The Need for a Revolutionary Cinema in the Belly of the Empire

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (2014)

Greetings! Today, we conclude this series of Throwback Spider-Man reviews with The Amazing Spider-Man 2…and boy, do I wish that we could have ended on a better movie. First, a bit of background: when this movie was coming out, I was ecstatic to see it. I saw all the trailers, the TV spots, listened to the soundtrack, etc. But, when I finally ended up seeing it, I was a little disappointed and just thought that it was OK. However, when watching it for this review, I found it to be a little worse than I remember it. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are things about this film that I really like and really stand out to me. But those things cannot compensate for a film that just doesn’t entirely work. In fact, the best way I can describe it is to parody the song “Not in Nottingham” from the 1973 Disney Robin Hood:

            “Every film has its ups and downs

            Sometimes ups outnumber the downs

            But not with ASM 2 (The Amazing Spider-Man 2)”

This is usually the part of the review where I try to summarize the plot. But honestly, the plot to this movie is just so haphazard and chaotic that trying to best summarize it would take up too much space. So, here’s what I did: I made a master list of the numerous plots that occur in this movie and saved it as two image files, which you can see below. In fact, the reading of the list is mandatory in order to finish the review. So, go ahead. Read it. I’ll wait.

 

Read it yet? Yes? Then you can see the main problem with this film. A lot of people say that this movie has the same problem as Spider-Man 3 with too many villains and all that. But I will go one step further and say that this is actually WORSE than SM 3. That’s right, you heard it here, folks! As problematic and stupid as SM 3 got, at least it had a main narrative and stuck to the story at hand, for the most part. This film, on the other hand, does not stick to a coherent story. In fact, half of the things that happen in this film purely exist to set up a cinematic universe. If you were to edit out any conversation having to do with Oscorp or the Sinister Six, you wouldn’t have a lot of film left over. But unfortunately, that’s not the only problem with this movie.

Just like the plot, the tone of the whole film seems to be all over the place. Sometimes, it wants to be a touching romantic story. But at other times, it wants to be a serious comic book movie. Other times, it surprisingly wants to be a cartoon. And nothing represents this better than the characterizations of both Max Dillon/Electro and Harry Osborn/Green Goblin. I mention these two because their character arcs actually work inverse to each other. And again, this is not the actors’ fault. With what Jamie Foxx and Dane DeHaan were handed, they both give it their all.

Max Dillon starts out as a cartoonish archetype of an underappreciated dweeb. Not only does he look the part (with greasy, messy black hair, glasses, and a huge gap in his two front teeth to boot), but he also acts silly, immediately growing obsessed with Spider-Man after being saved by him ONCE and fantasizing about conversations with him. However, once he becomes Electro and is sent to the Ravencroft Institute, he actually becomes a pretty intimidating presence. Jamie Foxx performs the role of the villain with wild abandon and it looks like he’s having fun. It’s too bad that (SPOILER ALERT) he gets killed off at the end and therefore won’t be reprising his role.

Harry Osborn actually has the opposite problem. When we first meet him, we actually feel for this guy. We see the desperation in him as he is trying as hard as he can to find a cure to his disease and the anger when he hits a roadblock in his search. And Dane DeHaan’s performance does a good job of conveying these emotions to us in the audience. But once he turns into the Green Goblin and dons the glider and suit, it all becomes silly. Not only does he look completely ridiculous, but he sounds just as silly. This Green Goblin sounds like a male Wicked Witch of the West trying to do a pirate accent.

I would talk about Paul Giamatti as the Rhino, but he's not in the film for very long. Despite the fact that he had his own poster, Rhino only features in the film for a total of two minutes, if that. And when he is in the movie, Paul Giamatti goes so over-the-top crazy with his hammy Russian accent that it's pretty hilarious to watch. But again, adding this character to the cast only added extra fat to the story and could have been cut entirely from the movie.

As for Peter Parker...well, I really don't have that much to say about him because, like the last film, he doesn't seem to go through much of a change. At the beginning, he's still the same wisecracking, hipster skateboarder dude that we saw in the last movie. And by the end of ASM 2, he's exactly the same. The only thing he really learns is to be a better boyfriend to Gwen.

