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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

DVD Cover (Sony Home Entertainment)
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Overall Rating 66%
Overall Rating
Ranked #279
...out of 20,203 movies
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Connections: Marvel: Spider-Man

For Peter Parker, life is busy. Between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen Stacy, high school graduation cannot come quickly enough. Peter has not forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen's father to protect her by staying away, but that is a promise he cannot keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro, emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn, returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past. --TMDb
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Review by Crispy
Added: November 9, 2016
It's been well over a year since I said I was going to sit down and review the two Amazing Spider-Man movies. I told you I was a slacker.

Things seem to be going decently well for our resident hero Peter Parker, at least on the surface. He's graduated high school, dating the girl of his dreams in Gwen Stacy, and Spider-Man is a city wide hero. Deeper down though, things are a lot rockier than they appear. His dual life as a superhero leaves him completely exhausted, and the combination of fatigue and his guilt over breaking his promise to Gwen's father to leave her alone is pushing them apart. After keeping her at arm's length one too many times, she's had enough and calls it off for good. Making matters even worse, a month or so ago, Spider-Man saved a man named Max Dillon from getting hit by a bus. You see, Max is an invisible person. He has no friends, nobody respects him, and while he's an electrical engineering genius, his designs are unabashedly pilfered by his employer Oscorp. Being noticed by Spider-Man himself and having a friendly chit-chat afterwards has convinced Max that the two are best friends, and he's dangerously obsessed with the superhero. After being forced to work late on his birthday, Max accidentally falls into a vat of modified electric eels, turning him into a force of pure electricity.

I couldn't help but have a sinking feeling when I fired up The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Not only did it receive some pretty weak reviews, but the franchise has already been cut short in favor of loaning the character to Marvel for their Cinematic Universe. Still, for the sake of completion I figured I'd give it a shot and I actually enjoyed the hell out of it. The Spider-Man sequences were so much more fun than the last one. Instead of watching him figure out his new powers (again), he's well seasoned and his agile stunts are a ball to experience. Instead of being an ascended bully, his mocking sarcasm is much more playful. It's so obvious that despite the trouble it's caused him, Peter absolutely loves being Spider-Man. Little touches, like in a scene where he has to use a fire hose, he's seen wearing a helmet and high fiving the fire fighters after. On top of that, Elektro was one hell of a villain. Between his immense power and the killer soundtrack that delves into his paranoia and inferiority complex, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Naturally, the entire weight of this movie rested on the shoulders of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, and they were absolutely up to the challenge. The chemistry between them was perfectly natural, and they both held down the large gamut of emotions admirably. As previously mentioned, Garfield was also obviously having a ball in his Spider-Man scenes; I'm sure it goes without saying that these scenes were much more important than him trying to hold a patchy relationship together with Gwen. Now, Jamie Foxx has received some mixed opinions about his performance, but personally I loved it. He transitioned between the inferiority complex of his past life to the vengeful god that he became gradually and seamlessly, never stumbling once. All that said, I do have to mention that while Toby Maguire got plenty of flack for his over-emotional Peter Parker, his blubbering didn't annoy me nearly as much as Garfield's flip-flopping between his love and his guilt. Sure, I understood why the character was doing that, but his awkward attempts at explaining himself sure put a damper on things.

Despite my glowing endorsement, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has certainly racked up its fair share of complaints. Perhaps the biggest of which is that the movie packs in far too many characters and sub-plots. I do have to admit there's some credence to this. Hell, the entire final twenty minutes slammed in a completely different villain out of nowhere. Combine that with the conspiracy his parents were involved in and his relationship with Gwen, and there is certainly a lot going on. While it was unquestionably a bit much for one movie, it makes a more sense when you look at it from the franchise's perspective. You see, Sony couldn't see the forest for the trees, and was so worried about setting up their big Spider-Man universe that they couldn't let The Amazing Spider-Man 2 just be The Amazing Spider-Man 2. And seeing as the company gave up on their franchise after these complaints, it was a move that effectively killed the series.

So what's the true take-away from all this? Sony is a spineless company with no clue what they're doing. Marvel took a huge risk with their ambitious universe, and after seeing their profits rolling in, plenty of other studios have talked about putting together similar projects. As of now, only a small handful have gotten off the ground, releasing what they claim to be the first few movies in their respective universes. Sony's bright idea was to have The Amazing Spider-Man be the center point of theirs with the villains getting their own spin-off movies. At what point did this seem like a good idea? If you want your villains to truly feel evil, starting them out as protagonists is not the way to go about it. DC tried it later on with their Suicide Squad movie, and it didn't work out for them either. Of the two films Sony had announced, I suppose Venom might have had the clout to pull his film off, but in no way did the Sinister Six (the route the two movies were building towards) need their own. Those characters would have been just fine had the company decided not to force the Universe mold and kept them villains in the Spider-Man films. However, we'll never get that in any fashion now, because Sony has no balls. The second a movie under performs, instead of addressing the problems and moving forward, they panic and shit-can the entire series. Hell, they've done it twice now, and I'm beginning to learn there's no point in getting invested in their product.

After the movie ended, I still had that sinking feeling, but for an entirely different reason. Sony had successfully got me pumped up for the next chapter in this world, and it was all for nothing. What a shame. What a crying shame. 8.5/10.
BuryMeAlive #1: BuryMeAlive - added November 13, 2016 at 9:40am
I really liked the first movie in this reboot. This one however was fucking rubbish.
Tired Tigress #2: Tired Tigress - added May 2, 2017 at 1:02am
Last I read, there's going to be a confirmed rated R Venom movie.
Crispy #3: Crispy - added May 6, 2017 at 12:46am
Yeah, the Sony/Marvel deal is looking more and more like a complete shit show as news is released. Apparently they're going to use the Miles Morales Spider-Man going forward, so maybe they can keep both franchises going without stepping on each other's toes.
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