Seriously. I’m wondering what the hëll people want from films anymore.
Remember Nicholas Hammond? That was my first live action Spider-Man, and the TV was ghastly from the top down. Bad stories, bad acting, bad effects, just bad.
And now we have the current sequel to “The Amazing Spider-Man” that is, to my mind, 110% better than the previous entry. I found it to be a compelling combination of genuine drama, beautifully played by Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone (not to mention Oscar Winner Sally Fields) and thrilling action sequences that seemed, in the way they were portrayed and Spidey quipped his way through them, to be lifted directly from the pages of the comic.
Jamie Foxx was a marvelous Max Dillon. So he was a classic geek: so what? It provided a nice contrast to what he eventually became. And Dane Dehaan was marvelously creepy as Harry Osborn. And sure, the Rhino was only in for a few minutes, but so what? Gives the third film somewhere to start from.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and I just don’t understand why I’m seeing reviewers bìŧçhìņg about it.
PAD
• 
**If you are SPOILER** averse, read not further!
***Really, I mean it***
***Aandon hope all ye who enter here….***
OK, thate’s enough. I generally enjoy it, and certainly can’t speak to why any given reviewer might have bìŧçhëd aout it. But I had some quibbles. First the good points: Very good acting, esp. Garfield, Tone and Field. Lots of nice tips of the hat to the comics (Smythe, Ravencroft, Dr. Kafka) that may be seeds for the future. Beautiful effects, and Spidey was qupping away nicely. Now the quibbles: Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy is indeed, one of the great parts of this movie series. So why waste her now?? To emphasize the menace of the *unamesd in the film) Green Goblin? Isn’t someone who hates Peter/Spidey, ahs vast financial and technological resources, super-powers AND knows Peter’s secret enough of a threat? If Gwen is domed, let it happen in ASM 3.
And speaking of her demise… We get a (well-done) scene of Pete cradling her in his arms, we get a funeral, and then…”five months later”?? Yeah, I know Raimi used the “costume in the trashcan” scene already, but in the context of the fimm, Peter’s return *feels* too abrupt. I could expand on this, but what do other faithful PAD followers think?
I thought what happened after the funeral worked really well. Seeing him going back to the graveyard again and again got across both time and sorrow. The extra push he got from Aunt May was just right.
By the way, Sally Fields may not have white hair up in a bun, but she was everything I want from Aunt May. Her saying, “You’re MY kid!” speaks to something very primal and wonderful. Every scene with her was well written and well acted.
The moment Peter broke his promise, at the end of ASM 1, I knew Gwen was doomed. And this could not wait longer than part 2, since it’s a consequence of breaking his promise. So, I know everybody was feeling confortable with Gwen around, but it was as necessary as Ben’s death: Spidey actions will always have consequences. Always.
“5 months later” or one year, what’s the difference? The other element that the movie shows is the strong will of the character. Spidey is the heroe that never, EVER, gives up. To quote other movie of the genre: he falls to learn how to pick himself up.
“The moment Peter broke his promise, at the end of ASM 1, I knew Gwen was doomed”
Oh. I kind of knew she was doomed from the moment she first showed up because she’s Gwen and therefore always doomed.
PAD
There was something odd about watching this movie while thinking, “Don’t go near any bridges. NO! I said don’t go near any-! Okay, good, they left the bridge. CRAP! She’s falling! Okay he caught-SHE’S FALLING AGAIN!”
So, so doomed.
She survived Spidey 3 and the Ultimate Universe =p.
I thought it took about a half hour for the movie to really rev up. One nice touch, ,,,
SPOILER
Was when she died, the clock read 1:21
**SPOILERS**
I have a LOT of problems with the writing, myself.
Firstly, there was a fundamental misplacement of where the emphasis should have been. This should have been the story of Gwen Stacy’s death at the hands of the Green Goblin, and it really wasn’t. It ended up being a story of Electro lashing out at the world with Harry’s help, and getting taken out by Spider-Man. THEN Green Goblin shows up, and takes Gwen, and kills her, and it just feels horribly tacked on.
Another example is the relationship between Harry and Peter. There should have been more emphasis on Harry, and his re-establishing of his and Peter’s friendship. While Andrew Garfield and Dane DeHaan manage to carry it off with chemistry alone–they really do make it feel like they’ve grown up together at one point–it still would have felt more organic with time and development. Instead, the audience is supposed to take it off of one scene that they’re best friends.
And Jamie Foxx. Poor Jamie Foxx. I really think they could have gone in so many more interesting directions with his character than they did. He did what he could with what he had, but I think by making Electro a one-note villain they really did a disservice to the actor playing him.
