The Amazing Spider Man 2

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is The Amazing Spider Man 2.

Directed by Marc Webb.

Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinker.

Screen Story by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinker & James Vanderbilt.

Based on Marvel Comics characters created by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko.

Review #251

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence.

Run Time: 142 min

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Cast

Andrew Garfield...Spider-Man / Peter Parker

Emma Stone...Gwen Stacy

Jamie Foxx...Electro / Max Dillon

Dane DeHaan...Green Goblin / Harry Osborn

Colm Feore...Donald Menken

Felicity Jones...Felicia

Paul Giamatti...Aleksei Sytsevich

Sally Field...Aunt May

Embeth Davidtz...Mary Parker

Campbell Scott...Richard Parker

Marton Csokas...Dr. Ashley Kafka

Is bigger better?

It depends on what you're talking about. In the case of movie franchises, Hollywood tends to adopt that philosophy. Sometimes it works but it's a rarity to have that much power behind consecutive sequels in a franchise.  The Amazing Spider Man was a quick release reboot after Sam Raimi's disappointing third entry in his Spiderman series. The success of Marc Webb's take on the character not only put the sequel on the fast track. It's continuing a trend in Tinseltown that has become very disturbing to me. That trend is universe building and it does one thing pretty well while doing another pretty poorly. 

The Amazing Spider Man 2 is guilty of doing both of these things.

Plot

Peter Parker runs the gauntlet as the mysterious company Oscorp sends up a slew of supervillains against him, impacting on his life.

The first thing I will say about this movie is that it's a major improvement from the first one. The problem all superhero reboots face is deciding whether to re-do the hero's origin. For some idiotic reason, the powers that be feel compelled to believe that we are all idiots and can't remember how Batman became Batman or how The Hulk became The Hulk or how Spiderman became Spiderman just because they were in someone else's movie. So they choose to bog down their story by going over the origin which eats up a good chunk of the film's main plot thus taking away needed development to the villain or important supporting characters.

The easiest solution would be to do what was done in The Incredible Hulk reboot. They did Bruce Banner's origin story in an opening credits montage. It explained everything giving the film the time it needed to get into the story while also allowing it to reference the origin later on without it seeming like it came from nowhere. That doesn't have to be addressed here. Spiderman is here and everyone knows of his existence so it's time to movie forward.

Which is what this film does in both a good and bad way.

First the good.
We are treated to a pretty impressive action scene that introduces one of the 3 villains spidey is going to face in this picture. The Rhino. As expected the film has tremendous action set pieces and this is no exception. It's also a good way to get the movie going. No need to reset what happened last time. After The Rhino is apprehended it's time to take a beat and bring us back to the ground as Peter Parker. It's here where the film does it's best work. Andrew Garfield is much better here than in the last film. He's a lot more sarcastic as Spiderman and just as equally wise ass as Peter. The film does a good job of reminding us that Spiderman is just a kid. He's a high school graduate superhero. Kids Peter's age are not supposed to act like adults and Peter doesn't.

Despite the very adult powers and responsibilities he deals with everyday.

The rest of the good deals with the relationship between Peter and Gwen. If you know you're Spiderman history then you know how long their bond lasts. The Amazing Spider Man 2 does a nice job of making us care about the success or failure of these two lovebirds. I never cared about the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane Watson in Raimi's trilogy because her sole purpose was to be the damsel in distress. Gwen brings a lot more to the table here. She can match Peter's intellect and like Spiderman shows no fear in the face of trouble. Gwen does not need to be saved which is a good thing because it gave Peter more time to do something much more important.

Find out the truth behind his father's disappearance.

The film continues the plot left behind in the first movie concerning Peter's parents and the dismissal of their son. Explanations come but at the expense of the introduction of Harry Osborn. Here's where the good and bad of universe building begin to merge. The reality that this film is not really a sequel but the continued construction of a world that has yet to be established forces the stunting of some important developments. This is where Osborn comes in. He will play a MAJOR role in the upcoming Spiderman films but his introduction into this one is sacrificed for the greater good of this installment.

It was a bad decision and the biggest culprit is this man.

Max Dillon. A.K.A. Electro. He's the primary baddie that gets secondary treatment. However, since the film is not interested in closing off it's story they feel it's OK to give us a shortchanged villain back story.

It wasn't.

A big part of this problem stems from Electro's alter ego. Max Dillon was such a loser that his motivation for liking then hating Spiderman was eerily reminiscent of dare I say Jim Carrey's portrayal of Edward Nygma/The Riddler in Batman Forever. I know that sounds scary but watch Max in this film as the dorky nobody then see him as Electro and I defy you to tell me that you don't see Nygma and The Riddler. It's a big problem because every Spiderman villain needs a reason to hate him and Dillon's was not good enough. Then he's passed off when the film gets to the end because Webb and company need to sow the seeds for the upcoming sequels.

Needless to say the finale is no pun intended spectacular. It was a satisfying action scene that ties off one villain while bringing another into the fold.

And this is why I HATE universe building. Instead of letting Spiderman deal with Electro who was up to this point the main antagonist. Spidey now has to deal with the Green Goblin in a highly microwaved origin.

No good.

Then to top it off we get The Rhino reveal in what was one of the most ridiculous moments in the film. This film leaves you hanging with all of these new people arriving late to the party. The intention is to drive up anticipation but instead it drove up my blood pressure because it's a cheap way to avoid over stuffing their film with too many villains. There's no reason why they couldn't do what films have done in the past which is tease the arrival of the next villain at the very end or during the credits. The Rhino reveal doesn't do that. Instead it announces the beginning of what is supposed to be coming later on as Spiderman 4,5,6,7and 8 and son on roll through movie screens everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this film a lot and I'm looking forward to what's in store for our friendly neighborhood wall crawler.

I'm just frustrated at the path he's taking to get there.

On the 5 star scale. The Amazing Spider Man 2 gets 3.5 stars with a "Go See It!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"