Review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) by Max N — 17 Jun 2018

What I hated about AS1 was the seemingly lackluster approach to telling a story. It was more about showing off Garfield's take as Peter Parker and blowing a ton of stuff up. Now, with AS2, that doesn't so much lessen as it is done with purpose, for the most part.

The first 30-40 minutes felt a lot like AS1. I was not terribly excited to see AS2 because of how much I was bored by AS1, but after the initial rush-job of storytelling, Marc Webb finally let the story unfold as it was naturally intended.

The final hour and 45 minutes was nearly a masterpiece of Spider-Man storytelling. First, a masterful job was done on the modern take of the Gwen story. It may be because Garfield/Stone are an actual couple that enhanced the emotion between the two, but I FELT Peter's pain.

And the way the two of them interacted was superb. Harry was done so much better than in the Raimi version and is leading to an exciting Sinister Six movie, which will apparently feature at least Rhino, Vulture, Doctor Octopus and Green Goblin.

Maybe even Black Cat, since the movie introduced us to Felicia Hardy. I've read complaints that the story is too plot filled. I completely disagree, at least for the last hour and 45 minutes. When it was announced that Mary Jane would be cut from the film as it was just too much, I can now see why.

The Gwen story needed to be the focus. Personally, I'd love to see Emma, in her fiery red hair, come back as Mary Jane. I believe that would be an interesting twist. As though Mary Jane reminds him of Gwen.

Felicia, I thought, was a little too much, but maybe it will work out in the end. The first half hour the movie felt like they had to stuff a lot to get the story moving and into a certain place, especially between Peter and Gwen.

However, in the end, the decisions made in trimming down the story left me extremely satisfied and surprised at how pleased I am to see the franchise going in this direction. Especially after AS1.