The Amazing Spider-Man 2–Review

To understand the primary issue with Amazing Spiderman 2, imagine you’re watching a television show on Netflix.  After just two minutes, you select another episode.  Another two minutes pass and you jump to another.  Repeat this process several more times.  Now attempt to take make a cohesive story out of what you just saw.  Well, Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels just like that: many episodes cobbled together which form an incoherent plot with drastic shifts in tone and focus every few minutes.  There’s no grand structure or narrative — just a mess.

Marc Webb’s second installment is a severe drop from the 2012 film reboot reboot of director Sam Rami’s original Spider-Man trilogy (2002 to 2007).  In my review of the 2012 original, I noted that Amazing Spider-Man contained many improvements over Sam Raimi’s 2002 similar original tale, Spider-Man.  Now we have Amazing Spider-Man 2, which demands the same level of scrutiny with its 2004 sophomore equivalent, Spider-Man 2.  

Whereas the first Amazing took what was wrong with the first Spider-Man  and made it right (more engaged romance, improved back-story, less hammy villain); Amazing 2 takes what made Spidey 2 great and makes it all wrong, while simultaneously repeating the same mistakes that inevitably sunk Sam Raimi’s run with 2007’s Spider-Man 3.  (Confused yet?  Stay with me.)

After just two films, The Amazing Spider-Man franchise has fallen into depths of shameless copycat tactics; hopes of replicating the Avengers phenomenon by mass-producing sequels and spinoffs that encompass a larger universe.  But Sony Studios currently has film rights to just one Marvel comic icon.  Therefore, it’s banking on selling films which surround the webslinger’s most popular roster of villains.  In truth, Spider-Man’s foes don’t translate well to the big screen (with Doctor Octopus being the one exception).  Amazing 2 makes this most evident by subjecting us to three villains — all of which are shamelessly thrown in without anything intriguing or original; certainly not enough to substantiate future films.  For example, if you’re hoping to see Paul Giamatti as Rhino, you’ll have to settle for a sampling.  You have to pay another eight bucks and wait another two years for that!

That’s unfortunate as Amazing Spider-Man 2 casts a wealth of Oscar nominees and winners in many of these parts, but marginalize them to grunt work and cameos.

First, there’s Jamie Foxx as the dweebish electrical engineer, Max Dillon.  After being rescued by Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), he forms an unhealthy fan obsession with the webslinger.  Dillon soon falls into a terrible accident which transforms him into Electro, who can absorb and project powerful streams of electric current that both destroys and levitates large items, but never seems to cause permanent damage to our hero (Does Spider-Man’s power include resistance to fall damage and electrical shock too?  I still struggle with rules and limits of superhero powers.)  However, Electro is given little motivation or purpose.  Instead, Foxx is reduced to a bit role that demands creepy stares, ominous trash-talk and grunts.

Giamatti’s walk-on bit is the chaos-inducing, Alexsei Sysevich, who eventually turns into another Spider-Man villain.  Giamatti plays Sysevich with a ridiculous accent and hyper-kinetic, cartoonish series of growls and screams.  It also represents the confusing tone in which certain characters play for realism, while Giamatti (and a ridiculous evil German scientist character) act straight out of a cartoon.

Then there’s Spider-Man’s childhood best friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHann), who learns that he’s dying due to a genetic illness and can only be cured using Spider-Man’s blood.  After Spidey refuses, Harry uses his wealth, power, and gadgetry to…well…anyone who’s seen the Raimi trilogy knows exactly what happens next.  The plot holes actually left me wondering if Spider-Man should donate some plasma — which creates a layer of moral confusion.

The Osborn character makes for the most intriguing villain, but his role is supplanted by Electro in order to keep Amazing Spider-Man 2 from being even more of a carbon copy of its predecessors.  But the script is bogged down with nearly a dozen subplots which lack any organic flow.  There’s literally a bounce-around session between Peter obsessing over solving his parents death; his on-again, off-again relationship with high school sweetheart, Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone), who’s also moving to England to complicate things further; his Aunt May’s (Sally Field, wasted here) financial stresses and educational pursuits.  Oh, and there’s Peter’s photography side job, where sells selfies of himself in Spider-Man grab to the Daily Bugle’s unseen editor editor, who, again, isn’t part of the story because the plot is already overstuffed — and it would incur more comparisons to its stronger predecessor.

The saving grace to Amazing 2 is Garfield, who truly imbues the wise-cracking, fun, approachable Spider-Man we love in the comics.  Surprisingly, Garfield works best behind the mask and is able to convey a range of emotions merely with his voice.  His comedic moments are highlights.  Outside the mask, Garfield and Stone and wonderful, invoking the playful romantic banter reminiscent of Lois and Clark and Pepper Potts and Tony Stark.  However, the plot behind their relationship strain is weak and attempts to stray from the more natural problems than played in the earlier trilogy.  In this case, Peter is plagued with guilt over Gwen’s father dying wish from the earlier film where he commands Peter to avoid Gwen in order to keep her out of danger. But it’s a weak plot device and the finale lacks the emotional crescendo it needs to enhance Peter’s character.

Because of the sheer girth of half-handed subplots Amazing Spider-Man 2 is one of the most uncomfortable comic films to digest.  The lesser story arcs leave the film feeling bloated and boring.  If the film concentrated on one villain and tossed out the backstory behind Peter’s parents and the Electro character, the film could have been rescued.  But its script is the obvious result of a film rushed into production to make its coveted May opening and sell us on future films.  It’s a shameless attempt by a studio to assume audiences will lap up any movie that’s affiliated with Spider-Man lore, despite its obvious demotion in quality.  Even the film’s action pieces feel forced and unpolished.  The highlights are all delivered in the trailer — even the film’s final moments!

Garfield and Stone are not enough to prevent Amazing Spider-Man 2 from being a disaster; a comic book film that’s more aligned with its sad DC Universe brethren than the triumphant Avengers films it hopes to replicate.  Here’s hoping Spider-Man can untangle the web and fly straight next time.