And speaking of which, I think I should address the elephant in the room (another SPOILER ALERT, though I would only take it lightly since this film's been out for two years): Gwen's death. Now, on the one hand, this scene is very well acted, very well shot, and Andrew Garfield sells it when he cries over Gwen's death. But as a whole, this scene just doesn't work. Why? For a few reasons: first of all, there are just so many unrelated plot points happening in the movie that instead of feeling like a natural piece of the puzzle, this just feels like a random occurrence that the writers put in to give the surface level illusion of fidelity to the source material. This brings us to the second reason why this doesn't work: in the comics, Gwen Stacy's death was so impactful to me because it showed that even when Peter went to his best efforts to protect his loved ones, by not telling them his secret, they were still in danger. I mean, think about this! In the comics, Gwen's final conscious moment was waiting for Peter, when the Goblin came out of nowhere and kidnapped her and she fainted. So, in my opinion, it demonstrated that even though Peter's choice to become Spider-Man has done a lot of good, it also caused a lot of harm and even death. But in the film, Peter tries his hardest to keep Gwen out of the final battle, even going so far as to webbing her to a car. But, after she breaks free, she willingly goes into what is basically an active war zone and gives a speech about how she's free to make her own decisions. A noble trait, sure, but it just contributes to the fact that her death was really her own fault and Peter had nothing to learn from it. And this contributes to the third reason why this death doesn't work: it has little impact on the following events. Sure, Peter quits being Spider-Man for a few months. But after hearing Gwen's graduation speech, he changes his outlook on the flip of a dime and is back in the suit, making the jokes, and acting all happy! So, it would seem that Gwen's death didn't have a very big impact on him. But then again, like I said, there wasn't much to learn from her death, so go figure.

OK, so is there nothing in this film worth recommending? Well, no. There are some standout moments in this film; in fact, there are even more of those here than in the last film. The film's visuals have definitely been upped. The colors are more exaggerated and the fight scenes are very well shot (except for the beginning fight scene on the plane). It actually looks like a real, genuine comic book movie and it's great. The Spider-Man costume looks fantastic and his webslinging scenes are the best they've ever been. Even the villains look amazing: even though Electro looks a lot like Dr. Manhattan, he still looks amazing, even with his silly suit at the end of the film. The Oscorp technology looks wonderful, especially the suits for the Sinister Six (my personal favorite being Doc Ock's tentacles, even though we don't see it for very long).

Another standout moment is the music. This time around, Hans Zimmer lends his talents to the webslinging superhero. And the results are some great themes and one heck of an interesting score. However, sometimes it does go a little silly, Electro's inner monologue on dubstep being the worst example. And though I don't think anyone will top Danny Elfman's score for the original trilogy, in its own right, this score is pretty awesome. Not to mention the song "It's On Again" by Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar, which is also cool.

And again, like the first movie, the romance between Peter and Gwen is great. Their chemistry is great, they actually talk out their problems, and throughout the movie, there isn't a stupid misunderstanding that tears them apart. I think what helps this romance seem legitimate is the fact that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are apparently dating in real life (if this is not the case, then please let me know).

So, yes, the film does have some positive aspects about it. But, does that make it enough for me to recommend it? Well, not really. I'm actually kind of torn on this. Because those elements are definitely an improvement from the first movie. But, it doesn't make up for the fact that this film is a jumbled mess, clearly the product of a studio that was more concerned with getting us excited for future sequels and spinoffs rather than just making a good movie. But, complaining about this aspect even more would be a moot point since this series is now basically defunct. ASM 2 apparently derailed the entire ASM franchise, prompting Marvel to step in and share custody of the character. Now, Marvel can use Spider-Man in their films while Sony can make Spider-Man films as well. The result of this deal? Tom Holland. But, we'll get to that later this week.

Bottom line: if you just wanna say that you watched all the Spider-Man movies and you have nothing else to do, I'd say give it a watch. Anyone else should probably just skip it

And this concludes my Throwback Series on all the previous Spider-Man films! Stay tuned this week for my review of Captain America: Civil War !