Finally, the coda at the end. The sudden appearance (and brief lead-up to it) of the Rhino reinforced the feeling that all of this skewed writing was basically done in the service of setting up spinoffs for the franchise. That’s just shoddy, as far as I’m concerned.
I’m a huge Spidey fan (look at what I name my Tumblr, for crying out loud). You’ll get me in the door by using the Spider-Man IP, but once I’m in, you’d better not betray my faith with bad storytelling. And while I’m not saying this film was overall bad, the negative parts really stood out. And that really shouldn’t be the case here.
I have numerous reasons for not liking this film XD
1. The Underdeveloped Ideas.
A lot of the big ideas set forth feel criminally underdeveloped. From Peter being haunted by the promise he made to Captain Stacy (Lasts 5 minutes, if that) to him having to deal with Gwen’s death (Lasts 4 minutes, if that). Big events in his life seem to have very little lasting impact on the story. Speaking of Peter –
2. I have no reason to care about Peter.
He’s repeatedly been portrayed as the type of person who shirks responsibility when it’s problematic to him, which is a pretty big crime against the character. We don’t see him struggle with his chosen lifestyle like we did in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, and so him breaking his promise here just feels extremely selfish as opposed to understandable.
The Peter in this film doesn’t have any admirable qualities, really. He’s Spider-Man because he enjoys being Spider-Man, not because of some deeper motivation. Not because he feels that the safety and happiness of others means more than his own. Andrew Garfield’s performance is too good for this material.
3. There’s too much going on.
From Harry’s condition, to Peter’s parents, to Gwen going to Oxford, there isn’t enough focus in this movie. It doesn’t feel like there’s one overarching story, it feels like a bunch of subplots. And nothing feels like it really matters, which brings us to-
4. This film is over 2 hours long… and nothing happens.
Nothing here feels like it matters. Nothing here feels like it changed Peter or the city. Electro’s rampage? Completely forgotten. Gwen’s death? An afterthought shoehorned into the last 10 minutes of the film. Harry’s turn to darkness? Never explored.
You can tell Electro’s just here so we can have some action. And it’s sad, because I liked Jamie Foxx’s performance and I liked Max as a character and the ideas he brought forth. For example, I got a faint sense of social commentary from his character. Before the accident, nobody cared about Max, even when his scientific knowledge was helping the city become more energy efficient. He was “invisible” as he put it. No one cared… until he became Electro. The idea that we give people exposure for the wrong reasons was interesting, but sadly, Max devolves into the standard “I want to become a god and stuff and I want to crush the spider man” villain by the end of his introduction.
If they’d just cut down on some of the unnecessary action and subplots, we could have had some really great stuff here. As it is now, this is my least favorite Spider-Man film.
Quite a few people felt the same about Raimi’s third film: that the studio had forced him to take on too many plotlines at once, too many villains cluttering up the landscape. It’s OK if you want the Sinister Six tag teaming against Spidey in one huge scene, but having them crop up here and there just ’cause … not really. Raimi’s second Spidey film remains my favourite because it was tight, efficient, effective and Octavius was less of a cackling Republic serial villain than Gobby had been in the first. As for the new Peter Parker, I maintain the actor they chose to replace Mcguire(sp?) looked too much the hunk to be believable as the oh woe is me, no one likes me Parker.
Garfield is the best Spidey yet, hands down, and his scenes with Stone and with Fields were pitch perfect. The action was fantastic and he moved, finally, the way Spider-Man moves in my head.
That said, I left the theater disappointed. Here are my entirely subjective reasons.
– Spider-Man is not longer an everyman. Before, anyone might have been bitten but it was this guy, the mistreated kid who deserved it and used the power for good. Now Pete is the Chosen One, because only he has the right blood. Granted, it’s still important how he uses the powers, but it left the same bad taste in my mouth as the prequels’ midichlorians. It diminishes the power of the story, to me.
– The plot was a muddled mess, with too much and too blatant a push to build a franchise. I understand the studio wants to make money, every studio does, but don’t do it at the cost of the story.
– No one seemed to care much about Peter’s mom. It’s all daddy issue, all the time. Apart from her bashing bit in the flashback, no one really mentions her again, not even May. But that whole backstory is part of a larger problem from both movies, which is:
– With great power comes… what? It’s telling that the famous phrase hasn’t been said yet in either of the two new movies. Peter became Spider-Man out of guilt and the need for redemption but mostly out of responsibility. He _could_ help, so he _had_ to help. That’s not quite as clear, here.
First they reduced Uncle Ben’s death — he didn’t die because Peter was petty while using his powers for his selfish needs, he died in these movies because Peter was annoyed at a clerk — and then they reduced his position in Peter’s life. The most important male figure in this Peter’s life is, by far, his absent father. It may make for a more cinematic dynamic, but it’s not quite the responsibility-driven Spider-Man I know.
