SPOILER ALERT!!!
IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS MOVIE, PLEASE DON’T READ THIS REVIEW! I WILL
PROBABLY SPOIL VERY IMPORTANT PLOT POINTS!
Now that is out of the way,
WOW! What an interesting movie. Let me start by saying, it is a good movie but
not Amazing! After seeing the first Amazing Spiderman movie and really enjoying
it, I was very excited to see the second. The marketing on this movie has been
great but a little saturated. I managed to not watch too much promotion for
fear that I would have seen 80% of the action in the movie. Little did I know
that the entire Rhino sequences would be placed right in the trailers. Ok, let’s
start with the characters. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are great as Peter
Parker/Spiderman and Gwen Stacy. The chemistry between the two comes off on
screen in a fantastic way! It probably helps that they are in a relationship in
real life. However it’s not a natural thing to do. I don’t think Angelina Jolie
and Brad Pitt’s relationship ever came across to the screen in that natural
way. One thing I didn’t like about this Spiderman character was that he had
this heavy New York accent that seemed to come out of nowhere. As Peter, I
couldn’t even here it but all of a sudden as Spiderman he became a New Yorker.
Very weird! A lot of people might not catch it but I did. Jamie Foxx is a great
actor. However in this film, all I kept seeing was Jamie Foxx. As an actor that
is playing a villain in a superhero movie, I should see you lose yourself to
that character. Kind of how I feel Andrew Garfield does with Spiderman. Silly
quips and cheesy one-liners for Jamie Foxx’s character as Electro were kind of
stupid. Changing his voice with the electric synthesizer sound didn’t really
help him lose himself as an actor. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the sound. It
was pretty awesome. Dane Dehaan as Harry Osborn was really good. He was
supposed to come off as this “I’m better than you” type of attitude and I think
he pulled it off well. You could feel the evil inside of him. I also believe Dane
Dehaan is going to be the next Leonardo Dicaprio. I would love to see the two of them in a
film. To wrap up this segment, I hated Paul Giamatti as Rhino! So stupid and
unnecessary. I understand they are trying to set it up for the Sinister Six
movie but he was awful!! Bad accent and horrible acting. Totally took me out of
the mood I was in. Especially the end scene!! The same can be said for Chris
Cooper as Norman Osborn.
As far as the visuals/action, the new changes that they made
to the Spiderman suit were great improvements. The white eyes instead of the black. The belt
they added. The web shooters being more integrated and upgraded. Adding little
things like fabric folds for when he is swinging so that it catches the wind,
just gave it that more punch. The action scenes were awesome! I loved the two
big action sequences with Electro. Great use of sound and visuals. The score
was very nicely done as well. The mix done for Electro was a cool new trick. Hans
Zimmer has always been one of my favorite composers. However there was one
scene where Peter is trying to put together a graph of all the clues about his
parents death in his bedroom and there is a montage with the song “Gone, Gone,
Gone” by Philip Philips. That was totally out of place!! It was like what are
we watching?? Am I in a romantic comedy now all of a sudden? It was totally out
of left field and removed me again from the movie! So stupid!! The way they
created Electro’s costume wasn’t very creative! Basically they stole the same
design that was used for Dr. Manhattan from The Watchmen and combined it with Mr.
Freeze from Batman and Robin. Very un-original!!! I understand you can’t do the
comic thing with the giant yellow bolt on the head but change it up some
how. I felt like the visual effects of
the electricity coming off his hands and body was pretty cool and I liked the
effect of him transporting himself into the outlets but I still had issues with
the costume and makeup.
As for the plot, I felt like it was all over the place. The
most interesting aspects of the film were the chemistry between Peter and Gwen.
I also liked the chemistry between Peter and Harry. However they really didn’t
spend a lot time developing the relationship between the latter. Why was
Electro so mad at Spiderman? Did he really have to get so obsessed with
Spiderman after he only met him once? How come we didn’t spend more time with
his character Max before he changed into Electro? Why did we have to repeat the
same plot steps that were done with Jim Carrey’s The Riddler character in
Batman Forever? Go back and re-watch it. It’s the same thing! Again WHY IS
RHINO THERE?? Why did we only spend 5 mins with Chris Cooper in a bed? (Who is
not really dead by the way.) How did Harry Osborn become the Green Goblin and
be able to fly on the glider so easily? Oh and I hated that Gwen was able to
help Peter figure out the magnetic web shooters so easily!! Why is she
helping?? Why is Aunt May taking nursing classes? I think they had originally
planned to use Aunt May as a nurse to help with the death scene of Gwen Stacy
but it ended up on the cutting room floor. I thought the plot needed more
adjustment. There were way too many villains and it seemed as though the
director didn’t really learn much from Sam Raimi’s Spiderman 3.
The best part of this movie to me was the death of Gwen
Stacy! Sort of! I loved how they basically took the comic book pages and put
them on screen. Slight changes but still gave us the death scene us comic book
fans wanted. Everything from the costume to the way she was killed. I knew it
was coming but most of the audience that was with me didn’t and they just gasped!!
I did too actually! It was very emotional and impactful! The pain on
Spiderman/Peter’s face and actions are fantastic! Again I think this plays into
the relationship that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have. The way the movie
shows the passage of time after her death is really cool with Peter standing at
the gravesite during the seasons. Now here is where the “Sort of” comment that
I made earlier comes into play. I think they should have waited to kill off
Gwen until the 3rd movie. In the comics, Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane
are friends. They should have built that friendship in this movie and then used
the 3rd movie to introduce the love building between Mary Jane and
Peter Parker after her death. How do you introduce Mary Jane as her friend now?
I also think the death scene is where they should have ended the movie. They
could have shown Peter Parker trying to cope with the death of his girlfriend
and trying to get back to reality but struggling. Movies don’t always have to
have a happy ending. Leaving it on a sad note and have the audience wanting to
come back for more would have been better. Instead we get a quick little speech
from Aunt May and then another audio recording from Gwen’s graduation speech
just like we did with Uncle Ben’s voice mail from the last movie. Go back and watch
the end of Amazing Spiderman 1. IT’S THE EXACT SAME THING!!! And then we get
the stupid Rhino scene! Sure let’s have Rhino shooting at police officers and a
crowd just chanting instead of running for fear of their lives. Then let’s
bring in a little kid to save the day and have him talk to Spiderman for 5 mins
while the Rhino just stands there. It was so stupid and lazy!!
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