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Scratch47's avatar

Scratch47

Too many cooks spoil the broth. Still struggling to emerge from the shadow of the Raimi trilogy and a horde of genre titles, TASM2 makes steps towards establishing its own voice but can't quite emerge from a persistent sense of deja vu. It has quite a lot to recommend it: a good sense of humour, Dale DeHaan's sly charisma, a sharpened eye for visuals, quite impressive effects during the Times Square sequence, and Andrew Garfield's presence as a likeable guy, who gels very well indeed in his on-screen relationship with Emma Stone in a smart and sweet combination. Plus you can't fault it's ambition, hell, the thing cost 200 million and lasts 150 minutes.
But the impression I got upon conclusion was that the film was an inconsequential and unconfident checklist. As if the mistakes of Spiderman 3 were having a second wind, the overstretched narrative darts to and fro 3 different subplots with a total of 5 different villains, trying so hard to please everyone it imagines might be watching. Though there's a lot of setup on the front end, these subplots are crudely linked together and accelerated into and through an eerily vague plot featuring many tonal shifts, and finally a pat and thoroughly downer ending which wipes clean any emotional subtleties of the last 2 hours. spoiler It's admitedly true to the comics, but encapsulates the whole film in a egotistical tortured-hero tragedy which doesn't play well to Spiderman's spirit of childhood innocence, and a recovery can only be staged with the generic 'chin up and move on' soliloquy that we've all heard before... Moreover, it proves the inability of its' cast of characters to learn anything - granting ample room for future franchise entries to milk the self righteous quest of our agonized Hero's Journey, as Peter constantly refuses the help of his loved ones so he can continue to bear the Atlas-sized burden of the life that's wearing him down. If this story decision sounds familiar, it's because it's a marketing decision, a card that's been played to death in the saga, and will most likely be played again. I just didn't feel the pain, rather, I felt cheated, by what looks like a narrative that's reverse engineered from a tragic ending, towards filling a whole movie with tiresome wheel spinning, without any regard for dimensionality for its hero, bar a poorly explored obsession with selfishly concealed 'colossal heroic burdens', that subtly mirror both writer Roberto Orci's hollow marketing-driven approach to movie-making, and perhaps even his broken groupthink logic around his beliefs around 9-11.
Its' cousin in the Raimi trilogy was able to affect on a quieter, more personal level, balancing Peter's anguished commitment to his life and his city very deftly. Yet here, every time the film begins to build on its relationships and make emotional impact (say, in the final scene), it pulls the rug out from under our feet in a hurried dash for the next plot development, ending up saying nothing from being out of breath. How hard is it for writers to understand basic character interaction and resolution? Without a guiding center of character and theme, the action means nothing. Plus, Jamie Foxx woefully overplays the already unnecessary Electro, and the collaborative musical score is severely grating, featuring an acoustic ballad in the middle which made my toes curl.

This is essentially what comic book fans pay to see these days - childhood mythology co-opted by blitzkrieg formula, a quiet personal pastime supplanted by juggernaut franchising and loose-ended caricature. The dogged persistence by studios in running their superhero cash cows into the ground is leaving me feeling a kind of resentful battle fatigue - Sony and Marvel's animosity only contribute to this arms race. Plus, for a film featuring a supervillain who has serious issues with not being heard, it ironically never really grabs your attention despite the spectacle. But damn, it sure as hell tried hard. And it's not completely without merit. Your enjoyment will rely upon your answer to the question, how much is too much? For me, that 'too much' was not enough. There are 2 more episodes in this saga planned - prepare for more of the same.
10 years ago
Joker of Gotham's avatar

Joker of Gotham

This film is basically a set up for the third movie or a possible spin off.

I have to be honest and admit that I liked the movie, I actually liked this movie more than the first.

Garfield was better this time, I liked the comic side of the hero, and the special effects used in the end that was visually fantastic.
Love Emma Stone, Love Gwen Stacy.

The villains , I did not care about Electro , I didn´t like his character, but Dane DeHaan was a lovely surprise, he is a good actor ( Lawless / The Place Beyond the Pines ) the work that he did with his character was one of the highlights of the film .

I do not like to see trailers of movies because I feel they show too much information about the film, and in this case showed several important scenes.

Overall I liked the movie, of course it has its flaws, could be much better, I was waiting for a Spider-Man movie as good as the first two of the original trilogy, but this was not that, yet.

3.5/5

spoiler
9 years 11 months ago
amir147's avatar

amir147

Much better from the first one but still its kind of joke! :/
9 years 8 months ago
Francesco Leoni's avatar

Francesco Leoni

They tried to make Peter Parker's character seems like the stereotypical idea of a nowadays teenager, resulting the film to be a boring non-sense spiral of incomprehensible dialogues and situations.
spoiler
10 years ago
nawi's avatar

nawi

A lot worse than I expected, and I wasn't expecting much. The first one was decent from what I remember, but this was didn't really offer anything. The humour was non-existing (the "jokes" were awful). The action sequences were boring and didn't have any tension. Jamie Foxx wasn't given an opportunity to have any interesting scenes.