– I would have been happier with Electro if Jim Carrey hadn’t done it already a decade or two ago. Also not happy with the compacting of the villains so that everything came from Oscorp. Has Dr. Octavious’ story already been marginalized, since the arms already exist? Will the new Vulture be some nameless schmuck? Oscorp-as-origin-of-everybody can work, Ultimate Spider-Man did it more elegantly, but the way they did it just seems like a shortcut.
– The “isn’t that the question of the day” line from the trailer didn’t appear in the movie. This isn’t unusual, orphan trailer dialogue and scenes are common. But I kept expecting the reveal to Peter that Oscorp was watching him that we saw in the trailer and not getting it was like stepping on a plot step that wasn’t there. Not the movie’s fault, but it did affect me.
– The lack of Rhino battle didn’t bother me, I liked the closing scene. Spider-Man’s relationship with NYC was beautifully done throughout. But the very last image, the one that was supposed to leave me with excitement and anticipation, was the exact same one I’ve seen in the trailers for months so it was kinda anticlimactic. Poor marketing decision, I think.
– I miss Jonah.
Again, all subjective. But there it is.
“It’s telling that the famous phrase hasn’t been said yet in either of the two new movies. ”
Yes and no.
In the first one, Ben said something that was exactly the same idea, just phrased a different way. Since I’ve heard “with great power comes great responsibility” so many times that the words are losing meaning, I liked that. It’s the idea that’s important, and Uncle Ben got across that idea pretty well in ASM1.
Oh, and Harry’s motivation makes no sense to me. He acts like he’s going to die within days or weeks, but Norman lived well into his 60’s. His sense of urgency feels forced. “Well, we gotta get him to the point where he can kill Gwen. Gotta get that 6 minutes worth of conflict”.
I thought that was odd, too. Then I noticed the soars developing on Harry’s neck. His disease was developing much faster than his father’s.
Norman says that the disease starts around Harry’s age (SUPER CONVENIENT). We’re not given any reason to believe his mutation is faster, or that it becomes irreversible after a certain time. So essentially Harry’s upset because he has to die in his old age XD
All Norman mentioned was shaking. The videos of Norman from ten years ago showed him with a cane, but not with sores like Harry. My interpretation was that Harry was in worse shape.
That could have been clearer. I think you have a fair point.
Even if he is overreacting, it’s just a small part of his mental problems. The guy has father issues like crazy, and his reaction to health problems was to break a killing machine out of jail. Surprise! He’s not making good decisions.
Honestly, I thought Harry’s craziness was earned. It felt like Peter’s the only real friend he ever had, his father rejected him, then left him with the enormous responsibility of running a billion dollar company, and the top people in the company are so eager to stab him in the back that they’ll frame him and steal the company. So him being unbalanced felt believable to me.
The problem is we never get a good look at Norman in those videos. We don’t know whether he had sores or not.
Also, if that’s the case, if Harry’s condition is indeed worse, this is unbelievably contrived writing XD And all of that just so we could get to the death of a character I cared nothing about, and see how that death impacted other characters I cared nothing about.
We never got a really good look at Norman, so we don’t know if he had sores at that time or not.
But if this is true, if Harry’s condition was indeed worse, this writing is even more contrived than I thought XD And all of this just so we could get to the death of a character I cared nothing about, and see that death affect other people I cared nothing about.
That was my second biggest problem with the movie, and the cause of my biggest problem.
It’s not just ASM2, either. Green Lantern did the same thing. A good movie needs to tell a good story, and I find that shoehorning as much information into the time you think people will sit through doesn’t do that.
I think the real trouble is that they’re spending more effort trying to set up a ‘franchise’ that they’re rushing through everything. ASM2 could easily have been two, much better (potentially, at least) movies. If you’re in such a huge hurry, film them back to back.
To me, the best thing they could have done was have Spidey save Gwen, then have her die next time — or better yet, let her live.
I honestly did enjoy this movie a lot. I think Garfield is great in the role. I think Sony just needs to admit they can’t build a franchise around one character, and just concentrate on making what they can do the best it can be (or maybe trade the rights to Spider-man back to Disney for the move rights to New Universe or something…)
The critics are still annoyed about there being a reboot so soon. And seem to think that an “unnecessary” film must be a bad film by default. As if any film is necessary.
I haven’t seen any reviews by professional critics that have expreseed resentment of the reboot, but I do know some fans who cut the Webb films very little slack because they wish Raimi & Co. had been allowed to continue their series. Not sure how widespread that is, though.
I guess you can count me among those with little to no slack for Sony right now. Their suits mucked around and royally screwed up Spidey 3. But instead of owning up to it, they jettisoned Raimi and rebooted the series.
