The Amazing Spider-Man 2

I can't say I went in to the theater with high hopes. I did enjoy the first installment of this unnecessary reboot, almost anything seemed like a step up from "Spiderman 3", and Garfield felt way more natural than Maguire, and Emma Stone is always welcome. But after seeing the first trailer I thought it seemed like a total mess, and I wasn't convinced by Electro one bit. Unfortunately I was spot on, I hoped to at least get an enjoyable time at the cinema with my friends, but ended up feeling quite uncomfortable and laughing throughout most of the film.

Garfield and Stone has their chemistry and does their best with the incredibly thin script and cheesy one-liners, but their potential quite beautiful scenes together gets lost in the over-full and messy plot. I can't buy an emotional scene that is interrupted by heavy dub-step and a blue electric guy.

Oh Jamie Foxx, how did you go from Django to this? Before he goes all CGI-Electro he tries to play the nerdy unseen scientist (with a worse comb-over than Christian Bale's 'Hustle'-look). As Electro it's hard to say how much is his fault, and what can be blamed on the rest, I'd go with the rest. You don't sympathize with him nor do you believe how fast he becomes this super-villain.

Everything that Dane DeHaan did so well in "Chronicle" just feels unnatural and (maybe not misplaced, but wrong) here. And his character development is way too rushed and quite unnecessary for this film, it just becomes another sub-plot standing in the way of what really matters.

Sally Field does good work as Aunt May, but leaves no lasting mark. Paul Giamatti's Russian criminal is just in the way and only gives a couple of dreadful and laughable scenes. And then there's the mad German scientist named Kafka and I rest my case.

The action and visuals isn't bad, but still doesn't make up for the low "trying to be Marvel"-comedy and horrific soundtrack, a soundtrack that almost itself destroys the film throughout the exhausting 142 minutes. And sometimes it feels like the movie is taking us as an audience to be stupid, with pointers to what is going to happen. I would like to say that you might enjoy it if you just try and see it for what it is, but it's hard, but hopefully possible! It had an interesting start, with a glimpse inside the past and Peter's parents, but it's left underdeveloped, as is almost everything else, to make room for all its action and villains.

It's amazing how the difference between two big-budget superhero-movies can be so huge, if you put this against "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", a great and, opposed to this one, original film.

Oh how I wish that Marc Webb could have continued with a "(500) Days of Summer"-esque movie instead, he could keep the sub-plots starring Garfield, Stone and DeHaan, and it could very well be a great film, and probably not such a waste of talent.

8/10 - I know I am definitely in the minority on this one, but I for one feel that this 2014 sequel is not only not the "worst Spider-Man movie," but actually improves on its predecessor by doubling down on heart, the swoon-worthy chemistry between Garfield and Stone, and jaw-dropping visual effects.

"Let's go catch a spider."

Marc Webb's first feature film, 500 Days of Summer, was a successful small indie romantic film with a lot of heart. He went from that to the huge production of the Spider-Man franchise which I thought didn't necessarily need a reboot so soon. However the film did work thanks to Andrew Garfield's portrayal of Peter Parker. His natural charisma and confidence translated really well to the character and his sense of humor makes him the perfect candidate to play Spier-Man. I began my review by mentioning that Webb directed 500 Days of Summer because for me the heart and soul of this film is the love story between Gwen and Peter. I can't think of any other superhero film with such a great love story and believable chemistry than this one. Garfield and Emma Stone are incredible together and I loved their scenes. Webb knows a thing or two about young romance and it is the film's strongest asset. The sequel is entertaining and has some great action scenes, but I could've watched this film for the romance alone. The flaws are actually the villains in this film. They don't crowd the film like the trailers led me to believe, but they really don't seem to menacing until we reach the final third act. For a film that runs at 140 minutes it went by really quick and that is always a good sign. Spider-Man 2 might not be as good as this year's Captain America, but it does have its solid moments and clever one-liners. At times the CGI took me out of the film as it looked more like a video game, but there were some interesting shots as we got to follow Spider-Man swing across the New York City landscape. The film works better as a romantic comedy than an actual superhero movie but that was fine with me because it was a really good one. It makes most other recent rom-coms look ridiculous and unbelievable.

After a short flashback where we see what happened with Peter's parents, the camera follows Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) swinging across NYC as he tries to stop a Russian mob criminal, Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti), who has stolen something from OsCorp. In the midst of all the action he receives a call from his girlfriend, Gwen (Emma Stone), who is reminding him that he's going to be late for their graduation. Somehow Spider-Man manages to take care of business and arrives in the nick of time to receive his degree as Peter Parker. His Aunt May (Sally Field) is the only family he has left, but she's there for him like she's always been. Peter however has been having visions of Gwen's father reminding him of the promise he made to not date his daughter in order to keep her out of danger. Apparently it has been a conflict they've dealt with over the last few months and Gwen decides it's time for the two to break up. Gwen continues to work at OsCorp which is now managed by Norman's son, Harry (Dane DeHaan), after his passing. Harry seems to suffer from the same degenerative disease of his father and wants to continue researching for a cure in OsCorp. Peter is glad to see his childhood friend back, but when he realizes what he's up to things get complicated. When an employee from OsCorp suffers a freak accident he becomes Electro (Jamie Foxx), a dangerous foe for Spider-Man and the city.

The Amazing Spider-Man has some flaws but it still entertains thanks to the great chemistry between Stone and Garfield. They are perfect together. DeHaan is also great as Harry and he does look like a believable threat for Spider-Man. I had a problem with Foxx's clumsy performance as Max but once he becomes Electro he does look menacing. I didn't care too much about the villains or the action set pieces despite the fact that they were well crafted. The inner struggles that Peter Parker faces with his family drama and relationship with Gwen is at the heart of this film. The final act is more than just a gigantic action face-off, there is actually a lot of emotional elements at stake and that is what lifted this movie as it finished on a high note. There was a very emotional scene scene near the end of the film that left the entire theater in silence. The best thing about this sequel is that it was much more emotionally involving than the original and it banks its strength from Andrew Garfield's charismatic and spot on performance as Peter Parker.

