THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 Review; Worthy Of Your Charge?

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 Review; Worthy Of Your Charge?

Marc Webb's original endeavor into Sony's rebooted Spdier-Man franchise was met with a mixed reaction here on CBM, but will his second outing in the Friendly Neighborhood Hero's backyard go down any better? Can a campy comic book movie work? Hit the jump to find out!

Review Opinion
By DEVLIN712 - Apr 16, 2014 06:04 PM EST
Filed Under: Spider-Man

Who doesn't love Spider-Man? He's the world's most popular A-list hero, dominating everything from the big and small screens to the printed page, and let's be honest, who hasn't thought (at one stage or another) that it'd be great to swing from the rooftops of New York city? Spider-Man has a bigger fan base than any other hero, leaving Sony in the hard spot of needing something great to keep in touch with the ever expanding MCU and up-and-coming DC Universe. After one Marvel based comic book movie hit it out of the park earlier this month, could lightning strike twice?
 

The Great

  • Electro

 
Think what you will of Jamie Foxx's personal life, but damn that man can act. While Electro's arc starts off slowly (for the most part, the underdog Max Dillon section isn't great), when things get up to speed they never stop. Foxx manages to bring enough menace and fear to the character, while keeping the balance of someone who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sony would be doing 2017's Sinister Six solo a great injustice by excluding Foxx.

  • Style and Acting

Say what you want about which was the better movie, The Amazing Spider-Man went above and beyond with it's characterization of the protagonists and villains. Where Raimi's trilogy felt more like an elseworld story, Webb, to all intents and purposes, has converted an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man (the good, early stuff) into a feature length film; this time around Andrew Garfield nails Peter Parker, bringing me back to the lovable comic character I know and love. A great scene in which Peter tests his web shooter's resistance to electrical currents could be taken, panel for panel, straight out of a comic book.

  • The Easter Eggs (No Spoilers)
Despite the internet's strong belief that we already knew all of the Easter Eggs that would pop up in the film, we don't. If you know your stuff when it comes to Spider-Man's history, this film will be a field trip for you. From name drops to hints at future appearances, this has everything a Spidey fan could want

  • The Third Act
The other Marvel based comic book movie of the year was a perfect all-rounder, yet it's third act lacked that special excitement that a final sequence is supposed to have (mostly due to the fact that we knew Steve Rogers was returning for the next Avengers). In this case however, the third act is thrilling from start to finish; Electro comes off as a real force to be reckoned with and multiple subplots merge into one, leaving the audience on the edge of their seat as the fate of a certain leading lady (quite literally) is left hanging in the balance of the protagonist/antagonist showdown.

  • The Comedy
​GASP! But, comedy doesn't work in CBMs, right?! Well, in The Amazing Spider-Man 2's case, it works a treat. Spider-Man has always taken a light hearted approach to cleaning up the criminal underworld of New York, an this is the first time it's been accurately captured on screen. We saw glimpses of the humor in the first film (mostly the car thief encounter). It also feels like the first time that comedy has been used in a CBM without distracting the audience from the tone of the film, while also avoiding the campiness of other comedic CBMs.


So that's the best of the film, not it's time for the not so great...

The Not So Amazing
  • The Length
While the film's story is great and has no obvious plot holes, clocking in at 2 hours and 32 minutes, the film is too long. The film's third act is by far the best part and waiting through 105 minutes of rarely seeing Spidey suit up and swing about the city leaves the second act feeling drawn out and boring.


  • Harry Osborne

Don't get me wrong on this one, both Dane deHaan and Harry Osborne are great in the film, but his character would be so much better had it been less rushed. The arc from bromance to mortal enemies seems too quick and irrational, ending up making what could have been a brilliant subplot to the film seem forced and only included for the convenience of the plot.


The Verdict

Overall, Marc Webb and co have done an incredible job with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, making a film that is both enjoyable to watch and gives us some great action sequences, including the best final sequence of the year. The Amazing Spider-Man wasn't a terrible film, it just never made it up to the great mark; it's predecessor goes far beyond where the origin story finished up, coming close to Captain America: The Winter Soldier in quality. This film will (like the last one) split the fan's views, with some hating it and some loving it. In my eye's however, a lot more people are going to fall on the love side of things. Sony needed to pull something good out of the bag to compete with 2014's big blockbusters and they have. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is an edge-of-your-seat film that leaves you wanting more from the new Cinematic Universe. After this, Sony should have no problem marketing a Venom solo.

