Looking over my review for Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), I find I could drop its opening paragraph in here for his The Amazing Spider-Man 2, make a few tweaks — et voila, instant review. Spider-Man still isn’t all that amazing, but I still mostly prefer the reboot to the overrated (including by me) Sam Raimi films. Even more than with the last movie, I find Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone far, far more appealing than Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. In all fairness to Mr. Maguire, that’s partly in the writing, and Ms. Dunst was not playing the same character. Even so, Garfield and Stone are the heart and soul of this latest and a great part of what makes it worthwhile. I still think the new Spider-Man series suffers from a lack of J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson. And, though I can’t say why here, I think The Amazing Spider-Man 2 shoots itself in the foot as far a sequel is concerned. Plus, at the end of the day, this latest is another non-event event.
Moving to the second paragraph of the 2012 review, I find: “That’s not really the fault of the new film. We’ve simply been ‘evented’ to death. When every movie that comes down the pike is an event, then nothing really feels like one.” We could take the rest of the paragraph and plug in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Godzilla and so on and be right where we were in 2012. The would-be event tent poles are still popping up like dandelions in the spring with just as little differentiation. It’s all aimed at the Instant Gratification crowd and their seemingly bottomless need for the cinematic equivalent of fast, fast, fast relief. But the relief isn’t long-lasting — that’s quite deliberate on the part of the studios — and in two weeks it will need the new Godzilla to ginger it up, and in three weeks it will require a massive dose of X-Men: Days of Future Past, and so it goes. The problem remains: When everything is supposed to be special, nothing is.
The best thing about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is also its biggest curse — at least for the type of film it is supposed to be. What we have here is the makings of a truly fine romantic comedy-drama with two terrific leads in Garfield’s Peter Parker and Stone’s Gwen Stacy. This isn’t the sulky Peter Parker Spider-Man of the Raimi movies wallowing in teen angst. This is a cool guy who actually likes being Spider-Man and making quips at the bad guys. His issue is grounded in his promise to Gwen Stacy’s father (Denis Leary) to stay away from Gwen in order to protect her. And while there’s a little too much of the image of her father showing up like Banquo’s ghost, this is nearly all good. The problem is their scenes have to come to a grinding halt every so often for a bout of action mayhem — most of which isn’t anything we haven’t seen 10 times or more and all of which is less interesting than the relationship scenes.
It’s not that the action scenes are actively bad. The first one is actually pretty good — not in the least because it’s relevant to the story, The problem is they’re mostly the same old thing, especially once Jamie Foxx’s Max Dillon becomes Electo — or, as I like to think of him, the Not-So-Amazing CGI Man. And while all this is going on, the movie winds its way to super-villain overload, and far more interesting aspects go untapped. The promising relationship between Peter and Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) is given short shrift in order to get on with the action and the appearance of the Green Goblin. (Kudos, however, for a reasonably scary Green Goblin who doesn’t look like he’s wearing the grille from a 1937 Cord for a mask this round.) Similarly intriguing and topical themes about corporate greed are raised and just as quickly dropped in favor of mayhem and property damage.
What you end up with is a really good romantic comedy drama squeezed into what is mostly a massively OK comic-book action picture. The question is really whether it is possible — in this day and age of CGI effects that can depict anything — to come up with superhero action that’s genuinely breathtaking or even surprising. The effects these days are at a point where — so long as they don’t look cartoonish — we expect them to be good. The wow factor is gone. Where is there left to go with this? I give the film minor credit for making two of its villains, Electro and the Green Goblin, at least marginally sympathetic, but it’s not enough to make the action itself anything new. So is it worth your while? For the things that are truly good, yes, but the things that are only OK are certainly a bringdown. Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence.
I highly agree word for word on this one. I walked out of the theatre not regretting my time but not singing it’s praises to friends. Andrew Garfield is a whole lot better than Tobey was. ( the whining is not missed) and the chemistry he has with Emma Stone just shines off the screen, mostly due to the fact they are a real couple. This movie has ups and downs (mostly downs) but I felt like I was watching a fun silly cartoon. I usually like long movies but the Rhino scenes were pointless except for the fact the studio is buttering us up for the next chapter. It’s too bad they couldn’t just focus on making this the best story they could instead of making the next movie. The absolute worst scene (one that caused me embarrassing looks when I was the only one laughing at it) was the end of a web turning into a hand. What?!
I mostly agree with you, but I don’t think the chemistry between Stone and Garfield has anything to do with them being a real life couple. That’s not something that necessarily works out that way.
The casual dialogue made me cringe, yet I still cared about the Peter-Gwen dynamic more than anything else in the film. Peter’s relationship with his father places second, though none of the superhero conflicts made an impact (probably because the writers take over an hour to establish one, and when they do it’s pathetic Max with his “Look at me! I’m so angry!” schtick).