"THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2" (2014) Review
(SPOILER!!) Below is my review of "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2", the sequel to 2012's "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN". However, my review features spoilers from the film. If you have not seen the movie, you can either read the article below . . . or wait until you have seen the movie.
"THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2" (2014) Review
Following the success of the 2012 movie, "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN", Marvel and Sony Pictures continued the SPIDER-MAN saga with the second chapter. Unlike the first movie, "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2" proved to be quite controversial.
"THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2" begins in the past, when Richard and Mary Parker left their son Peter behind with the former's brother Ben and sister-in-law May. The couple leave New York City on a private jet, but the latter gets hijacked by an assassin. Unfortunately, a deadly fight ensues between the Parkers and the assassin, the pilot is killed and the plane crashes, killing everyone else on board. The story then jumps to the present, which finds Peter as Spider-Man pursuing a criminal named Aleksei Sytsevich on the day he graduates from high school. During the chase, Spider-Man saves OsCorp Industries engineer and ardent fan Max Dillon. Following Peter and girlfriend Gwen Stacy's graduation, Peter has a vision of her father, NYPD Captain George Stacy, reminding him of a promise he had made to keep Gwen out of his life as Spider-Man. When Peter reminds her, they break up. The young couple eventually reconcile, but Peter also learns that Gwen plans to attend Oxford University on a scholarship.
Peter eventually discovers that he has more to worry about than Gwen's departure for Europe. While attending to maintenance in an OsCorp laboratory, Max Dillon falls into a tank of genetically modified electric eels and transforms into a being known as Electro. When he wanders into Times Square and causes a blackout, Spider-Man tries to calm him down. But the police attack, causing Max to lose his temper at them and the web-slinger, who eventually captures him. Meanwhile, Peter's old childhood friend, Harry Osborn returns to New York to see his dying father, OsCorp Industries CEO Norman Osborn. Harry eventually learns that he has inherited a disease that is killing his father. Upon Norman's death, Harry feverishly searches for a cure to his disease and discovers that Spider-Man's blood might be able to save him. At the same time, Harry is forced to deal with the corporation's Board of Directors, who wants to oust him out as CEO. Peter's personal life and his dealings with both Electro and Harry eventually clash when the two form an alliance on a fatal night.
Before I saw "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2", I had stumbled across criticisms of the movie that was not so kind. Usually, I try to ignore criticism of any kind, but for once I found it difficult to do so. I did not exactly approach the movie with any high expectations. But to my surprise, I actually found myself enjoying it . . . well, most of it, with the exception of the last 10 to 15 minutes. Mind you, "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2" does not exactly reek with any real originality, despite not being based upon any particular past comic book story arc. But Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner and James Vanderbilt created a solid story. This movie featured the origin of at least three Spider-Man villains - the Rhino, Electro and especially the Green Goblin. I thought I would be upset when the story line regarding the disappearance of Peter's parents would eventually form a connection to the creation of the Green Goblin. But no . . . I did not mind at all. The screenplay accomplished a good deal for me. It continued Peter and Gwen's romance in a believable way, allowing it to be threatened by Peter's promise to Captain Stacy and Gwen's ambitions to study at Oxford. Not many people were fond of the Electro character in this movie, but I was impressed not only by Jamie Foxx's performance, but also by how the screenwriters handled the character's story arc from worshipping geek to enraged super villain. I was very impressed by the movie's opening scene that revealed the details of Richard and Mary Parker's death. It reeked with good performances, along with plenty of action and suspense. I thought Webb's direction in this particular scene was first-rate. The scene also benefitted greatly from Pietro Scalia and Elliot Graham.
Harry Osborn's story arc proved to a bit more problematic for me. Mind you, I had no problem with him becoming the Green Goblin, instead of his father Norman. And I was impressed by Harry's problems with the OsCorp board members. But the friendship between Peter and Harry was not as firmly established as it was in the three Sam Rami films. I also thought the screenwriters had stretched it a bit by allowing Dr. Parker's formula to be responsible for the emergence of the Goblin. The idea of a a genetic spider formula being responsible for someone transforming into some kind of malignant green elf does seem somewhat ludicrous. And I wish that the Green Goblin had made his appearance a little earlier in the film, instead of in the last half hour. Of course, this probably means an appearance of the Green Goblin in a future "Amazing Spider-Man" film. Probably. I am not really sure.