As the story unfolds, and all conspiracies behind Oscorp unwind, the life of our lovable web-swinger gets more adrenaline full and also more complicated. There is a bit of a sense of DeJa Vu, specially when Peter Parker is trying to balance his personal life and his super hero life. But the aspect in which this movie really shines (like his ancestor) is in the characters, however this time the emotional weight is much more present,and the scale of both the drama and action is much bigger. Andrew and Emma were just as great as in the previous movie, and the chemistry between them is fantastic. Jaime Fox also nailed it as Electro, even thou the character itself was not the best written character, but his performance was so great that i was able to overcome the writing. Dane DeHann was equally great as the Green Goblin, at first i didn't like the idea of Harry being the Green Goblin instead of Norman Osborn, but it was a good choice and it matched perfectly with the plot and tone of the movie.(Also Dane has a knack for playing psychopaths) As to be expected there are plenty CGI scenes but it really didn't bother me because the action sequences were done in a very creative way. The Score, composed by Hans Zimmer,is amazing and somewhat contemporary, so it fits the themes of each character and moment. Overall the movie was much more intense and heavier than the first installment, as our main character deals not only with supernatural challenges but also emotional dilemmas.

Lets give a disclaimer here: I am a comic book nerd-geek and Spider-Man is one of my favorite fictional characters ever, so maybe I am inclined to be fully absorbed by this movie very easily, yet this doesn't take away from my film nerd-fan side that genuinely thought very highly of this film from a simple filmaking point of view. As storytelling goes I was very-pleasantly surprised to find a really strong grip: it never commits the Spider-Man 3 mistake of being over-crowded and maintains a brilliant balance on all the characters flowing naturally with a story that feels perfectly fine despite the pressure it had from Sony. It never tries to be over intricate but manages to pull of multiple inter-twining story lines in a magnificent way. Never does it leave loose ends and that is something I hadn't seen in a comic-book movie for a couple of years. Furthermore it isn't a banal plot, there of course are some clichéd moments but as much as they don't get me in 90% of movies they got me here (credit to director/actors for making those few feel very spontaneous), it has valid originality and keeps a core fidelity to the source material that deserves high praise. Just as good is the way in which this sequel builds on its predecessor tying up loose ends, proceeding with minor story lines of the first movie and adding great parts in it. As a director Webb proves to be amazing. The action scenes are complexly put together, with visual brilliance and continuity in them. Great improvement from the first movie. They really were breathtaking, nail-biting sequences that found me on the edge of my seat continuously. Another visual aspect that is stunning is the swinging sequences of Spider-Man: this is what I always wanted to see but never fully experienced with the other Spider-Man movies; the shots there were fantastic. Yet what I most admire Webb for is the talent he has for character development and coherence, we have seen this in his previous two movies and here it is firing once again in all cylinders. There just isn't one character in whom I did not believe, I never spotted the stereotypical comic-book person in here. Everybody had there chance to shine. Sure a couple of characters have minor short-comings and I understand if somebody doesn't believe in Electro's personality, but I found that it walked the line between movie acceptability and comic-book campyness in the perfect dose. To this I also have to give credit to the soundtrack which blew me totally away when Electro is introduced to the public: that was some serious use of music and sounds for storytelling, brilliant, intelligent! Adding to this is a really powerful score from Hans Zimmer, one of the better ones I have heard from him and generally in recent years. Our introduction to Harry Osborn/Green Goblin was positive on the character part (indeed there was no need for him to be green goblin in this one but I honestly did not mind him), yet from an acting point of view I think Dane Dehaan overacted in some scenes, nevertheless he was good enough. There have been many criticisms of this movie in regards to messy tone, unoriginality and rushed villains and as much as I see where people are coming from and I would indeed have appreciated a more untraditional villain(s) introduction and story I just never thought of that during the movie: there are many movies in which I simply cannot be taken in because of originality issues, but for some reason this one felt to me so fluent I never had any problems with this and actually felt it kept a consistent tone throughout. Yet I must address the fact that watching it twice I could feel the studio putting too much of its hand in the movie: they were way to manipulative of this and I think that by leaving Marc Webb just some more creative power this movie could have been enormously better. The CGI wasn't always seamless but great in many moments and anyways it never bothered me because the story was always the driving force behind it and what I was most interested in: this also speaks to the fact that the action was used to propel the plot so it never felt out of place, that is something really hard to pull off. There is lots of humor in the film and I can safely say that it actually is very funny and very faithful to who Spider-Man is and how he acts and to expand on this the humor fits both the tone of the movie and the storytelling, speaking again to the fact that, just like the action, it is used appropriately for the character development or the story, it is never gratuitous. I was excepting more fan service, but I can't really fault the movie for not satisfying my unsatisfiable thirst for it, that was nevertheless kept at bay. "The Amazing Spiderman 2" truly was a comic book movie. It took the best aspects of the two world and combined them in what I always figured in my head when I read Spider-Man comics. Yet, I have been holding back this for all my review and here it is: what truly is the best part of the movie, the most riveting element, the thing that Webb does best in a really majestical way, the driving force behind this film, the main reason and thing that kept me most absorbed in the drama and what gives it honest emotional depth is the relationship between Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker. honestly do not know how Webb is so amazingly good with romance and character interaction but what we have here (and in the previous movie) is something really special.