None of the characters had any depth and whole movie was just plain boring. And the movie was full of boring Hollywood cliches, for example a German cliche doctor.
9 years 9 months ago
Pauljt1980's avatar

Pauljt1980

The film didn't feel complete and appears purely set up for a third
10 years ago
Oneironaut's avatar

Oneironaut

Disappointing and bland apart from a few spectacle moments here and there. Big let down.
10 years ago
Siskoid's avatar

Siskoid

Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels a lot like reading a pile of Spider-Man comics, complete with ongoing subplots that will only get resolved later. It's a weak structure that can test one's patience, though I imagine it'll play better as a trilogy to marathon on DVD. Ultimately, it means there are too many climaxes. Spider-Man defeats Electro and then has to deal with the Green Goblin, and then we're into the epilogues, and back to the Rhino, and it all gets so LOUD. (Ok, I should admit right now that I was fighting off a fever, but I think even objectively, the last act is all explosions and Electro's dubstep powers. I wish I'd have had a remote.) Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it. As with the first Amazing, it's the human moments that shine. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Sally Field are all incredibly affecting actors, and Field in particular made me tear up in almost every scene. I really liked the Peter-Harry relationship, and the action usually looked great (Electro's CG puppet was a bit jerky) and had good banter. Gwen Stacy is more than the damsel in distress, but Spider-Man's insistent partner in crime-fighting (Emma Stone is the best thing to happen to a character that was only ever a pretty drawing). I would have taken the Rhino sans suit, just as a crazy trucker, and as for Electro, he's actually made into a potent and varied threat (and somewhat sympathetic one), which is about as far from the Max Dillon of the comics as he can get. But heavy, real heavy. It's not without humor, but oof, they got Spider-Man's angst all right. By the way, the mid-credits scene being an X-Men: Days of Future Past tease? Complete bull.
8 years 10 months ago
Jordan95's avatar

Jordan95

Despite the decidedly mixed reaction to 2012's reboot, I appreciated the film although I still very much preferred Sam Raimi's debut film. However, it's an entirely different matter when it comes to my opinion on this film. Besides the obvious argument that a sequel to an already unnecessary reboot is even more unnecessary, this film still had an unlimited amount of potential in terms of character development and exploring intersecting story lines. And to be honest, it does try to do this, maybe too much on the intersecting story lines aspect, but it never manages a balance between an individual story and the overarching storyline already slated for the upcoming Sinister Six spin-offs.

The result is a mess of a plot, an utterly waste of over-the-top in a bad way cliché villains with even more cliché motivations, numerous jarring tonal shifts which already affect the film when it's started barely ten minutes ago. For instance, the opening chase sequence featuring an throwaway cameo by the great Paul Giamatti, here utterly wasted as an constantly screaming villain with a terrible Russian accent, shifts constantly between trying to be suspenseful, funny, dramatic and violent all at once. Certainly the fault lies in Marc Webb's inconsistent direction throughout the entire film and his inability to decently and creatively stage an action sequence and Pietro Scalia's choppy editing, which takes out the entire momentum of this 142 minute long film, trying to make an epic superhero film out of one that really didn't need to be all that big.

On the positive side, most of the acting performances are still solid, particularly Garfield, Stone and Field, even though they can't make miracles with the cliché-ridden script they've being handed to. DeHaan's performance suffers from being provided with a whiny and underdeveloped character, and Jamie Foxx, another great character actor, is also terribly wasted here as the one dimensional Electro.

But most importantly, because of trying to be so many films at once, forgets the most important element the previous Spider-Man films had, even Spider-Man 3, despite its undeniable flaws; the human aspect. The only scenes that really touch this are any between Garfield and Stone, but despite their undeniable chemistry, they also end up becoming nothing more than a tiresome on and off couple, which undermines the proceedings since we already know the ending of it.
9 years 2 months ago
Earring72's avatar

Earring72

Very disappointing!!!! Overlong, messy story and weak villain. Great special effects though
9 years 3 months ago
dorkusmalorkus's avatar

dorkusmalorkus

As my little sister would say, cheesy A.F.
9 years 4 months ago
DisneyStitch's avatar

DisneyStitch

If one word could describe the movie as a whole it would be "overstuffed." There are way too many villains and things happening that even the nearly 140 minute runtime seems like not enough. You've got villains being created, villains showing up into the series for the first time, and even characters being written off entirely all within one film. The movie tries to juggle 7 balls at once and ends up dropping almost all of them, but the dropped balls overshadow the remaining ones that managed to be kept in the air.
9 years 11 months ago
Malena's avatar

Malena

Why did they do a remake? I wonder............
8 years 3 months ago
MrDoog's avatar

MrDoog

For so much action this film was incredibly dull.

At least half of it felt as though I was watching a computer game instead of movie.
9 years 9 months ago
KuroSawWhat's avatar

KuroSawWhat

From the opening that involves silly-billy Spider-Man juggling 20 canisters in goofy poses, I knew something was off. By the time they trotted out the German-accented scientist to... be a German-accented scientist(?), I knew this was a purely comic-book affair. That is to say, it feels like the script is 20 pages long and filled with "BIFF!" & "KA-POW!" pictures.

If all you're looking for is Spider-Man swinging from buildings, a few explosions, muddy CGI, and a bit of teenage necking, then I'm sure you'll enjoy The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

If you're looking for a compelling story, sub-plots that are tied up by the end, competent direction, or a good musical score... The Amazing Spider-Man 1 is on store shelves now.

Even the color-scheme of this movie seems reminiscent of Batman & Robin. Was that on purpose? And why is there a commercial for a different movie in the end credits? I'll give them credit, I've never seen that before! Good grief....
9 years 12 months ago

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