The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Movie Review
A few years have passed since high school student-turned-superhero Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) took down The Lizard. Now, Peter and his on-again-off-again girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) are graduating and while Peter is spending his time fighting crime and seeking answers about what happened to his parents, Gwen is contemplating moving abroad for higher learning. Peter of course is still in love with Gwen, but he is haunted by the promise he made to her father about keeping Gwen out of harm’s way.
If Peter didn’t have enough to deal with, things get even more trying when a new Doctor Manhattan rip-off of a super-villain named Electro (Jamie Foxx) causes some major damage in New York. Sure, in the comics, Electro was around way before the “Watchmen” character, but in TASM2, Electro looks like the distant cousin of Zach Snyder’s Doc. Manhattan. Nevertheless, Jamie Foxx actually does a great job with the character, no matter how bad he is actually written. Peter also has to deal with the fact that his old friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) is dying of a rare genetic disease that claimed the life of his father and Harry thinks Spider-Man’s blood is what can cure him. Of course, Peter knows that his blood could possibly make things worse. I am not spoiling anything by telling you that Harry eventually becomes the Green Goblin and admittedly, the Goblin is handled much better than in Rami’s films. DeHaan is also much more sinister than Franco.
Where TASM2 works best is in the relationships. Like in the previous film, director Marc Webb cares about his main characters, mainly Peter and Gwen and just like in the first film, they are so very sweet together. Garfield has grown into the role of Spider-Man and he is easily the best part of each film. Sadly, the writing is sub-par. When the studio feels they need to squeeze in as many villains as possible, that is usually a bad sign.
Granted the way Electro and Green Goblin are introduced to each other makes a whole lot of sense and both characters needed to be here, but bringing in Paul Giamatti’s Aleksei Sytsevich aka Rhino feels forced. Also, I could barely understand a single word he uttered. I know it’s supposed to be a Russian accent, but I can’t for the life of me, remember a single word. I know that the filmmakers are introducing these villains to lead into the Sinister Six project that is in the works, but I am sure they could have made it work without trying to squeeze in the one last bad guy, that was just not needed.
TASM2 is actually a huge improvement over the last film, which I felt lacked a decent villain and action. Despite its’ many flaws, it does deliver some good times and the web-slinger has never looked better, swinging away.
By: Marc Ferman