi films and they were great, there is no way that they can improve Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus or Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin.  Sorry Dane DeHaan.

I also hate movie board room scenes.  Ugh, can we do away with this crap?  It is almost as bad as broken glass falling all over the place.  So the #2 guy comes in with security and they fire Harry because they have evidence that he knew about Max Dillon’s accident and covered it up.  I am pretty sure that a team of lawyers and some forensic computer people would be able to figure out it was a frame job.  It reminded me of The Dark Knight Rises when Bruce loses his fortune in the matter of seconds because someone stole his identity.  These things would be tied up in the courts for like fifty years.

I knew it was coming.  I knew that Gwen would die and I figured that it would be a very emotional scene.  It was not.  They stayed fairly faithful to the comic with her death.  For some reason though, it just had no emotion.  Then the funeral and the whole speech from Aunt May just did nothing for me.  This would have been better served with a voice over of her speech and seeing Spider-Man visiting her grave at some point and him saying that he failed her, but that he would never give up, blah blah blah.  Something like that.  

So yeah, it was an okay movie.

Oh and on a side note, I was upset that after he breaks up with Gwen that Aunt May does not keep hounding him to take out her friend’s niece, Mary Jane.  Then at the end, she shows up with the classic line “Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot.”  None of these movies have ever replicated how awesome that was in the comics.  Do not let me down Marc Webb!

Comic Book Movie Grade:  B-/C+

Author: Ngewo