With the success of Sony
Pictures 2012 reboot with The Amazing Spider-man,
paving the way for a new generation of Spiderman fans to see a new Spiderman
film with no allegations to its predecessors, it has become a no brainer for
the studio to move on with a sequel, The
Amazing Spider-man 2. The job for the
first film, which was the tougher one, was to reintroduce the Spiderman
character without any mentions of the previous three. Now the job for this one
is to continue on from what the previous film had built. Most of the main cast
returns in this sequel. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone return to this sequel,
as well as newcomers in Jaime Foxx, Dane Dehaan, and Paul Giamatti. Most
sequels often don’t deliver on from their predecessors, and this one may just
be another case of it. The film is all over the place trying to find where it
should go and what track to take, which makes me a bit skeptical about how this
film will play out on a whole.
The film starts in a familiar way as the first, giving us
more backstory of Peter’s parents and why they left him in the first movie.
That was the plot of the first movie that didn’t exquisitely deliver on full,
but nonetheless engages the viewer throughout the movie for what’s to come. I
really liked that the first film show all of Peter’s parents before they left
him, because it left many with unanswered questions. The film quickly then cuts
off to showing Spiderman stopping a high speed car chase, introducing Paul
Giamatti’s character, Aleksei Sytsevich (aka the Rhino). It’s a great scene
that keeps the audience waiting to see him in the rhino suit, which the film
does and does not disappoint on in the end to an extent. To most fans wanting
to see the Rhino, they may be disappointed as he is only but a cameo to the
movie.
The film itself contains many subplots that make each one
of them less interesting. It keeps one wondering “Which plot do I follow?” Peter has now graduated high school, which has
saved the movie itself another subplot from too many. Then the film introduces
Harry Osborn, a long time best friend of Peter’s, played by Dane Dehaan. It
gives a quick, straight to the point backstory of who he is and why he was
absent from the first film. It takes a different route than what we’ve seen
before where we see the chemistry between Peter and Harry in high school. The
film also introduces Max Dillon, an Oscorp employee, played by Jaime Foxx, who
was caught in an accident by being electrocuted in a tank full of electric
eels. The subplot that many have been waiting for since the first Spiderman
movie was the reason why Peter’s parents had left him in the first place.
The
film gives a few nods to Peter’s parents, mainly his father. It has seemed as
he has already discovered what his father’s ambitions were in the first film,
but that is not the case as he comes to this conclusion that all his personal
problems have lead him to Oscorp, where his dad worked at. Peter realizes that
there is more to his dad than he knew. He discovers subway coins that lead him
to find a secret subway under an abandoned station where all the secrets he’s
been searching for have been answered. It’s an intriguing scene that will leave
the audience tracking the dialogue word for word, as I had while trying to understand
the importance of Peter’s father in the plot.
One note where this film hits and soars high is the
romance between Peter and Gwen, seeing as off screen couple Andrew Garfield and
Emma Stone portray them respectively. When we last saw these two together,
Peter was sworn to stay away from Gwen by her father before he died. Knowing as
teenage Peter can be stubborn as he can be, breaks his promise and is back with
Gwen, but doing so he’s haunted by Gwen’s father from time to time reminding
himself of if he is doing the right thing. By the conclusion of the film, Peter
suffers from his mistake heavily that it impacts him as a whole in a huge way.
Seeing from marketing material leading up to the film,
viewers may already have an idea from how the film’s main antagonists go about.
It seemed as if this film would solve the issues Spider-man 3 back in 2007 by
going in a different direction, but still doesn’t manage to inquire each
villain’s motives for their actions. Seeing as the rhino is in prison, the
film’s overall plot sees Harry and Max team up in an attempt to kill Spiderman,
the same concept used in Spider-man 3.What this villain team up hits right is
the way they hurt Spiderman. Harry, as the Green Goblin, attacks him on a
personal level, while Electro attacks him as the public figure New York loves
the most. Also suggesting from the marketing material, it seems as this small
team up is but a glimpse of what Sony plans to start moving forward. It seems
as if they haven’t learned from their mistake in Spider-man 3 with cramping in
too many characters, especially villains, into one cohesive storyline.
The Amazing Spider-man 2 has a lot to
offer. A great cast, great action scenes, such as the visually beautiful New
York scene between Spiderman and Electro, and an entertaining relationship
between Peter and Gwen which makes this movie alone a great watch. The only
thing bringing it down is the overly miss structured plot. It includes some of Spiderman’s
most iconic villains that could have done a better job with more backstory to
them. The film as a whole serves up to be a rush to competition with rivaling
studios setting up an intertwined movie universe which makes this movie all the
more diverse and complex. It serves more as a set up movie rather than an
appropriate sequel, which is a whole different way to introduce many characters
to move forward this franchise. I’d rate this move a 6/10 for its great visuals
and performances, but also trying rival competition with its overly structured
plot. So with the great power being Spiderman as the most popular superhero out
there being in Sony’s hands, it’s their responsibility to fix the character as
a whole and the future of this franchise.
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