Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

Spoilers may follow

Constructive Criticism is highly welcomed and appreciated !

Oh the amount of memes and .gifs I can't wait to use in this one! 

What's up, world? This is is you're man, Eazy in the world of writing once again. You might not know this about me, but if you know me, you know I do. So, I've definitely been looking forward to Amazing Spider-Man 2 and all its glorious action. I haven't written a movie review in a while and its my first on the blog, so without further ado. Here it goes...

The Mechanics...

The story of the film is probably where the film lacks the most. Not because its bad. Its just very jumbled together. It begins with Richard Parker talking about Oscorp and seeming to be in a hurry. Yes, the second film took a bigger focus on Peter's parents. The intro to the movie is a recap of the beginning of the first Amazing Spider-Man, you just get to see more into it. Although a certain Peter Parker discovery does light a spark inside him, later on in the movie, it just wasn't a necessary piece to the story. This brings back the familiar feeling that the director, Marc Webb, did certain things, to avoid being too much like the original Sam Raimi films. Which is understandable, of course. The first one only came out 12 years before this one. Where certain additions from him work well, the Richard and Mary element of the film just doesnt fit in.

After the flashback, it brings you back to present day. Spider-Man(Andrew Garfield) is saving the city and having a good time being himself. He has Gwen Stacy(Emma Stone). He's graduating. All is well. Except for the visions he has of Gwen's father. This is the first domino falling to make Peter's life suck in the film. This leads to the introduction of Max Dillon/Electro(Jamie Foxx) and later on, Harry Osborn/Green Goblin(Dane Dehaan), the main villains of the movie. Trying to develop them both at the same time, while Peter is trying to figure out his parents, as mentioned earlier, its easy to see why it could get jumbled, pretty quickly. Even though its 2 hours and 22 minutes, it almost feels like too many things were left out. And it feels like it ended too soon.

However, a good part of the story is the love between Gwen and Peter. The love story roots are obvious in Marc Webb's DNA. This is where Amazing Spider-Man seemed to flow the best. If it wasn't because of the comfort Webb had in this situation, it was definitely due to the chemistry between Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, who are actually dating in real life.

Really? I thought that guy was gay.

The script is another con to the movie, overall, but just like the chemistry between Stone and Garfield, saves the complicated parts of the story. The rest of the cast really delivers. While Tobey Maguire pretty much nailed his portrayal of Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield is easily a superior Spider-Man than anyone before him. Garfield talked about how honored he was to be cast in this movie and it shows. Hes fun to watch, the wise cracks are there in full effect. He is constantly worried about his loved ones, yet as all know know, he is the furthest thing from perfect. 

Emma Stone is charming as always. She portrays Gwen Stacy well. People probably dont realize how good, actually. The caring science nerd, who's as hot as she is smart. In fact, probably as smart/or smarter than Peter is. A scene talking about Spider-Man's webbing was a great example of that.

Jamie Foxx plays Max Dillon and Electro well. Dane Dehaan follows up his performance in The Chronicle greatly and is very convincing as Harry Osborn. Too bad you dont get to see a lot of him as Green Goblin because the small portion of the movie he is, is the best the film has to offer, which is also the biggest twist, as well. 

Sally Field is a sweetheart as Aunt May. Paul Giamatti doesnt really get enough time to shine as Aleksei Sytsevich, which he will in the future, so thats perfectly fine, since the film was already a little crowded. Plus, its still a little weird seeing the robotic Rhino suit.

Peter Parker seems to be portrayed as sort of a hipster with the way he dresses. Yet, this is probably the BEST Spidey costume in a live-action movie before.

The size of the eyes really make a difference.

If there is something that the Amazing Spider-Man 2 did right, man oh man, is it the costume. It took everything right about the original and just made the eyes bigger. Perfection. The rest of the costumes that they wore were done well too. It is pretty obvious the influence the story and character appearances get from the Ultimate universe, despite the title being Amazing. This is welcomed because its hard to modernize something from way back in the 60s. Some of the ways they introduced characters in the Ultimate series works out a lot better as well, especially for Electro.

New York will probably always be a perfect place to have a superhero movie take place. Especially for Spider-Man. Web slinging around NYC just seems so right. Every scene in the movie had the perfect set design to match it. 

The music in the movie, with Hans Zimmer as the big acception here, was pretty forgettable. Honestly, it just depends on the viewer's tastes. Although, the old school spidey theme used as a ring tone and a techno Itsy Bitsy Spider was cool.

Thoughts and Opinions...

As I said before, I really enjoyed the performances. That really made this movie grand. Sure its a little messy and inconsistent, it doesnt quite hit like its Disney counterparts. Its still a good movie. I grew up on Spider-Man, he's probably my favorite superhero. He was a game changer for Stan Lee when he was thought of and very different at the time. Since I started reading and watching Spider-Man things, there hasnt been a more accurate representation of the character and his story. That includes the animated shows and Sam Raimi's films. As far as ranking goes, I'll definitely put it like this...

Spider-Man 2 > Spider-Man 1 > Amazing Spider-Man 2 > Amazing Spider-Man > Spider-Man 3

Right in the middle there. And it deserves to be in the middle, I think. I get while certain people are just used to the Raimi films, others just wont be happy because its not dark and gritty enough. Which is far from what Spider-Man is anyway. Others just can never be pleased. Some just wont like it because they dont like Spider-Man. And I'm not going to care about that too much because Spider-Man probably doesnt care either.

See...I told you.

All in all, it was entertaining and I feel anyone who complains about the movie, most likely didnt read a Spider-Man comic in their life. They more so, like the idea of Spider-Man than they do the actual character himself. I digress...I have mentioned its not the perfect movie. And nothing is. It isnt DKR or Avengers. It is probably as good as Man of Steel though. I dont know...maybe if one of the actors actually died right before it was released people would've given it a more attention. Not saying thats happened with a movie before or anything.

I talked before about how Richard and Mary's part dont fit in. I think that maybe it wouldve been better if Disney owned the franchise and that part of the story could benefit from the huge universe Marvel has going on right now. Ari Avad is making his own little universe with this smaller franchise, to compete with Disney and Fox. That's part of the reason the movie feels crowded. They already announced Amazing Spider-Man 3 and unofficially the fourth as well. Plus, they announced two spin-offs, Venom and The Sinister Six, as well. Nothing wrong with that. Its always wise to plan for the future....but not when it negatively affects the present to the point, that the future might not have the chance to become. 

And what they're doing with this movie kind of does that. Rhino is only in the film for a few minutes at the most.....and its screen time that couldve gone to something else. Perhaps, they couldve just hinted at it like they did with Doc Ock's arms, Venom's symbiote and Vulture's wings. 

Ari Avad forced Venom on Sam Raimi and I feel some of the things, in the film, were forced on Marc Webb. That's why we didnt get a Spider-Man 4 with the originals. That's why Marc Webb is gone after Amazing Spider-Man 3. I respect Ari Avad and he's an important part in getting Marvel Studios started let alone Spider-Man. But that dude is really enjoying the hell out of his power too much. I do hope that some day they can sell it back to Disney I mean IMAGINE the possibilities!

Hopefully, the future movies can take advantage of the money it made in the first weekend and continue to do better, since the second movie was so much better than the first. This movie wasnt a let down but it wasnt a game changer. It wasnt a horrible film but it wont win any awards either. It is a decent movie. 

It is a 7.75 out of 10.