The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

AMAZING OR NAH-MAZING: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 REVIEW

                Before anything else, if you’ll read this review made by a seventeen-year-old, I’m ensuring you a lot of spoilers are going to be here. So let’s see what makes Amazing Spider-Man 2 amazing!

                Parkers. In the opening scene, we finally get a glimpse of what happened to Mary and Richard Parker. I just feel the plane crash scene was worth mentioning—even if you don’t really lose anything if you (in any way,) have accidentally entered the cinemas late, it was still a quick, good punch. AMAZING!

                CGI. Let’s be honest around here—computer generated imagery played a LOT of role in the movie. While there are plenty of ooooh!’s and aaaahh!’s, sometimes they just sore me eyes. Let me see, maybe three-fourths of the time, CGI is really eye-popping (and maybe even dizzying in 3D) and the remainder, just plain too much. Also, I liked the ultra-slow moments in some battle scenes—it sorta adds an extra effect to cut breaths away. AMAZING!

                Characters. We’ll be long here. I’m giving the SFX a good praise on this review, but there are few moments when I’m craving for the story. Talk about growing up. When I was younger, the plot and its execution didn’t bother me—I belonged to the stereotype of kids who tell ‘good’ movies from ‘boring’ ones. But then after aging a few years, everything without backbone is not interesting to me. So what I’m pointing out here is the characters’ developments over the two hours (and twenty minutes?) run time.

 

-          Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield). He looked younger in this film, but boy, he had a lot more heavy-handed dramatic scenes in this sequel. Yes, the humor is still there, but there’s just something about teenage hormones that greatly annoyed me while watching. That leaves us to...

-          Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Oh, young, sweet Gwen Stacy is back! If I didn’t know that she’ll die, (and yes, this is actually the first time I loathed a spoiler) I probably had cried all over her death scene like a little kid. All kidding aside, she shares great chemistry with Andrew throughout—but I really hated them two in the story turning on and off like a broken switch. Foreshadowing? Let’s talk about that later. Although I found her a little annoying in the first film, she’ll be a great loss here.

-          Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx). First of all, Foxx is a great actor, yes. But if we’re talking about his character, I hated Dillon. I hated how dense his character was made. I hated how unreasonable Electro’s existence and hunger to destroy Spidey. And lastly, I hated how it felt like something can be improved but was just dumped for the sake of good show. I can’t help but compare Amazing 2 to the original Spider-Man 2. Unlike the clichéd, cardboard-thin character of Max Dillon, Octo was a great villain in a way he felt real—it’s as if he was flesh and bones. Is it just me or his character development felt rushed? Ah, maybe to make way for…

-          Harry Osborn/Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan). Sure, I’ve got to remark his and Garfield’s onscreen friendship chemistry, even if it didn’t last long. Before I made this review, or had watched the movie, I didn’t try to research anything about DeHaan yet. This was the first film I’ve seen him in. The actor was more or less great, handling those scenes where he really needed to be angry, remorseful, etc. We’ll definitely see more of Harry Osborn, though.

                  Plot. As a faithful fan of the original and reboot series of Spidey, I had thought that Spider-Man 2 directed by Sam Raimi had beefier and stable story. Yes, he faltered on the third film with too many villains, but I’m talking about Marc Webb’s Spider-Man 2—and the original had better story and plot. The Peter Parker I liked better, though, is still Andrew Garfield. (Even if he may have looked a bit more sullen in this film.) NAH-MAZING!

                  Climax! Really, I don’t know why I don’t feel satisfied with Spidey and Electro’s epic finale. This was the time when CGI started to feel scratchy on me.  Is it on me? Nah. If you sensed that I didn’t like Electro, you’re right. And it’s probably the reason—I don’t care for him. It’s really easy to love a movie character if it gives you enough reasons to care for them. You need to understand what they were fighting for, or why. (But that doesn’t mean you need to love villains!) While there is white-knuckle suspense, I feel like I’ve just been waiting for myself to finish pooping and release something bad I was holding on for two hours straight. NAH-MAZING!

                  The Night Gwen Stacy Died. I’m not a comic fan of this franchise, but you see, I’m going to pretend I haven’t known from spoilers around Twitter that Gwen will die. As I have mentioned before, there were some foreshadowing around her death. Her graduation speech? Oh boo hoo, you just know that Peter will miss it! Cliché on. And then you just know that that speech will come in handy sooner or later in the movie. Her dreams coming true? Yep, killing her will just add to the drama. Her being too much heroic? This doesn’t apply to all, but she really risked herself too far this time. Nonetheless, I still can’t help but feel bad about her dying—it’s too harsh to watch on the wide screen. AMAZING!

                  Oscorp? Spidey 3? Sometimes we have to think ahead. What has this film possibly left us to open at the third film? I see Oscorp. Although I’m greatly annoyed by the abrupt appearance of the Rhino at the end of the film, I still want to see more of the Secrets of that institution. And yes, Harry Osborn is still alive, so that’s for Amazing 3. Also, who’s gonna play Mary Jane Watson? I haven’t checked yet, so don’t threaten me for the ignorance.

                  Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a real treat, so bittersweet it’s like a dessert you’ll ignore the bad parts because there are still more goodies. I’m giving it 8/10.