Disappointing! That single word sums up all my feelings about ‘The Amazing Spiderman 2’ and this supposed franchise starter. Viewing this, I kept thinking to myself that Sony movie executives have learned nothing from even recent history. For many decades, superhero movies were not given respect. They were considered live action cartoons that appealed to the simple minded adolescent and critics and masses alike ridiculed them accordingly. The Joel Schumaker series of Batman movies (one of which should have ended George Clooney’s career) only reinforced this stereotype. It wasn’t until Bryan Singer’s ‘X-men’, Chris Nolan’s rebooted ‘Batman Begins’, and even Sam Rami’s original series of ‘Spiderman’ movies that the world started to take notice. Not only were they box office successes, but they were begrudging critical ones as well. The secret? Lose the campiness and take the subject matter seriously. Have a director who understands and respects comics instead of someone interpreting what he thinks a comic book is.
‘The Amazing Spiderman 2’ is a throwback to the Joel Schumaker style of over-the-top and cartoonish portrayals of superheroes. I wasn’t a fan of the last installment which rebooted Spiderman starring Andrew Garfield as our favorite web slinger for the same reason. i couldn’t understand why it achieved the success level it did. Heavy on special effects and low on story is rarely a recipe for success. Ironically, it is more faithful to the comic book story line than the Tobey McGuire version, but that doesn’t change that the dialogue is stilted and the flow is choppy and manic. In one scene Garfield’s Peter Parker is going through spiritual and emotional angst, then the very next scene he is so perky it appears he’s overdosing on Zanex while cracking the worst jokes imaginable. There has to be a believable dialogue. In order for this genre to be successful, there has to be a suspension of disbelief and that can only be accomplished with a certain dose of realism.
I think my biggest disappointment was having an Oscar caliber actor like Jamie Fox playing such a buffoonish role as the lead villain Max Dillon aka Electro. Leave aside that Electro was never the best villain produced from the Spiderman villain gallery, but he was never a cartoonish simpleton. Electro’s origin story was eye rollingly cheesy and his performance constantly reminded me of Schwartzenegger’s portrayal of Mr Freeze in the worst super hero movie of all time ‘Batman and Robin’. When Electro started spouting electricity puns, I completely checked out. Way to waste an actor capable of a Heath Ledger level of performance.
Director Mark Webb stuffs more villains, story lines and sub-plots in this film than it was capable of holding. This sequel felt (and probably was) like it was just an attempt to set up the future sequels that Sony is planning in an attempt to replicate Marvel’s ‘Avengers’ success. Dane DeHaan takes on the role of Harry Osborn (aka The Green Goblin) and his story was literally shoe horned in. First of all, DeHaan was just plain creepy, which I could never get past, but the story line of Peter Parker and Harry Osbourn being best friends after not seeing each other since they were 9 yrs old felt forced at best. Also, those two just had zero chemistry. Nothing about Harry Osbourn transforming into the Green Goblin made sense to me, nor did his motivations once he became the Goblin. You could have removed his whole storyline and still had a full movie.
I don’t want to keep pummeling this movie, but I really don’t know how else to review it. There were so many plots that I can’t really give a coherent synopsis. I just never understand how you can have so many high level stars and have it produce such mediocrity (sub-mediocrity). Sally Field’s Aunt May (totally miscast) was almost an afterthought, where she should have been Peter’s spiritual and moral core. Dennis Leary as a randomly appearing ghost didn’t really work and Paul Giammatti was totally reduced to a Saturday morning cartoon character as The Rhino. I’m amazed I knew he was Russian as he rarely yelled more than one word at a time.
Mark Webb is a great director. ‘500 Days of Summer’ is one of my favorite films. Superheroes are just the wrong genre for him. Sony is being too ambitious and too eager to recreate Marvel’s ‘Avenger’ success and is throwing together a film series that will alienate both comicbook fans and laymen alike. More is not better and just because you throw in a lot of villains and spend multi-millions on special effects doesn’t change the fact that it’s the story that brings the audience in and keeps them there. Spiderman was never my favorite hero, but he deserves more respect than this.
I give this film * star
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