I didn’t see ASM because it didn’t look interesting to me. I still haven’t seen it. I won’t be seeing ASM2, and now with Sony planning on spinning off Too Many Villains into it’s own movie franchise, I really wish Disney/Marvel could yank the rights back (same with X-Men and FF at Fox).
I don’t like people who bash a film without having seen it. However, I plan to either not see ASM2 or on video when I have nothing better to do, and here’s why: ASM1 was enough of a let-down, and ASM2 seems to be more of the same.
I’m with Craig here, Sam Raimi has stated pretty plainly what happened with what was supposed to be SM4, and how the studio wouldn’t let him independantly pursue his own creative vision. So, after they publically said they weren’t interfereing, and yet were, Raimi walked and we get ASM.
The only positives I have to say for the first ASM was that Spidey was cracking jokes which fit the character better than in Raimi’s vision, and Emma Stone was excellent as Gwen. Andrew Garfield seems too cool for school, not a nerd; the desire to make this “dark” seemed to make the effects seem faker, the characters felt forced (which I lay at the feet of the writers), and while you are to some extent confined by the story mandates when again covering SM’s origin, the film felt more that it had to hit certain plot points than organically growing from the characters and following a story we already knew.
Like many recent remakes, the characters and story were replaced by an attempt at spectacle. The reason “Avengers” worked was Joss got the charaters to work first and foremost, so that even the action scenes were character beats. From everything I’ve seen of ASM2, from the way the creative team is talking about it (not focusing on the story itself, but only as a pointer to future spin-offs), to the trailers and reviews, Sony has not learned from its earlier mistakes and only cares about SM in terms of franchise potential, not bothering to remember that what makes a franchise work is a character you are invested in.
Contrast this with Marvel’s approach: most people agree that IM2 tried to do too much and failed; Marvel learned from this with subsequent films, which were not “bloated.” Instead, they try new things to grow and develop the characters, so that past performance doesn’t necessarily indicate what will happen with a future installment. However, Sony just keeps connecting the dots over and over again, and nothing changes.
Well I liked the movie and most of what was in it. Gwen’s fate was telegraphed months ago, if only by her outfit. Glad they left Mary Jane and her “Face it Tiger…” for the next one as to not trod on Gwen’s part. The switch from Electro to Green Goblin was a little TOO segregated, and felt it, but then again when you switch from one comic to the next it IS that separated. And thankfully they DID keep Rhino to the minimum they had. Just enough to get a kick out of Giamotti playing over the top, and not worry about what is basically a silly character whether its a metal or a leather outfit. And I’d lay odds they already set up Vulture….though Adrian Toomes has been the common name of his alter ego, I could easily see it switched to Donald Menken, ’cause Colm Feore, who they already set up as a villain and didn’t necessarily kill, sure would be a perfect Vulture, ya think?
I just saw it. I started off pleasantly surprised. It got better from there.
I had been concerned that there would be too many villains. However, they all sprung from Ozcorp, and that connection unified their stories. Rami’s Spider-Man 3 had the problem that there were two villains with two separate stories who got together towards the end and said, “You want to fight Spider-Man? Me too!” That didn’t work, but this did.
The quipping really worked. It was much better than any previous movie and really felt like Spidey. Also, I loved that this Spider-Man stopped and took the time to cheer up the people he saved. From Dillon to the little kid, he showed he really wanted to help.
I loved everything about the Rhino, which I didn’t expect at all. It wasn’t too short, it was just right. The bit with the kid killed me.
Yeah, I really liked it.
Peter David, please, STOP HAVING DRUGS!!!! The Amazing Spiderman 2 is the worst šhìŧ in Marvel movies fistory from Electra
My spoiler-free review is at http://thearmchaircritic.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-amazing-spider-man-2.html As for further thoughts…
It felt like the Green Goblin and Rhino were in the movie for far, far too little time. I thought Harry was more menacing as a selfish company leader than looking like a FACE OFF losing entry for a goblin. And the Rhino could have been left out altogether without hurting the movie. (BTW, *why* was he rampaging? Did he want to just destroy stuff? Was it done to bring Spider-Man out of hiding? I haven’t felt such little motivation from a character since the first FF movie where Doctor Doom walked down the street blasting stuff.)
I really liked Jamie Foxx, as the obsessive fan whose adoration can turn to hatred at any perceived slight. It felt like the typical obsessive stalker (“We’re best friends — he forgot my name? I hate him forever!”) and the danger of being ignored.
I thought the movie lost any subtlety with Gwen’s speech about time early and her ending happening in a giant clock — not to mention Spidey’s web looking like a hand reaching for her.
