Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man movies were pretty great. The first and second are superhero movie "classics". The third film was a messy and unintentionally funny disaster. Luckily, the producers had sense enough to reboot and drag the series out of the deep and awful hole it had been put in by Spider-Man 3. The Amazing Spider-Man was made. While not fantastic, it was still a very good and entertaining Spidey flick that I thoroughly enjoyed and kind of loved. Then comes the inevitable sequel. Sequels are (almost) never better, or as good, as they're predecessor. The only examples I can think of are in The Dark Knight trilogy, the Lord of the Rings series, and Sergio Leone's Dollars films. The Amazing Spider-Man 2, like most sequels, doesn't measure up to it's original movie. In fact, it really isn't a good movie at all. It's loaded with issues. Yet, I still really, really enjoyed it. It's an incredibly fun movie, but it's not a good movie. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is about Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) doing Peter Parker-esque stuff and saving NYC and his girlfriend from super powered baddies and he's also having trouble coping with his dead dad and stuff, etc. Yeah, the plot sounds very cliche of a superhero movie and way too similar to every other damn Spider-Man flick we've had pretty much ever. It felt a lot like a Spider-Man film, One reason I liked the last movie so much was because, despite the fact it was telling the same origin story, it felt like a new Spider-Man movie. Marc Webb was doing his own thing. This sequel feels too much like what Webb, and Sam Raimi, have already done. It seemed like the same overstuffed plot from Spider-Man 3 mixed with the feel and style of The Amazing Spider-Man. Even so, I felt myself smiling and enjoying the whole movie through and through. Andrew Garfield has something to do with that. His titular performance is great. The guy delivers his lines and jokes with a confident suaveness that Peter Parker should have. It's practically impossible not to like the guy. Imagine the funny brashness of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark with less cynicism except as a teenager. That's his performance, and he makes it totally his own. Marc Webb is great at directing him, and actually great at directing in general. Webb did the terrific 500 Days of Summer and the last Spider-Man movie. He did very solid jobs with both. I can say the same about this movie. The romantic scenes, the web-slinging city scenes; overall he does an awesome job. He directs the entire movie with such a slick and assured vibe that you can't help but have fun. But at an over two hour running time, the cracks and many imperfections start to show through. Webb and Garfield teamed up make for a terrifically entertaining film. The acting and direction isn't the problem, it's everything else. Jamie Foxx and Dane DeHaan play the main villains, and they're both pretty terrible. Next to Garfield's wonder self-assured performance they look like amateurs. Foxx overplays the nerdy aspect of his character too much and when he finally becomes a bad guy, he doesn't know what to do. DeHaan had a decent role in the movie Chronicle. Unfortunately, he's just repeated that same performance in every movie he's been in after. The kid's being typecast as the angry young man. He did it in Chronicle, The Place Beyond the Pines,and now this. I'm getting tired of watching him sneer and yell while he looks really tired. Although DeHaan didn't do a great job, it wasn't all his fault. The original Spider-Man films were great because they focused on one villain while highlighting Peter Parker's human side. The extra super villain played by Dane DeHaan is unnecessary and irritating. He just feels shoehorned in for the sake of being shoehorned in. Jamie Foxx, while not great, was enough. We had too many subplots already for another villain. It seems like the movie's over and then DeHaan's Green Goblin character shows up and does crap that the movie didn't need! The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a great piece of commercial filmmaking in that it gets it's job done in a slick and entertaining way that most people will enjoy. It's bad filmmaking in the general sense that it's fairly unoriginal, a bit bloated, and it's characters are hard to connect with. I will admit, I kind of had a blast with the movie. It's fun, it's enjoyable, but it's not good. Is it bad necessarily? No. But it's a little disappointing. The film is a good Saturday afternoon time killer, but it's not something I'm going to really remember. So go see it, but don't expect much. I give The Amazing Spider-Man 2 3.2 out of 5 stars. Remember you can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies. Happy Viewing!
Good stuff. Seems to be the same feeling a lot of folks had. Really wish Sony would give Spidey the vehicle he deserves.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I wish that too, they could make a great movie out of him.
DeleteNice review, Whit. Yeah, the movie tried to do too much, but I actually think that, of the villains, it was Electro who feels shoehorned in. His inclusion feels random in hindsight and ultimately more detached from the bigger picture going on, and if you removed him and placed more focus on really establishing Harry's motivations, then this would have been a far less messy film overall. Still though, despite its flaws, I, too found myself enjoying this one.
ReplyDeleteThanks man! I see what you mean. Too be honest the whole movie didn't handle it's villains very well at all. But at least it's fun!
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