‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ (Film)

 

‘THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The ‘Amazing’ Era of ‘Spider-Man’ Continues

The Amazing Spider-Man is back! 🙂

In 2012, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ became an ‘amazing’ success! Everybody warmed to this new version of Spider-Man, even though it wasn’t the same as the Tobey Maguire era. It was inevitable that a sequel would be made after the success of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. And how right I was! 😀

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ was released in 2014. The film was directed by Marc Webb and it had Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in it as well as Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Sally Field as Aunt May, Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro and Dane DeHann as Harry Osborn/the Green Goblin.

I enjoyed the second film of the Andrew Garfield era! I saw it twice at the cinema, first with my best mate Stephen from school and then with my parents. I wouldn’t claim it to be the best ‘Spider-Man’ film I’ve seen at the cinemas, as I’ve mixed feelings about it and I wish that it could have been better.

Like the first film, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ derives from the modern day comics. There are also changes made to some of the characters in the film. The story became more about OsCorp; its mysteries and Peter discovering more about his family history instead of focusing on his normal life.

Peter Parker is currently enjoying his life as Spider-Man, as he’s managed to find a balance in his two lives. Pretty soon, Peter has a lot to contend with. As well as dealing with his relationship with Gwen, he has a new foe to fight against called Electro and he deals with the return of his old friend, Harry Osborn.

Spidey’s costume has changed since the last time we saw him. It matches exactly to how he looked in the comics and the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy with the white eye-patches and the blue and red spandex suit. This pleased me, since I wasn’t too keen on the previous look that Spider-Man had.

Andrew Garfield returns as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. I enjoyed Andrew’s performance in the movie, as it’s balanced with a sense of humour and a serious side. I liked how he interacts with Gwen, Aunt May, Harry and Max Dillon. The action sequences that he does as Spider-Man are very spectacular! 🙂

It’s interesting how Andrew’s Spider-Man tackled the revelation of Peter Parker’s parentage and how his father Richard Parker was involved in a conspiracy at OsCorp. I would’ve preferred it if Peter handled helping Harry more when he saw his friend was dying from a certain illness his father had. 😐

Emma Stone returns as Gwen Stacy. Peter and Gwen have formed a romantic relationship since the previous film and seem blissfully unaware of the dangers around them. However, Peter keeps seeing Denis Leary as George Stacy, Gwen’s father, and it reminds him of the danger he’s putting Gwen in. 😦

Gwen breaks up with Peter because of his reluctance at some stages to continue his relationship with her. She’s also about to move on to high places in the UK. It was a shock to see what happened to Gwen, especially after sorting out Electro and confronting the Green Goblin. It echoed the comics.

Arguably, the film’s biggest villain is Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro. Max is an electrical engineer who works at OsCorp before he transforms into Electro during an electrical accident. I like Electro’s look in the movie, how he becomes a conductor of electricity and when he causes some havoc in New York City.

In some ways, I felt sorry for Max when he seemed to be neglected and ignored by his colleagues at OsCorp, whilst Spidey saved his life and tried to raise his self-esteem. It’s unfortunate when Max became Electro, he saw Spidey as taking the attention away from him and considered him an enemy.

Dane DeHaan stars as Harry Osborn, Peter’s old friend. I found Dane DeHann’s performance as Harry interesting. He’s a completely different version of the character compared to James Franco in the original film trilogy. Dane DeHann makes him dark and bitter, especially as he’s dying from a disease.

Harry also becomes the Green Goblin instead of his father, Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn. Norman dies early in the film. The look of the Green Goblin is meant to be scary-looking, but it doesn’t quite match to how I envisioned him in the comics and it differs to how the original film trilogy handled it.

Sally Field returns as Aunt May. Aunt May constantly dotes on Peter whenever he’s home, as she shows concern for him. I found that scene funny where he’s hiding under the bedclothes with his Spidey costume on and she notices how filthy his face is. His excuse for it is very pathetic, mind you.

Surely, he could have said he fell in some mud rather than blaming it on the chimney they don’t have. Also, the scene where Peter and Aunt May fight over the laundry was funny. Aunt May does reveal some details about what happened to Peter’s father when he and his mother went missing. 😐

Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz return as Richard and Mary Parker, Peter’s parents, in the film’s opening prologue. The prologue of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ is almost similar to the prologue of the first ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ film, except it’s taken from Richard and Mary’s point of view instead.

We see what happened to Peter’s parents when their plane crashed. It was fascinating to learn that Richard and Mary went rogue because Richard was preventing OsCorp from utilising spider DNA as a weapon. Richard also establishes in a video message that his own blood is connected to spider DNA.

Something I didn’t mention in my review for the first film is that I saw Embeth Davidtz as Miss Honey in the 1996 film ‘Matilda’ with Mara Wilson before I saw her in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ films. I find it fascinating to see Embeth Davidtz in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ films compared to ‘Matilda’. 🙂

Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz have more dialogue to say in the second ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ film compared to the first film. The absence of Peter’s parents in his life is different in the comics compared to the films. In the comics and the 1990s animated series, they were international spies. 🙂

Colm Feore stars as Donald Menken, OsCorp’s vice president and head of the board. In the film, Menken is often in dispute with Harry Osborn over his capabilities of being a CEO to OsCorp. Menken regards Harry as boy and incapable of leading the company, which is rather swallow of him.