And I never liked Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. He looks more like a cool kid from TWILIGHT than a nerd, and through this movie I thought he often had a really stupid look on his face.
I though the movie was okay. It didn’t blow me away. But then again, after the thrilling Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the legacy set by Raimi’s films, it’s hard standard to live up to.
In general, I never liked the fact that they seemed to want to “go dark” with all the superheroes and even fairy tale characters nowadays, and the way they jettisoned the importance of responsibility and Uncle Ben in the last two Spidey films is an example. I think C. A. Bridges touched upon this above, and I have an example:
When Spidey first confronts Aleksei Sytsevich during the truck chase in the beginning of the film, instead of just rendering him unconscious with a punch and then stopping the truck, he taunts the criminal with his witty remarks, and in the coure of the chase the truck Sytsevich is driving plows into a taxi cab, causing it to flip into the air. Nice going, Spidey! You could’ve stopped him outright, and prevent injuries or loss of life to innocents, but why bother when you have to perfect your comedy routine? Don’t get me wrong, I like the fact that the creators are incorporating Spidey’s quips from the comics, which is something Raimi never did, and I really like his more dexterous use of his webbing, but this shouldn’t come at the expense of innocent lives.
One other thing I *did* like about the movie was the Goblin seeing Spider-Man and Gwen together at the end and making the logical jump to Spider-Man being Peter Parker. It seems like all the time in comics the villains encounter the heroes’ secret identity’s friends or loved ones and never make a connection between them (“I was battling Batman and Bruce Wayne’s butler showed up, and now I’m at Bruce Wayne’s house. I guess it’s a coincidence.”) At least one villain knows how to put two and two together.
“Remember Nicholas Hammond?”
Yes… but why would we hold this film to such a low standard when there have been so many great comic book films in recent years? It’s not a case of fans being “spoiled”; it’s a case of Hollywood realizing that these properties are real moneymakers, and the onus being on them to get it right. In the end, I’d put this movie on the same level of as the Wolverine films; standard blockbuster fare. But after seeing the excellent Marvel-produced films– hëll, even the second Maguire movie beat this one, IMO– I think fans are perfectly justified in criticizing the excess camp and tedious extended Dawson’s Creek sequences of this film.
I enjoyed this film a lot. Quite a whole lot, in fact. My only criticism of it is one that seems to creep into a lot of super-hero films: too many villains. Or maybe too many spotlight villains. I’f you’d had a montage of little clips of him fighting, like, the Looter or the Shocker or the Kangaroo (why not?) and saved the major action for the Green Goblin that would have been fine. As it is, Electro gets most of the movie and, even in the context of the film itself, Electro is nobody. His story has nothing to do with Peter, he’s just someone to beat; a visually interesting montage villain. The Goblin has the most impact, on Peter and, apparently, on future events, but he gets hardly any screen time.
While I think Garfield and Stone have great chemistry together, the “I have to dump you so my super-hero lifestyle doesn’t hurt you” stuff is so old hat as to be cliched. You end up not being invested in those scenes and just waiting for them to be over. For my part, while I figured Gwen was going to die eventually, I knew she was doomed in the context of the film when Peter said he’d go to England with her.
A pet peeve was Peter needing Gwen to school him on science. Intimate knowledge of working the reactor, fine, but the science of electricity and the nature of batteries, no. I love that Gwen is smart and brave and capable, but don’t make Pete less so she can be more.
I dearly loved the scene where Spidey was buying cold medecine. That’s straight out of Lee/Romita Spider-Man.
I haven’t seen ASM2 yet, but I believe the bìŧçhìņg is coming from the anti comic book movie group. A lot of people just don’t get that comic book movie is on the rise. Myself, I can’t get enough. I’ve waited to see my comics on celluloid for thirty five years. All I got to say is keep it coming !
Christy Lemire, who did not like it, asks a very interesting question from the onset of her review: She wonders if a superhero movie can be made without any action scenes. Why not? If the occasional comic book can be written thusly (AS-M #18 comes to mind for Spidey), what’s to stop a movie? I’d love to see the next FF flick (if there will be one) focus on “This Man, This Monster”.
A superhero movie without action scenes? I’d say no — because of quantity. A comic book has dozens or hundreds of issues, so it can take a break from action to do a more character-driven story and then return to action a month later. By contrast, a movie has to tell a whole story that will satisfy its audience until the next movie — a year or years later — so they have to pack all the action into that movie since they won’t have another chance for a while.
I’d say it’s like the difference between the STAR TREK tv series and the movies. Because the tv series (any of ’em) have so many episodes, they can have an episode focusing on a romantic interest, trade dispute, or character development. But spending a whole movie doing that would make for a boring film (“I paid ten bucks to watch them argue about the Prime Directive?”)that would make a sequel even less likely.
