The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

I'm going to be perfectly honest: this is a REALLY hard film to review for me. Spider-Man is my absolute favorite superhero, my gateway drug to the wonders of comic books. Seeing him star in anything less than a spectacular film tears me apart. That's why when I first saw "Spider-Man 3" and "The Amazing Spider-Man", I enjoyed them heavily and wouldn't listen to any complaints. It was only on repeat viewings that the flaws began slipping through the cracks.

"SM3" is easily the worst of the bunch, that much is certain. The first "Amazing", while not terrible, suffers from replicating the same beats as the original Raimi film. So going into the sequel, I was initially weary that the film upped its villain quotient from one to three, the same number that doomed the last series. Lo and behold, this film wasn't as "amazing" as I had hoped. But what's so hard to review about it isn't my Spider-Bias. It's that there are some truly amazing scenes in here, but they're buried underneath a narrative as tangled as Spider-Man's webs.

There's a scene in the film where Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy is talking to Dane Dehaan's Harry Osborn about her on-again off-again relationship with Peter Parker. "Everything's always complicated with Peter", Harry tells her. No kidding. This film suffers from a mix of "Spider-Man 3" and "Iron Man 2" syndrome, with too many plot threads spinning at a rapid-fire pace. There's Peter's relationship with Gwen, his reuniting with childhood friend Harry, Harry taking over Oscorp from his dead father, low level employee Max Dillon becoming Electro, Peter looking into his parents' deaths, and LOTS of Sinister Six set-up. It's too much to take in, and while the film tries to service everything in favor of the world-building made so popular by Marvel/Disney, it just doesn't manage it.

We have three supervillains here, although only two have any real bearing on the plot. Paul Giamatti bookends the film as Russian thug Aleksei Sytesvich, who becomes Rhino in the film's final scene for some Sinister Six set-up. Giamatti is a straight up Saturday morning cartoon villain here, and he's having a ball with it. It may not be the best villain performance, but it's completely harmless and a nice extended cameo for fans like me.

Jaime Foxx's Electro is the principal threat for most of the run-time. As Max Dillon, obsessive Spider-Fan, he starts off as Jim Carrey's Riddler before gene-altered electric eels turn him into a pissed off Doctor Manhattan. Despite the comparisons, Foxx is considerably creepy as Electro and gives the character genuine menace. He's more than just a visual effect, even though his powers are incredibly cinematic and make for two stand-out action scenes. As Max Dillon, Foxx flounders, as he's more caricature than character, but his full-on supervillain mode is a treat to watch thanks to Foxx's genuinely threatening performance.

Our third villain is Dane Dehaan's Harry Osborn, who bypasses his late father and becomes the Green Goblin. Chris Cooper's Norman Osborn is only in one scene, which he shares with Harry. The scene is chilling and well acted, with Cooper a good if underused Norman. Dehaan is fantastic throughout, equally sympathetic and snobby and even full-blown insane when the time comes. Unlike the revenge-driven Harry of the Raimi films, this Harry needs Spider-Man's blood to cure the genetic disease he inherited from Norman. An injection of spider-venom, mixed with his disease and a high-tech suit, turns Harry into the cackling Goblin.

A better Harry (and Goblin) than James Franco but not quite as menacing as Willem Dafoe (although the appearance is an improvement), Dehaan shines with the screen time he's given. His problem, like Electro's, is that his descent into villainy is too rushed to come off as genuine.There's a scene between Harry and Electro that highlights their sense of rejection and betrayal, along with Harry's desperation and Electro's isolation. It's the only time where I felt truly sorry for either of them, but also could see how mentally psychotic they are. While a great scene, both men aren't given anything else to justify their full-on transformation into villains. They're too sympathetic to start off, and while there's an inkling in both of them as to their villainous potential, it's not allowed to grow as organically as it could.

Despite their alliance being one of the most convincing villain team-ups I've seen in a recent superhero film (take THAT Sandman and Venom!), the story would have been better serviced with only one of them as the main villain. Electro is this for most of the film, but his reduction to Harry's henchmen towards the end ultimately nullifies this. Electro's story is sacrificed to introduce both the Goblin and Sinister Six arcs, and if the latter is really the direction for this franchise, then maybe it should have taken the forefront and Electro removed altogether. As it is, the villain stories are decent and connect better than in "Spider-Man 3", but are hampered by a lack of development.

A major theme in this film is time, and not having enough of it. Ironically, the filmmakers couldn't devote enough time to any of the arcs they tackle here. The under-cooked villains are a huge problem, but another setback is Peter dealing with his parents. This film finally answers the mystery set up in the first. The Parkers ran away after Oscorp framed them for selling their genetics research to terrorists to make bio-weapons. It's an interesting development robbed of any impact by being revealed a film too late.

Peter's father also reveals that the super spiders were made with his DNA, so the regenerative spider venom can only work on a Parker, hence why Peter is a perfect human/animal hybrid. While this impacts Harry's story, it would make more sense if Peter knew this in the first film. Not only would it have delivered on the promise of "The Untold Story" and set it apart more from the first Raimi film, but it would also tie neatly into the Lizard storyline. Here, the parents arc is given too much emphasis for something that has a weak payoff. Not to mention, it completely undercuts the importance of Uncle Ben in the first film, as Ben is barely paid lip service here.