The Final Score
RUMOR: Marvel Studios Could Return To Plan For Street-Level DAREDEVIL Crossover With SPIDER-MAN 5
Related:

RUMOR: Marvel Studios Could Return To Plan For Street-Level DAREDEVIL Crossover With SPIDER-MAN 5

SPIDER-MAN 4 Is Reportedly Being Described By Insiders As The Wall-Crawler's Biggest Movie Yet
Recommended For You:

SPIDER-MAN 4 Is Reportedly Being Described By Insiders As The Wall-Crawler's "Biggest" Movie Yet

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.

This post was submitted by a user who has agreed to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. ComicBookMovie.com will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement. Please CONTACT US for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content. CLICK HERE to learn more about our copyright and trademark policies.

Note that ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.

1 2 3
Mrcool210
Mrcool210 - 4/16/2014, 6:34 PM
ah a review that praises electro, good to hear, im looking foward to this, the wait is killing me gah. Better be a good movie. Heres hoping
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 4/16/2014, 6:39 PM
Iron Man 3 is a campy movie and it ain't that great :p

Cool read @ DEV, glad u liked it!

Have no idea about anything to do with Jamie Fox's personal life but he looks great for the Ultimate version Electro.

I see the Spidey suit looks ten times better than in the first one.

Rhino looks a pile of crap though, but just going by the video clips :p

Being its a SONY movie and not a FOX one gives it brownie points.

Guess I'll see what its gonna be like when I get to see it, just wish they called it ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, coz that's what it is, thanks for the enjoyable read ^5
SpiderFraud
SpiderFraud - 4/16/2014, 6:41 PM
Some positive stuff for TASM2...

ezio619
ezio619 - 4/16/2014, 6:42 PM
yeah man,good review!!,this movie has been getting mixed reactions, alot of people on twitter who have already seen it have said its great, loved it, saying its very emotional and engaging throughout, couple have said its just good, couple havent liked it, its getting so many mixed reactions from people,its insane, hopefully my response to the film is akin to yours
SuperCat
SuperCat - 4/16/2014, 6:42 PM
Agree with LEEE. Not liking Rhino's look. But I still plan to see this.
Ineedrevelation
Ineedrevelation - 4/16/2014, 6:44 PM
Ummmm... nah.

I'm going with Welding's review.

Thanx tho
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 4/16/2014, 6:44 PM
GASP! But, comedy doesn't work in CBMs, right?! Well, in The Amazing Spider-Man 2's case, it works a treat.


It does...

If you're a fan of "Not Another Date Movie" humor
MitchConner
MitchConner - 4/16/2014, 6:44 PM
Good review...but I am afraid I will agree with Josh...

You guys want the rights to revert back the first step is stop pussy footing around and giving Sony your money...boycott shift movies and call them what they are...stop showing up to the theaters and they will get the message
DEVLIN712
DEVLIN712 - 4/16/2014, 6:44 PM
@ezio and SpideyPose
As long as you go in expecting a Spider-Man like the character from the comics you should like it.

The film still has Parker stutter a shit tonne though...
GeekyCheekyChic
GeekyCheekyChic - 4/16/2014, 6:45 PM
Its 2 hrs and 32 minutes ? good god why?
ezio619
ezio619 - 4/16/2014, 6:46 PM
LEEEEE-i disagree,i think iron man 3 is a really good film,it has two misplaced scenes of humor for me and maya and extremis could have been fleshed out a bit more but almost all the humor for me works naturally, tony is a narcicisst so he deflects his problems through humor,i love the idea of the mandarin twist.my review on phase 2 so far:


IRON MAN 3
i love tonys arc in the film, him trying to find out where the Man fits in Iron Man in a post avengers world,i love the mystery ,detective plot in the film,i think the humor for almost all of it works(there are two misplaced bits of humor for me but thats it)the plotholes are answered, for example why doesnt tony call his suits in tenessee :because the debris hasnt been cleared from the house, why do tonys armors break easily: they are prototype suits, but i can forgive some plotholes if i am engaged in the story and the characters of a films and that was the case with Iron Man 3 for me,i love the idea behind the mandarin and the twist is hilarious imo and I Love Killian,imo, he is the third best villain in the MCU behind The Winter Soldier and Loki . he is menacing,interesting and fun, he was smarmy and had some smarmy lines that were fun,plus his plan was very interesting and brilliant and his motivation was very interesting in that it was not revenge at all, even tony kind of jokingly says to him that he still isnt pissed about that night and Killian even says how can he be pissed at him, he thanks him but tony is in his way and so he has to kill him,plus he attacks his mansion to keep up the image of the Mandarin,not out of revengeeeeee!!(sorry about that), but his plan is just brilliant:having a puppet leader in power by having "The Mandarin" kill the president, the governemnt would retaliate and Killian would be there to supply his extremis soldiers to then new president who works for him and they would go on a wild goosechase for the mandarin who is Killians Fabrication, Killian would get rich from the profits and have alot of power by having the worlds most feared terrorist in one hand and the leader of the new world in the other, he is manipluating the military industrial complex and its brilliant plus his backstory is great , he was just a naive guy who wanted to make something of himself and who admires tony so much but tony brushes him off at the start,making killian learn about how desperate he was and how if he would jump off that roof at that moment, noone would care about him and he realizes his biggest strength there: Anonymity, so he uses that revelation to fuel himself , gets funding from the military and tony even has a speech about starting with something pure but then come the compromises,those compromises(military research and funding) completely corrupted Killian and even corrupted Maya to an extent(though i wish she and extremis were a bit more fleshed out) and made something of himself, he was created by tony and was tonys dark mirror such as tony is such a public hero while killian loved being anonymous and at the end, he finally accepts his schemes and role by proclaiming that he is The Mandarin(well accepts the title of the mandarin such as told in All Hail The King which i loved) plus i love that at the beginning tony is creating these suits every hour of every day because threat is imminent and he needs to protect the one thing he cares about :Pepper, but she shows she can protect him too by ending Killian plus she needed a bit of payback after Killian basically made her his trophy,the acting is great, the writing is great, the action is creative and inventive, REALLLY GOOD FILM!!!

Thor:The Dark World

Thor The Dark World was a good, not great film, but it had enough good things in it for me to consider it above average, the character relationships between the royal family of Asgard whether it be Loki and Frigga, Odin and Loki and Thor and Odin were great, the thor and loki banter and relationship was well done, the action was very good,the performances were good(for the most part),but my complaints were malekith was a weak villain, i wish they had kept in his backstory and cut kat dennings /the intern and selvigs scenes which imo took me out of the film and were unfunny,more screentime for malekith, less for the other humans, bad call on that marvel,overall, good, fun film

Captain America :The Winter Soldier

i have only seen it once so i havent had the chance to digest it fully but i think this films is near perfect, the character interactions between the various characters is well done, the character arcs are well done, the action and humor is great,my only complaint is that the car chase with nick fury goes on alittle too long,its great,but thats my only comppaint besides some wirework and cg looking really off which took me out for a few seconds but thats it, a GREATTTT FILM!!
BUT THIS IS A SPIDEY ARTICLE, LETS KEEP IT ON SPIDEY!!
MitchConner
MitchConner - 4/16/2014, 6:46 PM
^^and Ror...this trailers even look like crap man, I don't understand how so many people are buying this
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 4/16/2014, 6:46 PM
Nah it's not that bad. I laughed a coupe of times actually, but still found most of the comedy far too broad.

So a "non cynical, non biased review" is basically a positive review of the film you haven't seen yet...yes?
JoshWilding
JoshWilding - 4/16/2014, 6:46 PM
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Mrcool210
Mrcool210 - 4/16/2014, 6:46 PM
"The film's third act is by far the best part and waiting through 105 minutes of rarely seeing Spidey suit up and swing about the city leaves the second act feeling drawn out and boring."

