Jasonic's Favorites: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Hello, and good evening, Internet!
Call it clickbait if you will, but the title of this review is merely me continuing this blog in the proper format and I love the character of Spider-Man regardless of how his movies are received -- and this is no exception.
Released in 2014, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a somewhat anticipated sequel for us Spider-Man fans that came out of a reboot series that almost no one asked for. While I was one of many fans who had hope that this movie could succeed, critics have cited it as the least favorable of the Spider-Man movies as a whole, the financial numbers unfortunately reflecting this. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe thriving around this time while Spidey struggled to set up and maintain his own solo cinematic universe, a deal was eventually made between Disney and Sony to share the rights of the character so that yet ANOTHER new version could exist in the MCU starting with Captain America: Civil War in 2016. As ill-fated as The Amazing Spider-Man saga ultimately became because of this film, it's both a blessing and a curse that this movie turned out the way it did depending who you ask. I, for one, had become a mega Spider-Man fan because of this franchise so much that I bought the merch, wore the costumes, and modeled my look after Andrew Garfield around the time these movies were coming out and soon after. A character like Peter Parker was that big of an influence on me and my life to a point where, regardless of anyone else's feedback, I always looked for the positives in Spider-Man media including the worst received movies, games, and TV shows. I have always enjoyed investing my time in the movies, games, and some comics and TV shows because of how much of an everyman his character is, making him THE most relatable comic book superhero since the 60s. Him coming out with a less than favorable (or "bad") movie depending on the person will certainly do more than put a damper in my interest in the franchise because, let's face it, we keep coming back for new and fresh content in every form of Spider-Man media regardless of the reception. Of the Spider-Man movies in the last decade plus, however, the Internet outcries against this one appeared to be the loudest because of how many Internet reviewers and Sins channels were willing to give this scathing reviews. Unlike Spider-Man 3 before it, I never quite let those criticisms impact my own perception because by then, I knew better than to accept others' opinions as fact. Even so, I will ask what I always do: does the film actually warrant the amount of critcism as it was given? To find out, let's throw on the mask, equip our web shooters, and web swing our way into the misunderstood thrill ride that is The Amazing Spider-Man 2!
***SPOILERS*** (unless you're a major Spider-Man fan who knows this movie, the comics, and their lore, I would turn away now)
The story picks up a few month after The Amazing Spider-Man, opening first with a flashback showing the actual deaths of Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) and his wife, Mary (Embeth Davidtz) in their fateful plane crash; later in 2014, Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield), takes on the Russian mob led by Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti) in a chaotic chase through the city all while running late for graduation. His girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), gives her graduation speech in the meantime while Peter struggles with visions of her late father, Captain George Stacy (Dennis Leary), looking on at him in disapproval. While they do have a great time post-ceremony, Peter is reluctant to have dinner with her family, confessing to her his hallucinations of her father and his fear of potentially losing her too. Having had enough of him second-guessing himself, Gwen breaks up with him and Peter continues on, perservering to make a name for himself throughout New York while recieving praise from civilians and mixed to negative reception from the Press. Meanwhile, Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), a nobody whom Spider-Man saved during the opening chase scene, becomes his number one fanboy, idolizing and idealizing a friendship with him while celebrating his own birthday, which everyone forgot. At the same time, Peter's childhood best friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns home in time before the death of his father, Norman (Chris Cooper), whom he despises; despite recieving the same genetic disease that eventually claims Norman, Harry recieves from him his inheritance in the form of both his company and his flashdrive containing Oscorp projects. Max is then caught in a freak accident involving electricity and electic eels, which Oscorp promptly covers up, putting the blame on Harry; all the while Harry and Peter reconnect, becoming best friends again and keeping up for old times' sake, Peter sharing with Harry that Spider-Man is a hero who gives people hope. Peter and Gwen soon reconnect as well in an effort to be friends while Gwen receives the offer to get into Oxford University over in Oxford, England, leaving Peter torn that he may need to leave her behind. Just before they can bring things to a head, however, Max re-emerges from the morgue with electricity coursing through his body, making his way to Times' Square for the sake of siphoning off its well of energy. In the event that the police, catch Max messing with the cables and getting some attention for a change, however, they hurt and shoot at him, unaware that it's not his fault, enraging him further until Spider-Man shows up not recognizing him; while Spidey soon remembers it's Max, he tries to talk him down before a sniper shoots at him, Max believing Spidey set him up and lied to him and attacks him and the civilians. With Spidey unintentionally stealing attention away from him, Max is enraged and attacks further before Spidey and some firemen subdue him. With this new foe, his relationship with Gwen, and the mystery of his parents still hanging over him, Peter must figure out his place in the world and among his peers lest the weight of his past keep up with him in the present.
