The Amazing Spider-Man 2, 2014.
Directed by Marc Webb.
Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, B.J. Novak, Felicity Jones, Chris Cooper, Chris Zylka and Denis Leary.
SYNOPSIS:
When atrocities threaten New York, Spider-Man must protect the citizens of New York and his loved ones before New York’s heart befalls into tragedy.
Despite helping to change the face of the superhero movie in 21st century Hollywood, the Spider-Man franchise died before our very eyes, delighting and enthralling before crashing and burning. The best intentions of director Sam Raimi notwithstanding, Spider-Man 3 failed, even if it was the franchises’ highest grosser. While many blamed the excess of villains and characters, which led to a horribly disjointed script, it was the studio’s insistence on things (namely Venom) that ultimately derailed our friendly neighbourhood Spidey. Now, 10 years since Spider-Man 2 blew away all superhero films before it, no-one seems to have learnt from their mistakes.
An unnecessary/”we need to keep the rights” reboot later, old habits do indeed die hard, as even with a new creative team, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 falls foul of the same errors in judgment. Stuffing as much into one movie as they can to move the franchise forward into the now hip “universe” territory, this is the Iron Man 2 of Spidey lore – lots of killer, not much filler, all appetite whetting.
TASM2 starts excitingly enough; a Batman-esque prologue-of-sorts flashing back to reveal more secrets of Peter Parker’s parents, but within moments the film is knocked off its rails almost as soon as Spider-Man (Garfield) appears. The titular hero’s arrival sees him fend off Paul Giamatti’s Alexsei Sytsevich (soon to be Rhino), and bump into Jamie Foxx’s mild-mannered scientist Max in a dull opening sequence that, for a $200million or so endeavour, is poorly realised both in spectacle and CGI, looking more Wii game than Hollywood blockbuster. Still, the film trundles along a-pace, reacquainting us with Peter and Gwen (Stone) and their will they / won’t they relationship, as well as introducing to Osborn’s 2.0, Harry (DeHaan) and Norman (Cooper).
But with formalities done and introductions completed, the creaks set in, the plot tumbling down a spinning rabbit hole of textbook plot ideas and familiar origins. Have we not matured enough as an audience that comic-book movies were now about character and being true to the source, rather than being all about the “product(s)”? You can put in all the ingredients you want, but it doesn’t mean the blender is going to produce gold.
This is the kind of superhero movie that Joel Schumacher was excruciating churning out back in the 1990’s. While TASM2 is nowhere near as horrific as Batman & Robin’s neo-lit, excessive, pun-laden sham, it certainly falls foul to many of the same failings that killed the Caped Crusader for eight years. Ridiculous villain depictions (Foxx’s Electro, for example, is involved with electric eels, wants Spider-Man dead despite no involvement from said hero in his transformations, wants to take over New York, yawn), boring action set-pieces (Marc Webb again failing to deliver outside of his rom-com comfort zone), and a story so insipid and lifeless that is should be sued for falsely using the word amazing.
Garfield and Stone try wilfully to extract at least a small fraction of interest from the lifeless screenplay, but they are so much better than this, and like DeHaan and Foxx, are simply buckled under the strain of trying to keep the film afloat. The chemistry between Garfield and Stone is the undoubted highlight here though, with their off-screen relationship adding a little extra spice to their on-screen romance. And for any filmmaker to horribly waste such acclaimed actors like Giamatti, Sally Field and Chris Cooper must be some sort of sacrilege.
For a genre that has had a nice jolt of freshness with both The Winter Soldier’s 70’s espionage thriller aspect and more recently the sheer joyfulness of Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s even more of a shame that the most “amazing” of all the comic-book personalities has been given another dire outing. Those who love Spider-Man will send accusations flying I’m sure of not “getting” the character or that this is the true representation of what Peter Parker’s journey should be, but despite their passion for him and his adventures, surely even they know that there is nothing amazing about this. Hollywood blockbuster excess at its worst and most turgid.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ / Movie ★
Scott Davis
Originally published September 4, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