The influence of the Raimi films is definitely in a factor in how these movies have been received. I for one prefer Toby McGuire’s likeable dork to this current hipster doofus. My wife and I were actually bored during the first reboot film, and the knowledge that they had actually cancelled a Raimi sequel to make it made the sting even worse. We’re going to wait for Netflix or a cable broadcast to see this one.
Philip M Jackson’s review of the film in comic form.
Not reading the rest of the posts, just to avoid spoilers, though the big “spoiler” i suspect would come as no surprise.
Why are critics not so hot for the latest Spider-Man film?
Probably Super-Hero overload. Unless a movie has something new or unique to add to the on-screen genre, mainstream reviewers are more likely to think that a standard super-hero film is just “more of the same”.
Especially hot on the heels of a Capt. America film that was more espionage/conspiracy thriller with super-heroes mixed in that wowed the same critics.
I agree! Spectacular and Amazing… Everything was better in this movie than the previous outing…
David Madara
I enjoyed it overall, but had some personal quibbles of a technical nature:
a) How does Electro, wearing skintight underwear, dematerialize and reform wearing the same underwear. Where did they underwear go?
b) Where did Electro get that custom costume that we saw for all of one scene? When did he have time to get it made for him? Where did the costume go when he dematerialized and reappeared? How did he get the costume to travel through circuitry with him?
c) Harry osborn was pretty proficient at riding the hovercraft. When did he have time to master those skills?
d) High-school student Gwen gets one look very complicated schematics drawn up by a high-level electrical engineer, and instantly understands how and where to shut down a brand-new, proprietary electrical grid?
These were the major things that bugged me, but there were other little things here and there that didn’t necessarily detract from my enjoyment, but gave me enough pause to temporarily pull me out of my suspension throughout the film.
a) I’ve seen Watchmen. Blue or not, I’d rather he wear pants. If I have to believe something that makes no sense, then I’ll believe it to have the guy in pants.
Besides, does it really make sense to say that we believe he can dematerialize, but we don’t believe that he can do the same thing to objects? One really isn’t any stranger than the other.
b) He stopped at a scuba shop and picked up a wetsuit. I don’t think a scene of him browsing through the racks would have added much. I give the audience enough credit to figure out that if he’s wearing clothes, then he must have put on some clothes.
c) The segway takes zero skill to ride. Sometimes stuff just works. Unless they show other people trying and failing to use it, it’s not an issue.
d) It’s not like she pulled apart circuit boards and built a new control unit from scratch. High-school student Gwen Stacy looked at some schematics and saw a button labeled ‘reset.’
a) Being that his body was basically a big, fuzzy glowing wad of pinks and purples, pants or no pants would not have made a difference. And yes, we don’t believe he can do the same thing to objects. His body was super-juiced with electrical powers. That doesn’t carry over into turning any other object into pure electricity as well. It defies the logic of how his powers work in any universe that has had an Electro.
b) That wasn’t a wetsuit. That was a customized costume complete with lighting bolt lapels. Who designed it? When did he find the time to do so?
c) I can grant you that it was designed to be idiot-proof.
d) Have you *seen* electrical schematics?
a) I’m not following your logic. Turning a human body into electricity and back again is impossible, except in superhero movies. Why is doing two impossible things more unreasonable than doing one impossible thing? We don’t even know *how* he turns his body into electricity and back. Maybe it’s the same process as the teleporters on Star Trek. Nobody ever complains about the teleporters on Star Trek being able to convert pants into energy.
b) No, it wasn’t a wetsuit. Also, Spider-Man’s costume, even in the Sam Rami movies, cost a ridiculous amount of money to make. It’s not possible for a high school kid to make that costume. We accept it. So I’m going to accept that Electro grabbed a fancy suit out of some kind of containment unit, or it is a wetsuit that just happens to be fancier than anything I’ve seen before, or there’s a low security lab in Oscorp that Electro an Harry stopped at on their way upstairs, or whatever.
I get why you have an issue with this. It’s a little odd. When I saw it in the movie, I just thought about it and moved on because it’s the kind of oddness that happens regularly in superhero movies. When it doesn’t happen, people complain about the costumes looking boring.
It’s better than seeing another naked blue guy, and it’s better than having the climatic battle in a hoodie.
d) Yes, I have. Sometimes things like “reset button” actually are clearly labeled. Not every single document that is used to build a power plant is a circuit diagram. Again, she didn’t rewire anything. She hit the reset button.
in respose to point D: At this point it’s college student Gwen and I thought she’d mentioned that she was familiar with the plans already in some way through her capacity as an Oscorp employee. Of course, we were given to understand in the first film that she was a chemist rather than an electrical engineer, but perhaps she’s some kind of polymath…
Thank You PAD. I’ve really been sickened by the practical hate campaign that seems to be waged against this film. As any idiot who wants to criticise a superhero film as a franchise, seems to be jumping on the bandwagon to do so with this one.