The closing line of that synopsis is my best impression of what Peter's arc is supposed to be in this movie; everyone in the midst of their initial disappointment with this movie back in 2014 commonly dismissed this movie as a mess and it's evident with just how much I was jumping between the establishing plot beats in just that paragraph alone. You have Peter still figuring out his past, the relationship with Gwen, the introduction of Harry, the new villains, and even a subplot with Aunt May (Sally Field), and how does it weave together by the end? It mostly doesn't and that's why people dismissed this movie as either another Spider-Man 3 or a much worse attempt at making the franchise bigger as that movie once did; despite that, the funny thing about me, being a mega fan of Spider-Man at the time, was that I didn't hate it alongside everyone else and still don't. It is the biggest Spider-Man movie as far as scope and it feels like a movie made specifically for the fans with the amount of content they shoved in there; granted, this was a horrible move on Sony's part to establish a Spider-Man cinematic universe in a single movie when the first movie was mostly barren of such content and universe setup so it's understandable why people and critics were so outraged. For example, the first movie of The Amazing Spider-Man seemed to have neglected establishing Harry for the sake of avoiding comparisions to the Raimi movies, however, it was to this film's detriment in a sense that Peter never once mentioned Harry before. As a result, unless a mega fan or casual watcher of Spider-Man movies knew of Peter and Harry's friendship from the Raimi movies and other media, newcomers would understandably wonder why we're supposed to care about Peter and Harry when they have a single scene establishing their friendship before the tension begins to grow, inciting his descent to villainy. It works for the fans who know how the story's supposed to go, but if this is you're first time knowing Spider-Man, it's hard to get invested when the best friends were established in just this movie alone amidst the sea of additional subplots and characters. It's the actors and ideas of the characters that saves it for me and, regardless of emotional investment, I still enjoy a rewatch every so often. No matter how poorly done it may seem, it still has some solid ideas like the theme of time and clocks bookending the film with the opening shot of the interior of Richard Parker's watch being a blink and you miss it foreshadowing to the climax of the movie with the death of Gwen Stacy in the clock tower. For the majority of fans, this is THE canon event that defined Spider-Man and the fact that they committed to including it, no matter how rushed it felt, was enough to ground this franchise in the realism of Spider-Man losing his loved ones more often than previous iterations. To put it simple, it was the first onscreen death in the cinema that left me too sad for words upon exiting just because I cared so much about Gwen as a character and her actress that I actually FELT something and that was enough to make it worthwhile.
What keeps it even more worthwhile is the actors and choices of casting; Andrew Garfield is still my choice of live action Spider-Man as far as the superhero side of the character. He nails the level of snark and quippage that Spider-Man is known for and his build compliments the new suit so well, it's like Spider-Man literally leapt off the page! The Peter Parker side isn't showcased as well or as much since this version tends to struggle more with scientific solutions to his electricity problem, relying on Gwen to magnetize his webshooters in the end; regardless of him wearing the mask or not, Andrew Garfield is still a fun actor to watch as Spider-Man or otherwise. Emma Stone is practically real-life Gwen Stacy for looks and she nails the personality SO well! Her chemistry with Garfield is the highlight of this franchise and despite their limited scenes in this movie, I relished them as a golden superhero couple in Hollywood so much that I was emotionally invested enough for her on screen death to leave the impact it was supposed to. Newcomers, Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx, and Paul Giamatti among others range from great to mixed and I will say that the amount of actors here keeps things interesting; Dane DeHaan, for one, is a great choice for Harry Osborn. His previous work in the movie, Chronicle, convinced me he could play a young adult whose father despises him and, although he and Norman only shared one scene before the latter passed, I like how well he is able to shift personas from shady CEO to lively best friend to desperate villain. You can't really compare him to James Franco's Harry Osborn because he brings his own flavor with his slow, methodical speed and cadence and that makes him fun to imitate as a presence for me as someone who likes to do voice impressions. People have often given Jamie Foxx some flak for his take on Max Dillon being the cliche fanboy turned supervillain we see in other things like Batman Forever, The Incredibles, and Iron Man 3, but honestly, I didn't hate his character or acting. At first, he's the definition of crazed nobody with his glasses, crooked teeth, and combover and his eccentric personality, but as soon as he becomes Electro, he becomes a scared, later enraged powerhouse of a villain -- and his teeth get magically fixed. He didn't have as much of an impact on this movie as he could have despite being central to the advertising, but