Review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) by Aeraphon — 04 May 2014

Great actors in a bloated film with plot holes and tone problems. 10 year-old will enjoy, but parents will be looking at their watches. This belongs on the shelf with "Batman and Robin" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". This had the campiest, cheesiest tone I've seen in a long time.

Electro is played as confused loser prior to his transformation, we are never really clear why he hates Spiderman, and it's hard to feel menace when he is such a clown in the beginning. Dane DeHaan as Green Goblin is completely wasted - he was great in Chronicle, and has an air of menace in this. He wants Spiderman's blood to cure him of a fatal disease, his friend Peter won't give it to him for reasons that are never explained.

The score in this film is awful - it reminded me of watching Disney channel, or a bad sitcom, where we constantly need to be told how to feel by the music because the script itself cannot make us feel humor, excitement or tension. It looked like a film designed by a committee to maximize spin-off franchises, and when the director's lack of focus resulted in problems, they edited the hell out of it and ladelled on the score to distract. The campiness peaked in the film with a minor character, Dr. Kafka - a german scientist cliche wearing eyeliner and lipgloss for no apparent reason. The moment he appeared, it confirmed we were in abysmal movie territory.

We are asked to feel characters lives are in danger throughout the film, despite Spiderman usually fighting with an audience behind barricades cheering or jeering. I don't know about you, but when heavy rocket, machine-gun fire, lightening-strokes or plutonium are around, I usually try to avoid the area, and the police generally encourage that.

Might need Christopher Nolan to come in and do a gritty reboot after all the cheese on display here. It's sad because the leads have a lot of chemistry and charisma, it's just wasted on this film and this director. Go see Captain America or rent Chronicle instead - it's everything this film isn't.