The lingering thread of the mysterious shadow man from the last film's credit scene is also resolved, again with a weak payoff. It's not Norman, Mysterio, Vulture, or Chameleon like some suggested, but rather Gustav Fiers, the Gentleman. He's a small villain in the comics who put together his own version of the Sinister Six. Here, he's an Oscorp employee who begins helping Harry put the Six together at the end. At this point, the film was more concerned with wrapping up its predecessor's plot threads and setting up sequel threads than focusing on the core narrative. But with all these loose threads, what exactly is the core narrative?

In all honesty, Peter and Gwen's relationship is the real story here. Their relationship is easily the film's strongest asset, and ultimately what gives it emotional resonance. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone's chemistry is worthy of the title amazing, since it carries the film through its more rocky story beats. This is probably the only modern superhero film where the romance is integral to the story, and not just a side plot. While Peter and Gwen are at the forefront, Garfield shines no matter who he's interacting with. A scene with Sally Field's Aunt May is downright tear-inducing, showing just how emotional this film can get. Less developed is Garfield's friendship with Dehaan's Harry. The two have a good rapport that sells their shared history. But since Harry is only being introduced, their childhood friendship is never seen and thus not as poignant.

Which is a real shame, since it would add an extra layer of tragedy to the climax. Since I followed both the comics and the extensive marketing campaign, it came as no surprise to me when the Spider-Man/Goblin fight ended with Gwen Stacy's death. Her end came in a clock tower instead of a bridge, but the manner of her death was the same, and it was just as brutal and emotional as ever. The death was handled extraordinarily well, made all the more tragic by how electric (no pun intended) Peter and Gwen were together.

There was a lot of foreshadowing throughout the film, but even that couldn't prepare for how gut-wrenching the death was. The impact was just right, even more so after a brilliant seasonal montage of Peter spending months by Gwen's grave. As great as it was, though, Gwen's death could have had even more of an impact. There should have been a great tragedy in Peter's childhood friend killing his true love. But since not enough time is devoted to the Peter/Harry dynamic, it's not as impactful. Peter makes no attempt to visit Harry or try redeeming him afterwards, their friendship now more of an afterthought. Hopefully this is corrected in "Amazing 3", but it could have been so much more here.

What ultimately undercuts Gwen's death is how Peter gets over it. In a lot of ways, this is the key to my love-hate reaction to this film. After five months of grieving and not being Spider-Man, Peter decides to don the webs again to take down Rhino, deciding he needs to move on from Gwen's death. I love this scene because it is exactly who Spider-Man is, and what he should represent. Spider-Man is, at his core, a hopeful character, one who never gives up despite the odds and always puts others before his personal tragedies.

Garfield really sells this aspect of Peter. From web-slinging between buildings, to helping a kid against bullies, to using his brains and wit against Electro in Times Square, Garfield represents everything I find so endearing about Spidey as a superhero. I'm glad Marc Webb wanted to emphasize this. But since Gwen's death was handled so well, and the seasonal grave montage so powerful, I almost wish the film ended there instead of continuing. The message of Peter moving on could have been the focal point of the next film, showing his ultimate recovery. It was shoved in here because Sony didn't want a downer ending.

Even though they chose to go with the very adult subject matter of coping with death, Sony felt Peter needed a more optimistic ending. An ending which simultaneously set up their direction for the franchise with Sinister Six. It was an ending true to Spider-Man's character, but one we didn't need to see immediately to be invested in future films. While Sony was being true to the comics, they sacrificed a potentially great cinematic ending for the sake of directly setting up sequels.

That's really the biggest complaint I have with this film. Sony is doing this to prolong the franchise, keeping the rights away from Disney while ironically imitating their formula. The first film was cynical enough, but I bought into it thanks to the top notch cast. There's a similar feeling here, as the cast is the saving grace in an otherwise disjointed film filled with too many stories. These multiple plot strands are a problem, but they don't doom the film like "Spider-Man 3."

That film suffered from introducing multiple threads and trying to wrap them up in one film. "Amazing 2", however, has multiple strands primarily for world building. Like "Iron Man 2" it makes the narrative uneven, but I'd rather all these characters exist to build to something greater rather than tease the potential before snuffing it out. Case in point: "Amazing 2's" Goblin and "SM3's" Venom don't get much screen time, but Harry survives to form the Sinister Six, while Venom dies. That alone guarantees this film's rank over "Spider-Man 3."

I would also put this film a notch above its predecessor. Even though "Amazing 1" did have a more coherent story, it only did so because it duplicated the exact same plot as "SM1." The more confident direction, memorable action scenes and villains, stronger love story, and emotional ending already make this more entertaining than the first. But sadly, the uneven story does make this come up short to the first two Raimi films, even though this one does capture Spidey's personality better. Like I said, this is a very difficult film to review. Like its titular character, "Amazing 2" struggles to balance too much in its run time, and only succeeds in some areas. What it gets right, it REALLY gets right, while everything else is more disappointing than terrible. There's still a lot of potential in this franchise's future. I only wish Sony would view it less like a franchise and more like a genuine story.