Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Critics Just Don't Understand (SPOILERS)

 

 

In 2012, Marc Webb and Andrew Garfield brought about a new beginning for Spider-Man with a reboot film that was just like its namesake: Amazing. With a sequel set even before the first film was released, it showed how much faith the studio had in the new film. Even before the second film was released, Sony even set dates for the third and fourth movies. As Sony released more and more info about the second movie, the more excited I was. The new suit alone was enough to get me excited; it looks like Spidey jumped right off the comic into real life, even more than the suit from the original trilogy. But with that excitement, there was worry as well. Worry that even if they were setting things up for future films, that they were trying to do too much in one film, and that we'd have another "Spider-Man 3" on our hands. The fire of that worry was stoked as a lot of negative reviews started to surface. But even with the negativity, I found just as much positive that gave me some hope. Based on the mixed reaction, it seemed that this film would be this year's "Man of Steel", in the aspect that critics just won't get it. After seeing the film myself, my assumption was correct. While the latest film may divide people, as a lifelong Spider-Man fan, I have never been blown away by film in this franchise like I was when watching "The Amazing Spider-Man 2."

It goes without saying that Andrew Garfield has become one with and embraced his character as his own. His performance in the first film showed that, but the second one makes it all the more certain. The one thing that makes Garfield feel so natural as Spider-Man is his sense of humor. Even through the most intense situations, he would still make jokes that would annoy the villain but also give the audience a laugh. That's something that was sorely lacking with Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man. To put it in comparison, between two movies, Garfield's Spidey probably quintupled the amount of jokes Tobey made in all three of his movies. But it's not just his quips that makes him Spider-Man. Garfield's chemistry with his co-stars shows that he knows how to be Peter Parker as well, as he delivered some good emotional scenes with Aunt May and Harry Osborn. And of course there's Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. It probably helps that Andrew and Emma are dating in real life, but when I was watching Peter and Gwen together, it feels like I would be watching a real couple. Even with their real life relationship, some credit has to director Marc Webb. Before the first film was released, I watched his previous film "500 Days of Summer", which I really developed a personal connection with, and realized that this guy had what it takes to bring emotion to the Spider-Man films, which is very important. Compared to Tobey and Kirsten, Andrew and Emma make the romance feel real.

But the cast is only half the equation with superhero movies like this. The special effects were top-notch, especially with the way they made Spider-Man move. Like the previous film, Spider-Man just feels more natural with the way he swings and fights. If you looked back on Tobey's Spider-Man and compare, it just seems so obvious that if feels staged and choreographed, that that Spider-Man was forcing himself to act so agile.

Let's talk about the villains now. Yes, there were three in one movie again. After "Spider-Man 3", there's the idea that too many villains can ruin a film. However, I think Webb has one upped Raimi in how to make the idea work. When you look at "Spider-Man 3", you can tell that they were trying to make all 3 villains seem like the main threat, and it ended in disaster. With "Amazing Spider-Man 2", the main focus was on 2 main villains who got their story fleshed out, while the other one was there to help set up the future. I mean, with plans being made to use the Sinister Six, you need to establish you can handle multiple villains, especially when you plan to have six in one movie.
Even then, some critics still complained about the film being overcrowded and that the villains weren't that well developed. I respectively disagree and feel each of them served a purpose.

• ELECTRO: I understand how some may feel about Max Dillon when he's first introduced, that he's the stereotypical geek who's wimpy and doesn't get respect. But I think it was necessary to see that first before he gets his powers, the way in which was pretty damn cool and violent in my opinion. In the Times Square scene, you really get to see Max snap, and I felt for him. This was a guy who just wanted to feel needed, like he actually mattered to people, and Spider-Man's pep talk really built him up. Though it was a big misunderstanding and he couldn't control himself, Max felt betrayed by someone important who made him feel matter. Potentially, Electro has the power to rule the whole world, but he's usually portrayed as weak minded, and it's what made him easy for Harry to manipulate later on.
• HARRY OSBORN: While he was only really the Green Goblin for a few minutes, Harry's character development through the movie does make him a villain even without being in costume. Harry became desperate and its what drove him over the edge to become the Goblin. Besides that, there's his relationship with Peter. Despite their awkward reunion at the start, you eventually see them as long-lost friends that pick up where they left off. Then Harry feels betrayed by Peter when he finds out he's Spider-Man, and despite taking away Peter's "hope" (I'll say more on that later), it seems like he really wants to make Peter suffer more, which explains why he would rather form the Sinister Six instead of just revealing Peter's secret to the public.
• RHINO: At first I was a little miffed when I realized Rhino would end up being the closing villain in the film, but when it actually came to that point, I realized it was necessary. I would have thought including him would have been unnecessary, but it ended up letting the film close out on a more positive note, which I see now as the best way it could have gone.

With the exception of Rhino, I really did feel some emotion for Max and Harry. In fact, I felt more for those two than any other Spidey film before. I think that's a testament to Marc Webb's directing abilities that you can feel so deeply for the villains.

Probably the most important thing about Spider-Man is that he gives people off a sense of hope. That's an aspect that really plays out in this film compared to the others, while it is touched upon at the end of the first "Amazing" film. I myself have always seen Spider-Man in that way, that even with all the crap he goes through, eventually everything will work out in the end and that you'll wind up where you need to be. There's one character in the film that isn't that big of a role, but Spider-Man really inspires him, and it leads to a great moment between them in the final scene.