he was a unique presence to Spider-Man films and he really brought the character to life. With as minor of a presence as Paul Giamatti had as Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino, he hasn't been given much grief for being such a cartoony take on a Russian mobster; me, personally, he was fun to watch and made for a neat opening and ending villain even if his presence was merely setup for the ill-fated Sinister Six movie. Many of the other actors have limited presence and screentime though there were some cool additions such as Felicity Jones as Felicia -- a setup for Black Cat -- Colm Feore as Donald Menken, and B.J. Novak as Alistair Smythe. If there's anything Spider-Man movies get right as the heart of the movie, it's the portrayals of Aunt May and Sally Field is no exception. Despite her subplot feeling extraneous, she is more than a welcome presence and, in my opinion, is the most depth we've gotten of Aunt May in any series thus far. The way she feels conflicted about telling Peter the truth about her life and his parents shows how she is struggling to move on without Uncle Ben and, in the main scene she and Peter get together, her voice and facial expression showcase how torn she is to be keeping part of herself and Peter's parents from him. Sally Field has been an excellent actress from what I know and it's a shame we didn't get more of her Aunt May. Even so, she and the other Aunt May actresses make Spider-Man movies and sometimes shows and games worthwhile because, let's face it, without the family dynamic of Aunt May as a mother figure, Spidey wouldn't have so much heart.
Of all the Spider-Man movies, this one is actually the one I know the most music of and for; production of this movie had so many big names attached that they got Hans Zimmer of all people along with The Magnificent Six -- including Pharrell Williams -- to do this movie's soundtrack. It's not the same Spider-Man theme as the first movie, but the tune "I'm Spider-Man" captures the heroism of the Spider-Man character so well that I almost exclusively associate that theme with this version of the character. The highlight of the soundtrack for most people are the Electro themes starting with the 8-minute track, "My Enemy"; it starts off with deep, bassy electric sounds representative of Electro before being followed by whispering vocals of Pharrell Williams representing the voices in Max's head as he navigates his confusion and growing rage. During the calmer bits throughout the track, we hear the calmer bits of Max's theme, which plays earlier in the movie, showing the potential hope that Max may get if he simply talks to Spider-Man. This is immediately subverted by the beat dropping as Max falls off the deep end, attacking Spider-Man and the civilians upon being shot; it is a that point about halfway through the song that vocals by Pharrell get louder as he says things like, "He lied to me... He shot at me... He hates on me... That Spider-Man, he is my enemy!" This track is, no doubt the highlight of the OST, with bits of it being extra emphasized in the later Electro theme building up to the final battle, "Still Crazy"; that version of the track is my personal favorite for how much more upbeat and climactic it is, but I won't deny that the original "My Enemy" along with "Electro's Suite" are the highlights of the OST overall. That said, although I prefer the Goblin themes in the Raimi films and other movies, the Green Goblin track, "I'm Goblin", is an underrated track for the character; given the fact that he has one action scene in the entire movie, the track is intentionally fast paced as Spidey chases Harry holding Gwen up the tower before dropping her, the music slowing as a result. It gets all the more chaotic as Spidey and Gwen navigate the clock tower and Spidey tries to keep Harry away from Gwen before coming to a slow, pulsing head as Harry throws himself onto Spidey, the two struggling as Spidey multitasks trying to fight him, hold onto Gwen with his web, AND keep the gears from turning so the web doesn't snap. It does and then we're followed by the emotional scene for the slowmo Gwen Stacy fall scene with the piano tune, "Let Her Go", playing; these tracks, plus the emotionality of everything, made the scene and the movie for me. That said, I have since become a fan of the licensed music as well; "Song for Zula" by Phosphorescent has become one of my favorite songs since this movie when it was played in Peter and Gwen's reunion scene at night right before the Electro battle. The song may have been played for atmosphere, but upon listening to the lyrics of this song, the interpretation I got was that Peter walking back to Gwen was him opening himself back up to the "cage" of love now that he's meeting up with her for the first time since they broke up. This is further evident by the fact that at the end of their meeting, he tries to kiss her again before she reveals that she's moving to England. Another thematic song that fits their relationship is the song playing after the Electro battle, "Gone, Gone, Gone" by Phillip Phillips; this was the song that made me discover Phillip Phillips for the brief year of prominence he had and, while it appears to be theming around Peter's parents as he does research, many have interpreted it as Peter loving Gwen after she's gone. Since that ultimately happens in this movie, I find it to be an ideal love song for them and something like a loving real-life marriage -- I know that since this movie, I would wanna sing it to whomever my wife ends up being.