But if there is one thing I had no problem with in regard to the Goblin's appearance in the movie was how it led to Gwen Stacy's death. Many are in an uproar over the character's death, due to their fondness of actress Emma Stone's interpretation of the character and her screen chemistry with lead actor Andrew Garfield. Personally, I saw it coming a mile away. When the Captain Stacy character promised Peter to keep Gwen out of his life before dying in the 2012 film, I knew that sooner or later, Gwen was a goner. The fact that director Marc Webb and the producers have plans to include the Mary Jane Watson character into this particular series of Spider-Man films only confirmed my suspicions. I really enjoyed Stone's portrayal of Gwen and I found the character's death rather heartbreaking, but I had no problems with Webb and the screenwriters including her death into the plot. Especially since I thought it was well handled by them.
I had other problems with "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2". One of the biggest problems I had was the character of Aleksei Sytsevich. It is a good thing that the character had a small appearance in this film, because I really disliked him. One of the problems I had was Paul Giamatti's performance. I am a big fan of the actor, but his portrayal of the comic book villain has to be one of the worst in his career . . . possibly his worst. I have never encountered such hammy acting in quite a while. And I certainly did not welcome his reappearance in the movie's finale as the Rhino. One, I had to endure the hammy acting again. And two, his reappearance reminded me of the ending of the 2004 Disney/Pixar animated film, "THE INCREDIBLES". And the latter handled this same scenario a lot better. In fact, I really do not like the ending. I wish Webb and the screenwriters had simply ended the movie with Sytsevich's sudden reappearance. But no, they had to subject the movie audiences with this ludicrous scene that featured Spider-Man, the Rhino and some mentally disturbed kid who thought he could serve as Spidey's replacement. Even worse was the movie's mid-credit scene that was basically a trailer for the upcoming movie, "X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST". Really? They could have used the hint of OsCorp's involvement with the creation of the Secret Six for the mid-credit scene, but . . . no. Webb and the screenwriters thought otherwise. Pity. It is a good thing that I enjoyed most of this film.
But I cannot say the same about two other performances. Felicity Jones was wasted as Harry Osborn's new assistant, Felicia Hardy. Comic book lovers remember the character as Spider-Man's most ambiguous lover, the Black Cat. Instead of giving audiences glimpses of the extroverted character, Webb and the screenwriters forced Jones to portray a not-so interesting character with little screen time. But she was not alone. Also wasted in this film was B.J. Novak, who was given one (or possibly two) two scenes as Max Dillon's supervisor at OsCorp. All he did was sneer at Fox's Dillon and disappeared from the movie. What a waste! Marton Csokas portrayed Dr. Ashley Kafka, the head of Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, where the captured Electro . And he did it with a hamminess that almost . . . almost rivaled Giamatti's performance.
Thankfully, most of the performances were excellent. Aside from his occasional penchant for early Brando-like behavior, Andrew Garfield gave an excellent performance as Peter Parker aka Spider-Man. I was especially impressed by his scenes with Sally Field and Emma Stone. Sally Field gave a wonderfully emotional performance as Peter's Aunt May, especially in one scene in which she admitted to her nephew the difficulties in dealing with life as a widow. Dane DeHaan gave a very interesting and complex performance as the young Harry Osborn. He did a great job in taking Harry's character from the young man wary over a reunion with his cold, dying father to the inexperienced CEO dealing with backstabbing corporate executives to the super villain with blood on his hands and vengeance in his heart.
Colm Feore appeared in his second Marvel film as OsCorp's back-stabbing Vice-President Donald Menken and gave a subtle, yet scary performance. Chris Cooper's portrayal of OsCorp's CEO Norman Osborn was equally subtle and scary . . . and he was portraying a dying man. As I had earlier stated, I was very impressed by Webb's direction and the editing featured in the movie's opening sequence regarding Richard and Mary Parker's fate. But that scene would have never worked without the skillful performances of Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz as Peter's parents.
The two performances that really impressed me came from Jamie Foxx, who gave a surprisingly effective performance as Max Dillon aka Electro and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. There had been some negative criticism regarding Foxx's performance. But honestly, I was impressed. He did an excellent job in developing the Max Dillon character from an insecure geek with a pathetic crush on Spider-Man, to a very angry super villain with an enormous chip on his shoulder. And I could see why so many were upset over Gwen Stacy's death in this movie. One has to thank Stone for giving an exceptional performance as the strong-willed, intelligent young woman whom Peter fell in love with. Her performance also struck me as very charismatic.
Yes, "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2" is not perfect. It featured at least two characters that were criminally underused, two characters that struck me as unbearably hammy, some lack of originality in its plot and a godawful ending that featured a confrontation between Spider-Man and the Rhino. But despite these flaws, I still believe it was a first-class movie thanks to a decent, yet flawed screenplay, excellent direction from Marc Webb and first-class performances from a cast led by Andrew Garfield as the web slinger. I think it is a lot better than many give it credit for.