Though I think the producers/promotors maybe brought some of it on themselves with all their talk of spin off movies. It’s kind of like what happened with Iron Man 2. Almost everybody loved the unexpected Nick Fury cameo at the end of the first Iron Man film but nearly ever bad review of Iron Man II seems to dwell on too much of the movie supposedly setting up Avengers with it’s Black Widow and Nick Fury scenes. Even though that was the very least of that film’s problems. (And I actually really enjoyed the their scenes.)
It’s just a cheap criticism really. I think if the producers had kept their mouth shut about Sinister Six films and the like, people would be treating scenes hinting at that as neat easter eggs for the fans, rather than doing the whole ‘oh this film is too busy setting up a crossover/spinoff.’ bit.
I also really don’t get anyone who says that Andrew Garfield’s take is too cool/good looking to be Peter Parker. What did these people never read a comic after 1970? When I grew up reading him he was a good looking guy on a motor-cycle rocking it with the Gwens & MJ’s of the world. He certainly wasn’t a real life Clark Kent as the Raimi films seemed to try and make him out as. The troubles in Peter’s life came about because of his super-hero activities impacting on his regular life. Not because he was some kind of weird, slow witted loser which seemed to be the only mode that Tobey and Sam Raimi could portray him as.
I for one am glad that we’ll never have another scene like in Raimi’s Spiderman 2 where you have Peter, just because his powers are fluctuating on him, ignore an old man being beaten and potentially killed by some thugs whilst he sheepishly slinks away like an absolute coward. Contrast that to one of the early scenes in the first Amazing Spiderman where Peter stands up against Flash bullying another kid. He gets a beating for it, because it’s before he has his powers, but at least in these films there’s something truly heroic about the guy again.
In my opinion these new Spiderman films are FINALLY getting the character right. And I’m glad I lived long enough to see the character I admired as a kid done justice on the big screen.
I’m sorry but Sally Field as Aunt May is just plain wrong.
I agree. It was much better than the previous one and the first to successfully capture Spidey’s comicbook humor. I didn’t like the Rhino take, but it can be ok if they revamp the character in a sequel.
Long time fan here and I couldn’t agree more, PAD. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the best Spider-Man film and one of this superhero “genre” movies very best, but it seems that somehow it was decided to hate and rag on this film for no good reason. After seeing The Winter Soldier and Days of Future Past as well, I can say that while I truly LOVED those two other films, this is clearly the best. It seems to me that we are living in the age where people praise and hate things based on other things than the actual content, which truly saddens me. There is world building and plotholes in the THREE films, but no other superhero film did a better job capturing the heart and soul of the characters in the comics like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 did. I’m glad that I’m not the only one taking notice of that.
I finally got a chance to see Spider-Man 2 today (I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier last week). Here are some of my thoughts about both:
First, Cap.
I liked the movie overall, but all the explosions and such got old really quick.
I especially liked the scene with Steve and Peggy. It’s hard to put a finger on why. I just liked the idea that she lived long enough to know that he’d returned (when a woman talked about Captain America saving her life in a scene in in The Avengers, I remember idly wondering if Peggy Carter was still alive at that point). Maybe because Steve, in a sense, still got to keep his date from the first film.
On the thread about Cap, someone questioned how Sam Wilson got hold of the Falcon wings. He told Cap and Black Widow that they were locked up somewhere and they said, essentially, “no problem.” Maybe the scene of them breaking in and taking the wings will be on the DVD.
I liked Steve Rogers trying to find his place in the world as well as his friendship with Sam Wilson.
I liked his determination to “save” Bucky (the obvious focus of the third film). He’s loyal to his friend.
I also like that he doesn’t blindly follow orders, but instead follows his conscience.
On another note, that’s why the Jedi were all but destroyed and the Empire rose to power. They sent an amateur like Mace Windu to confront the emperor instead of Nick Fury.
Re: Spidey:
The people in the theatre today reacted with audible gasps when Gwen hit the ground. I think it’s a safe bet they either don’t read the comics or don’t know enough about the history of Spider-Man to be aware of Gwen’s fate in the comics.
Though I have to admit that I wondered whether or not she’d make it through the film alive. My thought process was that just because she died in the comics doesn’t necessarily mean she has to die in the films; or, more to the point, this film.
But she did die in this film, so the question is whether her death advanced the story or had any significant effect on Peter’s character. Not that I could see. But that’s because it came so late in the film, leaving any significant “fall-out” for the next one. Maybe it would have been better if she’d been killed off earlier, so there would have been more time for us to see how her death affected him and what led to his taking up the mantle of Spidey once more.