Ideally, someone like Menken should be helping Harry Osborn into his new role of CEO to OsCorp after his father died. You could argue Menken is more of a villain for Harry Osborn rather than Spider-Man. He seems to know the secrets of OsCorp’s underground when he shows them to Harry.

There were hints of things to come like the Sinister Six in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ movies, especially with Paul Giamatti as Aleksei Sytesvich/the Rhino. Paul Giamatii is rather over-the-top when playing the Rhino, especially in the Russian accent he uses and the dialogue that he delivers. 😀

I enjoyed it when the Rhino actually made an appearance at the end of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, as Spidey was about to fight against him. It would’ve been interesting to see more of the Sinister Six in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ films. I believe Doc Ock and the Vulture would’ve been in more movies.

Jonah Jameson still doesn’t appear in these ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ films, which is a shame. However, we do have Peter receiving an e-mail from Jameson, as he sends photos of Spider-Man to him at the Daily Bugle. Interesting that Jameson exists in this ‘Spider-Man’ film universe, but he doesn’t appear.

There might have been a possible Black Cat appearance in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ movies, as Felicity Jones plays Felicia Hardy in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ when she works at OsCorp. I’m amazed Felicity Jones is in this, having seen her in 2007’s ‘Northanger Abbey’ and a ‘Doctor Who’ episode. 🙂

There’s also Marton Csokas as Ashley Kafka (who is German and male), the head of the Ravencroft Institute. In the 1990s animated series, Ashley Kafka was female. There’s also B. J. Novak as Alistair Smythe, Max Dillon’s boss at OsCorp. Smythe was also in the comics and the 1990s animated series.

Stan Lee makes another cameo appearance in this ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ movie. I assume he’s playing the same librarian character he played in the first ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ film. And there’s Michael Massee who returns as the ‘man in the shadows’, who also happens to be called Gustav Fiers.

Apparently, Shailene Woodley was meant to appear as Mary Jane Watson in the film before her scenes were cut from the final edit. This is a shame, as it would’ve been interesting to see Peter Parker meet Mary Jane in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ and it would’ve set things up for the next film.

Marc Webb returns to direct ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’. Marc does a fantastic job capturing the action-packed sequences of Spider-Man in this movie like he did for the previous film. He also does well in balancing the drama too. However, I do feel there’s like too much happening all at once here.

The set design and the location work for this movie is equally good. We get to see more of OsCorp in its interiors as well as the city of New York, which is used very well for Spidey’s swinging action and the crime-fighting scenes in the movie. This is especially when Spidey fights Electro in Times’ Square.

The visual effects for the movie are equally impressive. I’m immensely pleased with how they’ve done the look for Electro with his make-up and combining the CGI effects with it. Electro looks scary and terrifying when Spidey fights him. I know it was inspired from the ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ comics.

The movie does end on a sad note. I wondered how the story would continue, since ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ does end on a note that looks to the future and the continuation of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ film series. I was hoping to see more ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ films with Andrew Garfield.

Sadly, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ film series came to an end, as the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ took the character into their film series. This is a shame, as I enjoyed watching Andrew Garfield’s era of ‘Spider-Man’ in his movies, and I feel that his era was short-lived. There could’ve been potential. 😦

The DVD special features are as follows. At the beginning of the DVD, there’s a short and special advertisement video of ‘Worldwide Orphans’ where Andrew Garfield visits a class of school kids, which is nice. There’s also a theatrical trailer for the first ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ film. There’s a filmmakers’ audio commentary with writer Alex Kurtzman, writer Jeff Pinkner, producer Avi Arad and producer Matt Tolmach. There are some deleted and extended scenes cut from the original edit of the movie and there’s a music video of ‘It’s On Again’ by Alicia Keys.

There are some more special features on ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Blu-ray, which I have in the ‘Spider-Man: Five-Movie Collection’. As well as the filmmakers’ audio commentary, the deleted and extended scenes of the movie, and the ‘It’s On Again’ music video; there’s also the six-part making-of documentary called ‘The Wages of Heroism: Making ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’. There’s also ‘The Music of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ with director Marc Webb.

I quite like ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’! It’s not the greatest ‘Spider-Man’ film I’ve seen and it’s a shame ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ series didn’t continue after this. But having watched the film again on Blu-ray, I have found it a very entertaining and very enjoyable ‘Spider-Man’ film to watch anyway.

There are things about this movie that I wish could have been better. They include focusing on Peter’s personal life more, his relationship with Gwen, developing the villains, and not ending the film on a sad note. It’s not exactly the ‘Spider-Man’ movie I was hoping for, but I can take it for what it is.

I wish there was ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 3’, but we can all imagine it in our hopes and dreams.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ – 7/10

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