‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Movie Review: Andrew Garfield shines in tedious story
Spider-Man swings back into theaters to battle three different villains in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Following the events of the first Marc Webb directed film, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) are graduating high school, heading to college and trying to define a purpose in their lives. Peter is haunted by the promise to Gwen’s father to stay free from her, keeping her safe from his risky Spider-Man career. Electro (Jamie Foxx) is a Spider-Man worshipper transformed into electricity during an OsCorp accident. Harry (Dane DeHaan) returns to town as his father (Chris Cooper) is dying and passes the reins of OsCorp over to the young man, full of rage and identity issues.
Spider-Man must battle Electro, balance his love life against the risk of being Spider-Man and OsCorp spirals into chaos, contributing to the creation of super-villains.
Similar to the first film, Garfield steals the show as a perfect portrayal of Peter Parker with Stone really delivering at his side. Also similar to the first film, Amazing Spidey 2 offers little else beyond the Matrix-inspired battle scene between Electro and Spider-Man which was previewed in the trailers.
The film ties up the loose ends the first film, gives Sally Field a chance to deliver a fantastic speech defining Aunt May and truly delivers a bold ending, which I doubted they would attempt.
The biggest injustice is the lack of interesting villains, contrived moments of tension (airplanes crashing into one another) and not enough Paul Giamatti. Of course, he has a really bad Russian accent so maybe that was best.
Balancing Spider-Man against his love life is at the core of Peter Parker’s life, but comic book goes a step further: balancing his love life against the chaos of being Spider-Man. Christopher Nolan tapped into the fatigued and battle worn aspects of the Bruce Wayne/Batman relationship and that didn’t succeed in Amazing Spider 2.
Fun, entertaining – yes, the film certainly is that, but this could have been a Dark Knight in the Spidey universe, but it’s more like Back to the Future 2. The run time is just of 2:20 minutes, so less romantic drama and a bit more superhero drama would have served well.
So don’t worry, there are already two more Spidey films coming and two spin-offs.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 receives 3 out of 5 stars
Your little boy will love the film, but be warned that there is some dark and edgy spots which may not be best for those 5-6-year-olds.
As a footnote, there is a X-Men: Days of Future Past clip previewing Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. It appears that making her character more interesting is not as important as seeing her fight.
Some post-credit images are rumored across the Internet to be a preview of the Sinister Six film and while that is obvious, Sony missed a real chance to jazz up the fanbase with a more intense post-credit scene involving Doc Ock or the Vulture.
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