Given that Peter saw Captain Stacy everywhere, it’s surprising he didn’t imagine the captain tearing into him after Gwen died. That would have helped show the depth of Peter’s feelings of guilt.
On the other hand, a scene like that might have confused some viewers, who might have thought such an allegorical confrontation was a literal one and wondered how Captain Stacy was back from the dead.
As to Electro/Green Goblin partnership, I was expecting them to present a united front against Spidey. Instead it was more of a relay race, with Electro passing the metaphorical baton to Gobby. Why was the Goblin hanging back? Was he reading the instruction manual for the glider?
For that matter, what happened to Electro? Was he somehow destroyed? Was he “scattered” throughout the grid? Drained of all power and restored to human form? If there was some explanation of his fate, it happened so fast that I missed it.
Electro’s initial rampage is clearly the fault of the police department. They started shooting at him before he made any threatening moves. Reminds me of some comics in which trigger-happy cops shoot at Spidey just because he happens to be swinging by.
Yes, the cop on the scene who radioed for backup had a legitimate reason to wonder why this guy was reaching for a power cable with his bare hands, but given that there was no indication in the Amazing Spider-Man films that any other super-powered people exist (though there was an X-Men-related clip in the end credits) besides Spidey and the Lizard (and he’d been returned to normal), it would have been more logical for the cop to assume this guy was trying to commit suicide in some dramatic fashion.
And he had it in mind to shoot him? Brilliant, Holmes.
And then when Spidey is trying to defuse the situation (and might have succeeded if the cops had given him a chance), some idiot sniper and whatever moron was giving him his orders decide that opening fire is the best idea.
All this happened before Electro had made any threatening moves against anyone.
I’d have liked to have seen Spidey attempt to reach out to Electro later in the film, try to communicate with him, especially after learning that the man’s rampage was in large part because he felt slighted by Spidey. Granted, Spidey couldn’t have expected his “eyes and ears” comment to lead Max to assume they were best friends; and granted he had no idea who Max was when he first saw Electro and engaged in his quips; but I’d liked to have seen him at least try to reach out to Max Dillon one-on-one subsequent to that first encounter. Electro would probably have been too far gone to listen (especially since he believed Spidey set him up in their first confrontation), but it would have at least shown that Peter isn’t a complete and total ášš.
On a related note, it would have been nice if Peter had admitted to Gwen that he’d been too flip, too dismissive of Electro in their first encounter and felt responsible for what happened as a result. I see the conversation going something like this:
Gwen: “You couldn’t have known this would happen to him. Or that he’d read an entire relationship into an offhand comment.”
Peter: “Maybe not, but maybe if I’d tried to listen to him, instead of cracking jokes….”
Gwen: “Peter, you did the best you could.”
Peter: “It wasn’t enough.”
That last phrase would doubtless have come back to haunt him when he subsequently failed to save Gwen. A voice-over of that part of this hypothetical conversation would have provided a good “short-hand” explanation of why Peter was hanging up his webs.
By the way, when Peter and Aunt May were talking near the end of the film, I half expected her to reveal that she knew the truth. Not sure why; there was nothing that telegraphed it, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if she had told him she’d figured out that he was Spider-Man. And unlike the way Aunt May had been depicted in the comics for decades, this Aunt May (and the version played by Rosemary Harris) could have handled the truth.
I’d liked to have seen more of the Peter/Harry friendship (maybe a flashback scene to a key moment in their childhood, one that showed that they’d been best friends). That might have given Peter’s betrayal (in Harry’s eyes) and Gwen’s subsequent death at Harry’s hands a greater impact.
Count me among those who don’t understand why Harry was in worse shape than his father. My guess? Norman tried some “cure” which didn’t help, but also didn’t hurt him. However, it had subsequently had a negative effect on Harry when he was born. Something like that could have explained in one line.
As Maxwell Smart, secret agent 86 of Control might have said, “Ah, yes. The old hidden train in the secret subway station.” Peter faces a bit of a dilemma regarding his father’s recording. If he releases it to the public, it could clear his father’s name; but it would also draw attention to himself, since his father specifically mentioned his own bloodline. If Peter weren’t Spider-Man that’d be one thing; but since he is Spidey, that’s something else altogether.
I wonder if he’d tell Aunt May about the recording (without going into detail about where and how he came across it)?
Re: Nicholas Hammond: One of my favorite scenes from the 1970s Spider-Man series:
Jameson: “Parker! What are you doing here?”
Peter: “This is the university, sir. I go to school here.”
Both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Amazing Spider-Man 2 had their shortcomings, but they were good films, overall.
Rick