With the sad decline of CGI in recent Marvel projects, the VFX and action shots/scenes are some of the tightest ever put to a Spider-Man film, period. There's an overabundance of slow mo shots that represent Spider Sense in very realistic ways starting in the initial web swinging scene of Spider-Man as he pursues the Rhino's truck. This only continues in scenes like him reacting to the truck colliding with the bus as he leaps over it with superhuman levels of reaction timing, landing on the other side to stop it from hitting civilians. The highlight action sequence where Spidey backflips over the police car, setting up a web net with one web shooter and then using ingenuity to web people's hands away from Electro's electricity as it lights up the railing is some insane showcasing of his Spider Sense in a way that's reminiscent of Spider-Man 1's initial Spider Sense scene in the school hallway. Many complained about this scene ripping off Raimi almost blatantly, but this is honestly better, cooler, and more dynamic than that inspiration as it's done by a more experienced Spidey who's learned a thing or two about everything he can do. Speaking of, this has some of my favorite web swinging animations throughout Spider-Man media; the amount of dynamic poses and uses of his webs as he propels himself over and around buildings is the most animated Spidey's web swinging appeared up to that point. As someone who has played the Insomniac Spider-Man games since then, several of the animations appear to have been inspired by this movie alone, which says something to this saga's impact on Spider-Man media despite its short run. Say what you will about what the movie builds around the action scenes, but you can't deny that the Electro fight scenes and VFX are some of the coolest-looking scenes put to Spider-Man film to date. Jamie Foxx, no doubt, wore a lot of blue paint on set everyday, but the CG they added in post to showcase the electricity coursing through his body makes him look like he's becoming a being of pure energy, which is something that Spider-Man: No Way Home essetially confirms happened to him upon his "death". Upon him acquiring the ability to phase in and out of electrical outlets at the Ravencroft breakout scene, the VFX of his body's electricity phasing into the room is so slick, it looks like a person's entire nervous system being formed from nothing. His enhanced abilities are further showcased in his climactic battle with Spidey as they swerve in and around the power grid towers in the midst of the citywide blackout; Electro's battles were, no doubt, the highlights of this movie in more ways than one so much so that even the finale with the Goblin could hardly compare. Regardless, this was some of the best Spider-Man action put to film up to this point and, as someone who knows several superior versions of Spidey, I'd almost wanna credit shows like The Spectacular Spider-Man for upping the ante in films after the Raimi Trilogy. Inspiration aside, this saga had potential, but even though it didn't last, I'm thankful that this series amongst other media made me the Spider-Man fan I am today.
In the end, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has issues, but I did not use this review to dwell exclusively on those. Some good things about it are that it caters heavily toward mega Spider-Man comic fans like myself, it has fun to stellar acting, the music score and licensed choices are sound, and it has some of the coolest VFX and action put to any Spider-Man film before or maybe since. Stuffing as much as they did into this movie resulted in the exact same outcome as Spider-Man 3 so much so that they abandoned future projects and had to reconfigure the idea of spinoff films about villains such as Venom -- which we ultimately did get in 2018. In hindsight, I was someone who religiously followed production of this movie and know it could have been a LOT more overcrowded as there were scenes shot of Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane Watson as well as a scene of Peter's father being alive in Gwen's graveyard, which were ultimately cut. I learned early on that so many of the deleted scenes of this and the first movie could have benefitted fleshing out the movies even more, but they weren't included for the sake of runtime; the Peter's father scene among others was ultimately released on Blu-ray, but because Mary Jane's subplot was cut amidst the already dense amount of subplots, we sadly won't see what her take on such an iconic character would have been like. With what we DID get, however, there were solid ideas, great themes, and potential, but the execution left people understandably disappointed because it lacked the emotional investment of Raimi's trilogy. For me, it's a plus that all live action versions of Spider-Man exist as we got a solid trilogy with Tom Holland -- who got to meet the other versions by his third movie -- and are still going to get films of and featuring him for maybe a little while longer in the MCU. With all it set out, but failed to do, I still give The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a C+ and recommend it to people who love Spider-Man and wanna continue to invest their time in the ever-growing Spider-Verse.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
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