The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) review

Like many others, I was fairly hesitant about 2012’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, the first in a new reboot series immediately following in the wake of director Sam Raimi’s decision not to return for a fourth ‘Spider-Man’ film. It was just five years since Raimi’s last Spider-Man film, ‘Spider-Man 3’, and although that film wasn’t as well-received as the two that came before it, I have the feeling that many people were still looking to give the franchise another chance… but that ‘second chance’ never came because of what we can pretty much now refer to as the ‘quickest reboot ever’. But, I was very much surprised to find that I really enjoyed ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, more so than I did with two of Raimi’s films (a trilogy of films that, for the record, I still do really like). Sure, the film had the obligatory disadvantage of having to retell the origin story of Peter Parker all over again but the main reason why I enjoyed it so much was because I really found myself emotionally invested in the characters, particularly this series’ takes on Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, who formed one of the best superhero film couples of all time. So now, with the origin story out of the way, the filmmakers are now allowed to go a different path than what we’ve seen before from this franchise.

And that brings us to the first sequel, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’. Now, sometime ago I had listed this film as my most anticipated film of 2014, and there were a few main reasons as to why I was more excited for this over something like ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ or ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. While I’m not a comic-book reader, I find that my favorite comic book superhero is Spider-Man, a character that directly appealed to the underdogs, which made him a very relatable character even with his superpowers. Plus, I really got excited for the film after watching a leaked video of the Comic-Con trailer and of course, the official trailers continued to get me pumped for it. But, with all of this anticipation, there soon began to emerge a lot of doubt and worry surrounding the ‘scope’ of the film and whether or not the film was getting to be way too overcrowded. That has certainly been a key topic for debate amongst the critics who have reviewed the film because, according to Rotten Tomatoes, it is currently the lowest rated film in the entire franchise at 55% (at the time I’m writing this). Well, to those 45% of critics who didn’t really like the film that much, I say this… prepare to disagree with what I have to say about this film because this, ladies and gentlemen, was the Spider-Man film that I have been waiting for and one that delivered on so many levels.

Taking place sometime after the events of the first film, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has continued to fight crime in the city of New York as the masked superhero Spider-Man. However, at the same time, he finds himself struggling to deal with his romantic feelings towards Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), having promised her father, Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary, who briefly reprises his role for this film as a ‘ghostly vision’), before he died that he would ‘keep Gwen out of it’. As Peter tries to figure out what to do about their relationship, he soon finds himself facing off against a new enemy; Electro (Jamie Foxx), formerly a mild-mannered engineer at Oscorp named Max Dillon who idolizes Spider-Man after he is saved by him, obtaining his powers after falling into a tank of electric eels. Things get a bit more complicated when Peter’s childhood friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) returns to take over Oscorp in the wake of his father’s death as Peter continues to discover some of the company’s darkest secrets, some of which connect back to the disappearance and death of his parents and some of the things that his father was working on.

I’m going to start by addressing the key aspect of the film that everyone’s been worried about with the following statement; folks, this film isn’t as ‘bloated’ as you may think. While watching the film, I found myself wondering why a lot of people were saying that this film is ‘overcrowded’ because aside from one or two characters who felt like unnecessary additions and were only in there just because they played major roles in the comics (though if you don’t know who they are, you’d never tell they were important because they’re only in a few scenes), it really isn’t. The marketing may be promoting that Spider-Man is facing three villains, but at the end of the day, Electro is still the main villain. The Green Goblin only comes into play in the final battle and Rhino (Paul Giamatti) is only in the film for a few minutes. The film still focuses enough of its attention on the main characters (e.g. Peter and Gwen and their relationship) and you can at least see that the filmmakers are looking to expand the universe more, and I do like the ideas that they are going with for future films, specifically that ‘Sinister Six’ spin-off movie that they are planning to do.

But, for the record, the whole ‘universe building’ idea actually isn’t that much of a factor in regards to this film’s overall story. Remember how in the first film that the whole subplot of Peter’s parents that was basically the main focus of the marketing and yet the final film really didn’t do much with that? Well, it’s sort of the same scenario here with the whole ‘universe’. They don’t really go into it much until the very end of the film, to the point where it’s sort of an afterthought. Believe it or not, this film’s story is actually really self-contained up until the end when they are like “hey folks, here’s what we have in mind for the future films in the franchise”. It makes you wonder what exactly goes on in the editing room for these (one of this film’s editors was also an editor on the last film) because I have the feeling that there were definitely some scenes that were cut (That scene in the trailers where Harry tells Peter that Oscorp had him under surveillance? Not in the film.), meaning that both of these films are cases where there was more to their stories, but in both cases, certain scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

But on a more positive note, I really have to hand it to Marc Webb because the direction here is excellent. I find this to be similar to how Christopher Nolan went from ‘Batman Begins’ to ‘The Dark Knight’ in that in both cases, these two directors had never really done action films before when they did their first films in their respective franchises. By the time that they got to their second superhero film, they were much more confident in their direction than they were the first time around, which really shows in the final product. Webb did a really solid job with the first film, and in many ways, this film is even better. The action is fantastic; it’s some of the best I’ve ever seen in any superhero film. The visuals, especially in regards to all of the scenes where Spider-Man is swinging around, are top-notch. The film also has a really nice tone to it; the first film was a bit more serious in tone (which didn’t really fly well with some people, but I thought it worked pretty well for that film), whereas this one is much more lighthearted and full of great humor. I’ve heard some say that it goes into ‘Schumacher Batman’ territory at some points, but aside from one questionable line of dialogue from Electro (“It’s my birthday, now it’s time to light my candles”), it’s like the whole ‘overcrowding’ thing in that I just don’t really see the connection.

Equally terrific here, just like in the previous film, is the cast. With this film, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone prove that they are the definitive Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy of the film franchise, respectively. Garfield is once again fantastic as Peter/Spidey, still maintaining the proper wisecracking personality of the character as he done so well in the first film; in fact, I’d say he’s even better here. Stone is also fantastic as well, and the chemistry between the two is just as great as it was in the previous film, even if their relationship does go into the ‘on again, off again’ territory for a lot of the film. But, when a key scene happens (which you probably already knew about seeing how the marketing (and the spoilerific internet, for that matter) have pretty much given it away), it is handled really well and I’ll admit that I was fighting back tears when it happened. Dane DeHaan is also a major standout in this film as Harry Osborn, providing an interesting and a bit more sinister take on the character compared to the Harry from the Raimi films. As the main villain, Jamie Foxx does a pretty darn good job as Electro. I liked his backstory, which helped make him a pretty sympathetic villain (Spider-Man films have a pretty solid track record when it comes to those kind of villains).

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ is the Spider-Man film that I have waiting to see for quite some time and it did not disappoint. While this film’s supposed ‘bloated’ nature has been heavily debated by many people, the final film actually isn’t as crowded as you think even if some characters were rather unnecessarily added in and, at the same time, a bit underutilized. Sure, the whole ‘universe building’ they’re planning to do wasn’t really delved into that much with this film, but as a whole, I’m still really excited to see what they are going to do next (especially considering the ‘Sinister Six’ movie they plan on doing, which is certainly teased at in this film). This film features incredible action and visuals, excellent humor, and a terrific cast from top to bottom. No, I don’t think that this movie is ‘perfect’, but for what’s it worth, it’s a very entertaining and well-made superhero film. This is definitely one of those cases where I’d say that this film is much better than what some critics are saying. It’s one that I highly recommend.

Rating: 4.5/5