After the success of "The Amazing Spider-man", many hoped that the sequel would be just as good if not better. However, with the muted colors of the costume as well as the lack of character developement and Superman-esq music; the film was a let down, atleast for me.
What I liked about the film:
The film had a strong opening, aside from the first few minutes where it focused completely on what happened to Richard and Mary Parker. It seemed as if it was going to be fairly good once you got past the Superman style intro music. We see Spider-Man swinging through the air which was very reminsiont of the Sam Raimi films. After the extended web swinging sequence, we're thrown into an awesome police chase where the future Rhyno has hijacked an Oscorp truck carrying liquifide plutonium. It's reveled that Peter is running late for his Highschool graduation because of this action packed scene. In this scene, we're also introduced to Max Dillon the future Electro, and are given a little bit of a sneak peak at why he becomes the villain he was meant to be.
Another positive for the film was the internal struggle Peter was challenged by. Aside from not having any narritive by Peter himself, it was also fairly reminiscent of Sam Raimi's version. Through out the film, Peter is haunted by his last memory of Captain Stacy (Gwen's dad), and the promise he made at the end of the first film. However, by the middle of the film it started to become to much.
The action within the film was incredibly well done. As I said above, The chase scene felt like an adrenoline rush. Seeing Spider-man catch all those containers with his hands, feet and webbing; it looked like something straight out of the comics. Both battles with Electro were pretty epic (the second more than the first). During the first battle with Electro I found it pretty funny when you see Electro send Spidey crashing through a wall and then for the next minute or two it's like "Where's the bug?" Next thing you know, you see Spidey spraying the human lightning bug with a fire hose while wearing a fire fighter's helmet.
Something I liked that many didn't was the side story involving Peter's parents and making Richard Parker the reason that his son ultimately became Spider-Man. The scene on the air plane however, could have been placed further along into the film so that it had a strong opening with the chase scene.
My dislikes:
The film quickely opened with the Parker parents on a private plane leaving the United States and then after a slight action sequence, it falls out of the sky with Richard's main concern being sending a file to an unknown person. Then immediatly after this, we're introduced to the Spider symbol with what sounded like Superman music playing. Don't get me wrong, The Magnificent Six did a great job creating that piece but they put it in the wrong film.
The character developement was severely lacking. I've heard about scenes such as one between Max Dillon and his mother being cut from the film as well as others involving the Green Goblin. Could these scenes have saved the character developement of the film? I doubt it. Being that Harry Osbourne wasn't introduced until almost halfway through the film and the scenes involving Dillon didn't really extend longer than about a minute with the exception of how he became electro. It was very rushed.
The death of Gwen Stacy. We all knew it was coming. In order for Peter Parker to accept his role as Spider-man, the love of his life had to die. But rather than making The Green Goblin Responsible for her death, Spider-man was in fact the cause. You would think a guy a smart as Peter is suppose to be, would realize "Ok Gwen is falling to her death but if I shoot a web line at her with the way she's falling, I'll snap her neck. So I have to create a web net to catch her in." It was such an anti-climactic scene. The Green Goblin is suppose to be Peter's arch enemy because he's willing to stop at nothing to destroy both Peter and Spider-man. However, even Goblin couldn't have foreseen that Peter would have used a web line rather than a web net to save her. Gwen's death was all on Peter, not Harry. Some would argue that that's what makes Goblin such a great villain, because he's willing to put that death on Peter's conscience rather than take the glory for himself. But as I said, even Goblin couldn't have anticipated that Peter would have tried to save her like that.
Most of the scenes in which show Spider-man (in costume), we see him standing casually. That's not the Spidey I know. No matter what, Spider-man usually croutches on all fours either in a casual hand over hand way or in attack position with his arms and legs bent as if he were preparing to crawl or jump or hunched over while standing with legs bent and back arched downward. The comics rarely show Spidey standing casually, that's part of his character. We see this in the first battle with electro, as well as the 2nd battle with Electro, the scene where he stops the bullies from picking on the kid and walking the kid home and again in the final battle against Rhyno. I don't know if that was done specifically to keep it from seeming to much like the first three Spider-man movies or unintentionally because the cast and director were unfamiliar with the character, but either way the third film needs to correct this.
Finally, there was very little conflict between New York citizens over who liked Spidey and who didn't. Sure there were a few scenes that sprinkled this in, but for the most part Spider-man was seen as New York's hero. The way news reports broadcast about him being gone, you would think he was Superman. Another part which ecos this was the scenes between Spider-man and the police. Of course a few of them would view Spidey as a hero but the majority would still be suspicious of him. I'm not sure what Marc Webb was thinking by doing the film this way, but it doesn't work for Spider-man. It's very reminiscent of Spider-man 3 in that way. Making most of the city pro-Spidey, makes him over confident and kind of a douche. We want a hero who has doubts about if he can beat a villain. Doubts about what good he's doing. Doubts about balancing Spider-man and Peter Parker. Spidey has always been the every man, but according to Webb he's not an every man he's a super man. Perhaps Webb should consider taking over for Zack Snyder on the Man of Steel films because we've seen that he can do a Superman movie in his Amazing Spider-man films, but then again he'd probably make Superman more like Spidey so scratch that. GET YOUR HEROES STRAIGHT WEBB!
Over all I give this film a 3 out of 5 stars. If you haven't seen it yet, I would recomend waiting until it goes into the $5 bin at Walmart. Let's hope Amazing Spider-man 3, which we won't see until an unspecified date in 2018 will be better.
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