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

My Review of The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

 

Written by James Vanderbilt And Alvin Sargent And Steve Kloves

Directed by Marc Webb

Peter: "We all have our secrets: the ones we keep and the ones that are kept from us."

With this movie hitting it's tenth anniversary later this year and Andrew Garfield's tenure as the web slinger getting a certain appraisal from audiences, I thought now was the perfect time to take a look back at this movie.

Sandwiched between Tobey Maguire's trilogy and Tom Holland's dominance in the MCU, Garfield's movies have definitely had their fair share of scrutiny in the past. It's a shame really because this first movie alone while not quite as strong as Spider-Man (2002), I feel definitely was a bit stronger than Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).

Andrew Garfield to me might be the best actor to ever play Peter Parker and likewise, Spider-Man himself The movie embarked on a straightforward origin story of the high schooler becoming the masked hero of the piece, learning more about the burden of responsibility, falling in love and battling his first major enemy.

The major enemy of the piece being Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) whose own experiments not entirely of his volition resulted in him mutating into the dangerous Lizard and Peter along with some help from Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and her cop father, played by Denis Leary have to work together in order to prevent the city from suffering the same fate as Connors.

For a first villain threat, the use of Lizard felt like a nice call back to the 1990's animated series and outside a few petty criminals here and there along with a wider conspiracy regarding Oscorp and Peter's parents (played by Campbell Scott and Embeth Davitz), just focusing on one major threat managed to keep things reasonably contained. The CGI for Lizard also looked pretty decent as well.

As for the more personal side of things, the flashbacks to Peter's parents helped to set up an ongoing mystery while both Sally Field and Martin Sheen did an excellent job as Aunt May and Uncle Ben respectively. Of course the start of Peter getting powers inevitably resulted in the latter's death and his determination to be a hero.

As for Gwen Stacy, it was a departure after Mary Jane Watson being used in both the 1990's animated series and Tobey Maguire's movies. I really do like Emma Stone as an actor and there's no doubt that she had fantastic chemistry with Garfield's Peter Parker and Spider-Man alike. It also helped that throughout the movie Gwen was written as both a sympathetic and competent character. Of course this would a romance very much destined to be doomed though.

-  Mid credit sequence saw Connors taking to a mysterious gentleman in prison. A gentleman who also seemed to have a rather keen interest in Peter.

- Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka) quickly went from being openly antagonistic towards Peter to being friendly to him, following Ben's death.

- Apparently both Big Wheel and Proto Goblin were considered for the movie. The latter would've been played by Irrfan Khan who played Dr Rajit Ratha here.

- Chronology: The movie came out in 2012, so I'm assuming that time as well.

The Amazing Spider-Man definitely has it's moments as a movie. For an origin story, it dies a good job in setting up this Spider-Man, has an engaging central romance and a pretty solid main antagonist in Lizard. I'm glad this duology has gotten a renewed sense of enthusiasm from fans and critics and I'll be holding on to that energy when I review this sequel for this one. Overall, a very enjoyable first outing for Andrew Garfield.

Rating: 8 out of 10