Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Both Frustrating and Fulfilling as Follow Up To the Original

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 tries to make up for the sins of the past by cramming as much story as possible into a two-hour film, but the ultimate payoff is still worth watching….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

One of my biggest fears going into ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ was the excessive amount of characters that had been advertised for appearances in this film. What started out as a marketing campaign focused on Jamie Foxx as the luminescent Electro, quickly turned into a reveal of Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin along with Paul Giamatti as The Rhino. This is all in addition to an appearance by Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn and a slew of other Easter egg characters scattered throughout the two-hour and 21 minute movie.

The final product as I witnessed at the first showing on Thursday made my worst fears come true as the intersection of story lines and characters collided with each other over and over again, while it was clear that the real plot was building towards the ultimate crescendo, which was a payoff every comic book fan has been waiting to see come to life ever since the web-slinger first landed in the movies. Now despite the clashing stories and ubiquitous characters popping up at every turn, the heart of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ was a continuation of the love story between Peter Parker and his No. 1 girl Gwen Stacy, that originally started in the first movie from a few years ago.

Towards the end of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, Captain George Stacy asks one thing of Spider-Man after learning his true identity — please don’t put his daughter Gwen in danger by continuing their relationship together because as a vigilante superhero, he will eventually make enemies and one of them is bound to go after the people he loves the most. As we pick up in the sequel, Peter’s willpower isn’t all that strong and really who can blame him — Emma Stone is the picture perfect person to play Gwen Stacy and she really is irresistible in this role unlike the unfortunate casting choice of Kirsten Dunst to play Mary Jane Watson in the original Spider-Man films opposite Tobey Maguire. Peter and Gwen’s relationship becomes the real centerpiece of the story and the magnetism between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone is undeniable. It certainly doesn’t hurt matters that they are dating in real life, but the spark is palpable as these two young lovers try desperately to stay away from one another, but continuously find a way to be drawn back into each other’s lives.

Where ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ starts to fall off the tracks is with the introduction of the villains in this movie. First off there’s Electro — and he’s just this side of The Riddler in ‘Batman Forever’ and Mr. Freeze from ‘Batman and Robin’ in terms of origin and corny one-liners that make up this blue skinned Doctor Manhattan impersonator. The reality is if you take Electro completely out of this movie, there’s not a single thing missing. He’s a space filler because what the filmmakers try to do in this sequel is weave in a new, underlying thread to the original movie, but they need some action sequences to keep Spider-Man swinging while they work to create the real threat, which is Harry Osborn eventually transforming into the Green Goblin.

Harry also becomes a big problem in this movie because as showcased in the numerous trailers, he and Peter obviously know each other and seem friendly enough despite the fact that he’s never mentioned, seen or discussed in the first movie. As a matter of fact, his father Norman is only briefly talked about but never seen in the original. In this movie, Harry becomes the central character in a hurry, but his story really seemed more tailor made for two films instead of cramming everything they could into this one. What I liked about the passing of the psychopathic torch from Norman to Harry in this movie was the explanation of why Daddy Osborn was sick, and how that also afflicts his son. This all gets tied up nicely with a reference back to Osborn’s work with Peter’s dad, while also giving Harry a reason to hold a grudge against Spider-Man. It’s effective story telling, and a real highlight of this movie, but it felt like they could have easily introduced this in the first film and then showcased it more in the sequel. It’s almost as if director Marc Webb went back and looked at the first ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ and said ‘crap, I forgot something’ and decided to shove all of it into the sequel.

The acting in the movie is definitely one of the bright spots (outside of Jamie Foxx’s overstated and bloated performance) as Dane DeHaan is fantastic as Harry Osborn. Equal parts creepy and sociopathic, DeHaan makes you remember why we all had such high hopes with Willem Dafoe playing the Green Goblin, only to be let down in the end. DeHaan gets it right and he deserves a lot of credit for it. I already raved about Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, but she really can’t get enough praise for her performance, and truth be told Andrew Garfield embodies everything about Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Garfield plays quirky and offbeat as Parker and picks up the charm and humor when he puts on the mask as Spider-Man. I get the feeling when the next Spider-Man franchise happens 10 years from now, we’ll all be looking at Garfield’s replacement with the same kind of sneer and resentment that Ben Affleck is currently feeling as he tries to step into Batman’s shoes after Christian Bale filled them so perfectly.

The film’s conclusion really ends up as the most memorable part of the entire two-hour plus experience. While there were tones throughout the course of the movie that obviously set up the sequel as well as the upcoming ‘Sinister Six’ film, but the payoff is worthwhile despite several mistakes made in the early going. The final 20 minutes blows by in rapid fire fashion and again there’s a lot shoved in there for the sake of getting to where we’re going, but the final few sequences should leave you with shivers running down your spine and maybe a few tears streaming down your cheek. It’s rare that a big budget superhero movie can pull emotions out of the viewing audience, but ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ manages to get it done.

All in all, Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a movie that’s both frustrating and fulfilling. It’s exhausting and exhilarating. It’s too much yet not enough. Ultimately, the movie is worth seeing without a doubt, but it doesn’t hold up to far superior superhero films such as ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ although the emotional spark and love story at the core of ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ is in a class of its own and even the mighty Marvel franchises haven’t come close to achieving that — at least not yet anyways.