REVIEW - 'The Amazing Spider-man 2'

'The Amazing Spider-man 2' (PG-13) **
Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has a lot going on in his life.  He has graduated high school and is now is now working for The Daily Bugle taking pictures of Spider-man.  He is tormented by visions of Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary), who just before he died in the previous movie had made Peter promise to keep Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) safe by leaving her alone.  Gwen and Peter's relationship is on and off as a result of this promise.  All the while, Peter has three new villains to face:

1. Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), a loner who works at Oscorp who becomes obsessed with Spider-man after he is saved by him.  An accident involving cables and genetically altered electric eels turns Max Dillon into Electro, who glows blue, can shoot lightning and suck all the energy out of anything electric, and can seemingly evaporate and appear out of nowhere and travel through circuits.
2. Harry Osbourne (Dane DeHaan), Peter's long lost best friend who is back in town to take charge of Oscorp while his father Norman (Chris Cooper) is on his deathbed.  He soon becomes the Green Goblin.
3. Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti), a Russian terrorist who is given a suit of armor by Oscorp and calls himself The Rhino. 

In addition to all of that Peter Parker is still searching for the reason why his parents left him with Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field) and were mysteriously killed.  A LOT of things going on in this movie.

First off, you can count me among the multitude of people who have felt (and still feel) that 'Spider-man' shouldn't have been rebooted.  Sure 'Spider-man 3' was a colossal disappointment but it wasn't so bad that a reboot was needed.  Heck 'Spider-man 4' almost happened but plans fell through and to keep the film rights from going back to Marvel Sony decided to just reboot and start all over again. I'll talk more about what I thought of the previous 'Amazing Spider-man' later on but this is just kinda trying to explain my mindset about this iteration of the 'Spider-man' film franchise.  But, I still was interested in this movie and I went into it with an open mind. 

There are plenty of things to like about this movie.  For the most part the special effects are really good.  The acting for the most part is really good, with Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and even Sally Field all improving from the previous movie.  I was able to become invested in Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy's love story, even with all of it's complications you're still rooting for them.  Sure I still prefer Rosemary Harris' Aunt May from the original trilogy, but in this movie I could actually buy Sally Field as Aunt May.  Stan Lee's cameo is fun as always, and the movie is fun whenever Spider-man is swinging around New York and cracking jokes while in the middle of a chase or in the middle of a fight.  And the original 'Spider-man' theme pops up twice in the movie and it's kinda funny.   

But with all those pluses there were many things I didn't like, well, specifically three things:  the villains.  There are way too many of them, each felt rushed, two of them felt shoe horned in and worst of all is that they really aren't that interesting.  The Rhino is barely in the movie and that CGI Rhino suit looks horrible, looking painfully obvious that Paul Giamatti is surrounded by CGI and not in an actual suit.  And with Giamatti's extremely exaggerated Russian accent I could barely understand a single word he said.  The Rhino (who bookends the movie) felt tacked on only to help set up the inevitable 'Sinister Six' movie with several Spider-man villains teaming up.

Now I didn't mind Dane DeHaan as Harry Osbourne, but once he becomes the Green Goblin it all just looks really stupid and I kept thinking that it was done better in the very first 'Spider-man' movie.  Heck, Harry Osbourne as the Goblin was done much better in 'Spider-man 3'.  Dane DeHaan is a good actor and actually was menacing in the underrated found footage superhero movie 'Chronicle'.  His character in that movie actually has an arc his transformation into a villain in the movie is believable.  His transformation into being a villain in this movie is all very rushed and it seems that he's only a villain because the screenplay says so.  At least James Franco's Goblin in 'Spider-man 3' was developed over the two previous movies to set up his hatred for 'Spider-man'.  There was potential for an interesting villain here, but it's spoiled and rushed just to tack on another villain to set up 'Sinister Six'.

And now we finally get to the "main" villain, Electro.  Sure once he turns into Electro and starts to glow blue like Dr. Manhattan in 'Watchmen', those effects are really cool.  But it's just another case where I just felt that Max Dillon's transformation into a villain was very rushed.  According to this movie he's supposed to be a sympathetic villain:  As Max Dillon he's a loner, obsessed with Spider-man and he just wants people to notice him and need him.  When he becomes Electro all that anger I guess is suppose to be coming out.  Sure that's all fine and dandy but the movie rushes it all and quite frankly Electro just becomes uninteresting really fast.  I don't blame Jamie Foxx for this.  He's simply doing what he can.

The movie is also a little too long and probably should have ended 15 minutes before it actually did finally end.  Norman Osbourne is in the movie maybe 5 minutes total and you don't learn a whole lot about him other than that he's dying.  Maybe the movie's script just needed a quick polishing.  Still taking the multiple villain route, I'd have written out the Rhino entirely, added a bit more about Electro and Green Goblin, and possibly could have had a much better movie.  Or just sticking with the one villain approach that most superhero movies have, pick either Electro or Green Goblin and then go from there.  That would make a solid, two hour movie that wouldn't be so crowded and wouldn't have needed to rush things to cram it all within it's 143-minute running time.  But then again, what do I know?  I've never written a screenplay.  Although on a side note I will admit:  'The Amazing Spider-man 2' does handle multiple villains better than 'Spider-man 3', which crammed Venom, Green Goblin, and Sandman all together. 

While I know I've skimmed through a few 'Spider-man' comics and watched episodes of the 1990's 'Spider-man' TV show I can't quite remember enough to make a comparison of either to this movie.  But I have seen all of the other 'Spider-man' movies.  The original 'Spider-man' was really good and a lot of fun.  'Spider-man 2' is one of the better superhero movies out there.  'Spider-man 3' had the potential to be even better but it drastically ruined that trilogy.  'The Amazing Spider-man' I just thought was okay.  I still didn't like that it was being rebooted, and since it is a retelling of the origin story of Spider-man I just felt that I had already seen this movie.  So how does 'The Amazing Spider-man 2' stack up?  Well....it is better than 'Spider-man 3', but then again most movies are.  In many ways it's better than it's immediate predecessor but at the same time there are ways in which it's not.  At least Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard in that movie was the ONLY villain and his transformation to being a villain wasn't all that rushed. 

'The Amazing Spider-man 2' is a mixed bag.  At times it's a lot of fun with good performances and great special effects, but the rather rushed and uninteresting villains ruin the movie's good will. 



TRAILERS

• 'X-Men:  Days of Future Past' - I know the Internet is going ga-ga over this movie mainly because Bryan Singer (the director of the first two 'X-Men' movies) is back in the director's chair.  I wasn't all that thrilled over those 'X-Men' movies and the time traveling plot also makes me really skeptical, but who knows:  Maybe it'll be the best X-Men movie since 'X-Men:  First Class'.  Or it'll be the worst since 'X-Men Origins:  Wolverine'. 
   
• 'Maleficent' - Only a few more weeks until I can finally go see this movie and I won't have to watch the trailer again!
  
• 'Edge of Tomorrow' - A different trailer for this movie for once.  Still looks like 'Oblivion' combined with 'Groundhog Day'.  Might be a rental. 
  
• 'When The Game Stands Tall' - The longest winning streak in the history of sports is broken when a high school football team loses for the first time in 12 years.  The players and the town come to terms with this loss and what really matters in life.  This looks like it could have potential.