Review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) by Norman B — 29 Jan 2015

Well we have a slight improvement in my eyes. Picking up after the last film Spider-Man has embraced his super-hero self, but is haunted by fears that his relationship with Gwen Stacey is dangerous. At the same time, a series of villains from his past and present threaten New York and his future. As one of the top five most iconic characters in comics there is a lot of material and fandom to build upon. This series of Spider-Man movies continues to keep closer ties to the original mythology from the comics and remain true to the nature of the characters. A lot more time is spent showing the upbeat, humorous side of the character which, as much as I liked his portrayal, was not a part of Tobey Maguire's interpretation. Thankfully, this time around the character feels more put together than The Amazing Spider-Man. This was a much better showcase of the rebooted concept for the character than the previous film to me.

Andrew Garfield continues to be a point of contention for me in this series of Spider-Man films. He kind of fits the role, but still doesn't exactly feel right its hard to explain. Garfield is great as the smart alec Spider-Man, but never really hits the right notes during the dramatic parts. His wavering on being Spider-Man feels a bit more glossed over here and overcome a bit too easily. There are many things that are a huge improvement in the reboot, but Garfield has yet to truly put his stamp on the character he feels replaceable to me, still. Perhaps the great success of director Marc Webb is continuing to refine the experience of a Spider-Man movie. By that, I mean this film does a great job of creating an atmosphere where the viewer really gets an idea of what it would feel like to swing on the webs through the city. Also, I must give him credit for continuing to use different villains than the first series instead of just rehashing the same villains that have come before. That being said, it feels like Webb and the new series are still finding themselves, particularly technically, where it felt more CGI heavy than a lot of the character movies Marvel is putting out at this point. The already thin line between live action and animated movies continues to blur more and more. The 3-D in the movie did well on certain parts to enhance the viewing experience.

The action in the movie is fun, but felt a bit abbreviated, as none of the action scenes felt overly long at times. While there were large action set pieces, there is something about keeping Spider-Man always in New York that makes it feel small in comparison to a lot of what Marvel is doing cinematically. This is another area where Raimi's series has remained superior, but you can definitely see Webb's growth from film to film. It will be interesting to see if he lasts past part three; he might have just started to really hit his stride by then hopefully. Real quick lets talk about the villains for a second. Heading into the film we knew there were going to be three villains Electro, the Rhino, and Green Goblin, but we weren't sure of how they fit together. After how notoriously poor the same situation was handled in Spider-Man 3, this was obviously a point of concern. Thankfully it is far more restrained in terms of their usage, and instead the film primarily focuses on one (Electro) with the others serving mostly as support. In a strange way it doesn't really feel like the villains are the driving force of the movie, but they did set the stage for where the series is heading next hinting at several characters who are likely to show up sometime in the near future. There is a lot of fun action and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 does establish a lot of the pathos for the character going forward, but it never really felt like Spider-Man was ever in real danger kind of like Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger. The film feels more like transitional piece to a bigger puzzle, to get the character set up for future films going forward rather than a stand alone character film. Perhaps Sony should be applauded for their long-term thinking, but it is hard to see the sacrifices without seeing the end results of the series as a whole.