That really worries me, so he's not spider-man for much in the movie? oh boy.
Battabing
Battabing - 4/16/2014, 6:47 PM
Not to start a flame war, but I'm pretty sure Batman has a bigger fan base than Spider-man.
MitchConner
MitchConner - 4/16/2014, 6:47 PM
The sooner Sony stops getting rewarded for crap the sooner they will stop making it
NoPhucksGiven
NoPhucksGiven - 4/16/2014, 6:47 PM
still gonna watch good or bad.
ALegendaryPanda
ALegendaryPanda - 4/16/2014, 6:47 PM
Nice review! I hope I end up loving it too.
ezio619
ezio619 - 4/16/2014, 6:47 PM
devlin-im not a big fan of the raimi films, i think the first two are OK and 3 is bad, i could never connect with tobey as peter, he felt too timid,insecure and lack of a better word, whiny and his relationship with mj was just bad,it was not well done imo,i liked the first amazing spiderman better then all 3 raimi films,i connected more with andrews peter because i felt his pain and anger due to his parents just leaving him one day and not telling him why they left, he had a chip on his shoulder, much like the peter in amazing fantasy 15 who while being a nerd, had a bit of a chip on his shoulder and i loved his relationship with gwen, anyway i think the first one is really good but i agree the lizard was not a well developed villain, he wasnt fleshed much at all,lets see what i think of this one
MitchConner
MitchConner - 4/16/2014, 6:47 PM
^^^words of my father
GreenLantern519
GreenLantern519 - 4/16/2014, 6:49 PM
I knew this would happen with Harry's character. One of the things the Raimi Trilogy did right was have Harry and Peter's "friends-enemies" stuff be a slow burn, much more satisfying that way.
ALegendaryPanda
ALegendaryPanda - 4/16/2014, 6:49 PM
I just realized my comment rhymed..
SpiderFraud
SpiderFraud - 4/16/2014, 6:49 PM
Seems like this movie will split movie goers, I just hope I'm on the positive side. I'm super hyped for this movie regardless of reviews.

If this movie does suck, guess I will be done with Sony superhero films...and we will be stuck with a lame Spidey universe.
DEVLIN712
DEVLIN712 - 4/16/2014, 6:53 PM
@ezio
I think my problem with Tobey as Peter was that I couldn't see him as the Peter Parker I knew growing up. Kinda like how RDJ is Tony Stark ripped straight out of the comics. I like Garfield's portrayal much more

@Spidey5194
Couldn't agree more, loved James Franco as Harry. I was okay with him not being like Harry from the comics as much since he was a lesser character. That said, deHaan was brilliant in this, he played Harry's villainous side much like he did in Chronicle
Mrcool210
Mrcool210 - 4/16/2014, 6:53 PM
i don't know who to believe for these films anymore, why can't they just release it all the same day? then we could all agree or disagree whether or not we like a movie? some of these reviews are killing me. not this one, but the other ones, mainly rors and joshs
Mrcool210
Mrcool210 - 4/16/2014, 6:54 PM
I JUST WANT TO SEE IT NOW!!!
SpiderFraud
SpiderFraud - 4/16/2014, 6:58 PM
@Delvin

That stutter and shaking shit he does is annoying, lol. Great review, hopefully I feel the same on May 2nd!
ezio619
ezio619 - 4/16/2014, 6:59 PM
i dont get the stuttering and shaking complaint at all, he is just an awkward teenage kid to me..ah well..to each his own
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 4/16/2014, 7:06 PM
Ok @UltimateWarrior, so explain yourself then?
ALegendaryPanda
ALegendaryPanda - 4/16/2014, 7:07 PM
@Ezio

WTF??! Is that a joke??
HOTSHOT
HOTSHOT - 4/16/2014, 7:30 PM
Basically, this will probably be as good as the first one: Great things mixed with some cringe worthiness. Maybe I'll enjoy it more, who knows?
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 4/16/2014, 8:14 PM
ezio619 @ I'll give u that, I did enjoy Iron Man 3 a lot more second time round but it is the weakest Marvel studios movie thus far in my eyes :p but its a lot better than a lot of other Marvel movies floating about of course.

Damn you could make and article outta that long comment lol.

Yeah I prefer THOR 2 more than IRON MAN 3, still THOR 2 wasn't as good or as epic as the first one.

I've only seen WINTER SOLDIER once too, don't get and never will people that gotta go back and watch it again and again, rather just buy the Blu-ray, which I do. Yeah deff man, CAP 2 rocked, awesome movie...this is what Hollywood should be doing more of, take the damn comic books more seriously and not just turn 'em into jokes for the masses, ofc u can't do that and shouldn't with brighter comic book characters like Superman...

Well unless its a DOOMSDAY movie ; D
1 2 3
View Recorder