Now it's time to get to the scene that really made the film for me: Gwen's death. A lot of people speculated it would happen and Sony teased the hell out of it in the previews, but even with all that, it was that scene that made my heart pound, my lungs short of breath, and almost cried, especially when Peter realized what happened. It's something that never really happened to me while watching a movie. I knew it was going to happen but it still made me emotional. And even though I knew he wouldn't, part of me still wanted to see Peter save her. It was a scene that was handled really well, especially since they added the mystery element to her death like there was in the comics. The big question: would it had mattered if Peter's web caught her, or was if the sudden stop that caused her death? It was pretty graphic too; I'll admit I looked down when she stopped. The one thing I didn't like though was that just like the first film with Uncle Ben, we have Peter listening to a speech by his lost loved one posthumously in order to help himself move on.

I did enjoy the way they wrapped up the storyline with Peter's parents. They used the traitors aspect from the comics and made it work in their own way. I didn't even mind the reason Peter's the only cross-species who's relatively normal. At least it wasn't the whole "father did something to his blood and passes it down to his son who got his powers activated later on in life" like they did in Ang Lee's "Hulk" movie. There were rumors they were going to go this route for the first "Amazing", but we should be glad they didn't go that route.

I think it's obvious that Aunt May knows that Peter's Spider-Man. She probably just doesn't want to make him worry about her worrying about him. It's kind of like what they did with Amazing Spider-Man #400. You know, before they made it so that it was an actress hired by Osborn and made up to look like May.

Much like last year with "Man of Steel", despite how much I enjoyed the film, I have been trying to figure out why many critics didn't. I have a few theories:

• When you think about it, all the other Spider-Man films have been relatively self contained and focused on one villain and critics got used to it. This time though, they took the MCU approach and wanted to help set up plans and characters for the future. While that tactic made critics think that they were using too many characters and stories, when you think about it, it's all connected and OsCorp is the focal point of it all.
• I talked about before how Spider-Man was really on with the comedy in this movie, but apparently Spidey making corny jokes through the whole movie made some critics consider it campy. Newsflash: SPIDEY IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE FREAKING JOKES. I blame the Raimi films' non-quipping Spidey affecting people's perception.
• The use of the slow motion through out the movie. Like I said before, this is the most natural moving Spider-Man than any other movie. In a way, the slow-motion was seeing things from Spidey's point of view when his Spider-Sense is activated. Let's face it, if they actually showed those scenes in real time, critics would have complained that things were moving too fast for them to understand what was happening.

I guess the overall complain from some critics was that they actually treated a comic book movie LIKE A FREAKING COMIC BOOK.

But of course, the negative reaction may lead to some repercussions for the franchise. As I've learned, Sony's goal for the film's box office was for $800 million, to make up for the $255 million budget, $180 million for marketing, and still make a good profit. By the look of things, they may not reach their goal. The last time a Spider-Man movie didn't meet expectations, it ended up leading to a reboot. But comic book movies today are different from then. Studios like to plan out the future and build a universe now. Film wise, "Amazing Spider-Man 3" may not be affected, but Sony will probably try to rework their marketing campaign. Besides that, they may have to hold off on their spin-off plans for the Sinister Six and Venom. If they can't bring in a big audience for Spider-Man himself, what hope could there be for the villains? Right now, the focus should be on making "Amazing Spider-Man 3" an overall success as the first film was. In my opinion, if Sony were able to do just one spin-off, Venom would be the best bet. He's already an anti-hero with a fanbase, and Carnage would be the perfect villain for it. Even when it was announced, I thought a movie focusing on the Sinister Six would be a tough sell. You got a team of villains, guys who are supposed to lose. What audience would be interested? While the "Superior Foes of Spider-Man" comic book has received a lot of praise and could be the basis of the film, it still may be best to put that film on the shelf for now.

Spin-offs aside, there's still a lot of potential to be done with the main Spider-Man series and the third movie. Based on the blueprints teasing the Sinister Six line-up, it will include Dr. Octopus, Vulture, Green Goblin, and Rhino for sure, as well as either Black Cat or Kraven, and Mysterio or Chameleon. I can't say for sure about the last two spots, but right now I can only speculate how Ock and Vulture will join up. For Vulture, I think they may use the younger Vulture, Blackie Drago. If Harry's building a team to take down Spider-Man, he'd probably want a young criminal and not an old man like Adrian Toomes. They could still make Drago bald too, like his Ultimate version is. As for Ock, I could see OsCorp sabotaging one of Octavius' experiments and making him believe Spider-Man was responsible, thus giving him reason to join them.
Aside from the villains, we also have Mary Jane's introduction to look forward to. Mary Jane was originally supposed to appear in this film and be played by Shailene Woodley (from "Divergent"), but ended up being cut from the film so they could focus on Peter and Gwen's relationship (which was probably the first clue she was going to die). While Woodley may not be back and the role will likely be recast, I could definitely see Peter meeting Mary Jane and developing feelings for her, but afraid to get close after what happened to Gwen.
This last idea is purely speculation. The third film should introduce the symbiote and black suit, which would lead to Venom as the main villain the fourth. Venom's supposed to get his own movie, so it only makes sense they're planning to introduce him in the main series. I mean, you can't have Venom without Spider-Man first.

So to wrap a bow on this puppy, Marc Webb has doubled down on what made the first Amazing Spider-Man film so great. For some, that means an even better Spidey than before, but for others, well they'd probably feel better watching the Tobey Maguire movies for some reason. Then again, it could probably still win over those still mad about the reboot in the first place. In my view though, to quote Saint Walker, "all will be well" when it comes to what's next for Marc Webb and Andrew Garfield's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

RATING: 10/10

Next up will be my review for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 game, which is based on the film. It was released before the movie, but I wanted to hold off on writing about that until I could compare the two, since the game does touch on some movie details while still being its own story for the most part.