The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Director: Marc Webb
Screenplay: Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner (screen story by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner and James Vanderbilt; based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko)
Stars: 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), Louis Cancelmi (Man in Black Suit), Max Charles (Young Peter Parker), B.J. Novak (Alistair Smythe), Sarah Gadon (Kari), Michael Massee (Gustav Fliers), Jorge Vega (Jorge)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Year of Release: 2014
Country: U.S.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
He’s amazing!While it took Sam Raimi until the third movie in his Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007) to try to do too much, Marc Webb turns on the overload in only the second entry in his rebooted Amazing Spider-Man franchise. That this has already happened is not too surprising in the post-Avengers world, as every superhero franchise fighting for a piece of the multiplex now has to do more than simply develop and expand on a central protagonist; rather, they now have to be the center-point of a centrifugal franchise machine, spinning out different characters who might possibly anchor their own series of films and/or television shows. While there is much to enjoy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, much of which derives from the same pleasures Webb embedded in his first film, it is also hard not to feel like it is working primarily as yet another set-up, building the foundation for future films at the expense of the central narrative (it’s even built into the film’s advertising tag-line: “His greatest battle begins …).

Andrew Garfield returns as Peter Parker, the high school science geek who was bitten by a radioactive spider and turned into a wall-crawling superhero. When the film opens, he is still living with his sweet Aunt May (Sally Field) and is about to graduate from high school, although he barely makes the ceremony because he is too busy donning his Spider-Man alter ego and taking care of business, specifically stopping a rampaging Russian mobster (Paul Giamatti) from completely destroying downtown Manhattan with a stolen truck (the first of many set-ups for future installments, as Giamatti’s character will morph into the villainous Rhino). As a result, he misses the commencement address given by his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), although that is the least of his relationship problems, as Peter is haunted by a promise he made to Gwen’s dying father (Dennis Leary) that he would stay away from her, lest his life as Spider-Man put her in danger. Peter is so wracked with guilt that he breaks up with Gwen in order to protect her, which sets in motion an on-and-off-again dance between them that is reminiscent of the best moments in Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (2004), which found pop perfection in delayed romantic gratification. Garfield and Stone maintain much of the same chemistry that worked so well in the first film, which makes their will-they-or-won’t-they pas de deux one of the film’s best assets.

The same cannot be said for the film’s villains, which are both numerous and underwhelming. The primary heavy is Electro (Jamie Foxx), who is a kind of moral inverse of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in that he also begins life as a downtrodden nerd, although his superhuman powers are conferred to him via an accident involving electricity. Rather than taking great responsibility with his great power, he turns villainous when he mistakenly believes that Spider-Man has betrayed him, although the manner in which this particular series of events unfolds is so labored that Electro loses any real sense of depth or gravity; he’s like a kid who myopically misunderstands the adult world and throws a temper tantrum, albeit one in which he’s throwing volts of electricity strong enough to fry an entire city (although Spider-Man appears capable of absorbing quite a bit of it, with the biggest problem being the electricity short-circuiting his web shooters). This is typical, though, of a film that embraces cartoonishness at every turn, which is odd given that Webb sought to reinvent the franchise with a grittier take on the material.

The other primary villain is Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), the heir apparent to the mighty Oscorp, which employed both Electro and Peter’s father (Campbell Scott), whose mysterious backstory is given further elaboration. Harry, who is friends with Peter, is dying of a genetic disorder passed down by his father (Chris Cooper) and is in need of Spider-Man’s blood as a potential cure, and when Spider-Man refuses, he takes matters into his own hands and ends up injecting himself with a serum that turns him into the Green Goblin. So, by the film’s big climax, Spider-Man has two major villains with which to contend—one too many, as it turns out. However, the film is effectively saved by shifting its focus to the Peter-Gwen dynamic, which Webb handles with great care and melodramatic force; he finds just the right balance between comic book overstatement and genuine sentiment.

As a whole, though The Amazing Spider-Man 2 simply feels like it is trying to do too much, jerking us in so many different directions that you feel more fatigued than exhilarated by the prospect of the next installment, which is none-too-subtlety introduced by the return of Giamatti’s character in full-on battle armor. We know there will always be villains for Spider-Man to face, and one can only hope that the third installment settles down and finds a focus, rather than scattering us to the four winds.

Copyright ©2014 James Kendrick

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All images copyright © Sony / Columbia Pictures / Marvel Studios

Overall Rating: (2.5)




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