Tuesday, July 05, 2022

My Review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

 


Written by Alex Kurtzman And Roberto Orci And Jeff Pinkner
Directed by Marc Webb

Peter Parker: "You know what it is I love about being Spider-Man? Everything."

Never since the events of 2007's Spider-Man 3 has there been a movie for the webslinger that upon it's initial release that has garnered such a divisive reaction. For an actor as beloved as Andrew Garfield, there's no denying that both his movies generated such a response. Saying that, ti,e has seemingly been kinder to both of these films.

The sequel to Garfield's first movie does see Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) both graduating from high school and on the verge of entering the big bad world. This movie also saw the couple breaking up but unable to stay away from one another as two different threats wrecked havoc here. Threats that I'll admit work well for this movie.

The biggest one would be in the shape of Peter Parker's old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) who resurfaced in New York, following the death of his father, Norman (Chris Cooper). It's not long before Peter and Harry reminisce over their past, reconnect and have their friendship absolutely devolve upon Harry's growing paranoia and mistrust over Spider-Man. The fact that his father's company was also being seized from under him certainly didn't help matters either.

I'm a little surprised this movie decided to kill off Norman so early and essentially do the Green Goblin storyline with Harry as quickly as they did but I sort of get it. Tobey Maguire's Spidey trilogy covered the more traditional handover of that particular villain so for this movie to do something different kind of worked well enough.

I don't find Dane DeHaan particularly menacing and I always preferred Norman than Harry as Green Goblin but DeHaan does play the role well enough and arguably better than James Franco did in the Maguire trilogy. DeHaan also had a strong rapport with Andrew Garfield and the battle between former friends turned enemies also resulted in the tragic death of Gwen Stacey here.

Let's talk about Gwen Stacey. There's no denying that Emma Stone gave a strong performance in these movies but the writing definitely wasn't to the character's strength here. Her death was handled well but it's often the most memorable thing about the character in these two movies aside from being Peter's love interest. Similarly Sally Field felt a little bit wasted as Aunt May, even if she did get some emotional scenes with Peter.

As for the secondary villain of the piece, I know Spider-Man: No Way Home did a lot to improve the character but at the time, Jamie Foxx's take on Elektro was more of a mixed bag. Like Osborn, he started off as a fan of the webslinger before becoming his enemy. There are some cool fight scenes between the pair but largely he's second fiddle to Green Goblin. 

- Other major canon characters in this movie included Felicia Hardy (Felicity Jomes), Alistair Smythe (BJ Novak) and Rhino (Paul Giamatti) with Mary Jane Watson (Shailene Woodley) being cut from the film.
- The Man In The Shadows from the previous movie also made an appearance in this movie as Harry planned to set up his own team against his former friend.
- Standout music: Alicia Keys It's On Again.
- Chronology: Two years since the events of the first movie.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 might not been quite as strong as the first movie but it's a movie that I feel has somewhat improved over time. Andrew Garfield definitely gave his best performance, Gwen's death had the right emotional impact and Green Goblin made for a decent baddie. It's a pity we didn't get a third movie before moving on to the Tom Holland era for the character for the MCU. 

Rating: 7 out of 10

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