Review #776: 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' (2014)

If Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy (2002-2007) had never existed, Marc Webb's arguably unnecessary reboot The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) would have been a near-perfect introduction to the cocky web-slinger. Andrew Garfield, one the most intriguing young actors around, and Emma Stone, that old-school sassy and husky-voiced beauty who effortlessly charmed in Easy A (2010), were an almost dream couple, and their romantic scenes sparkled with chemistry. But when Garfield put on his costume and went spinning webs across the city, the film owed everything to Raimi's eye for crazy, energetic camera-work, and failed to thrill enough as a re-imagining in it's own right. Raimi's influence seemed unshakeable.

Yet the film was a success, and two years later we have a sequel. The story moves on and Peter Parker (Garfield) has grown too, though he is still caught up in a reluctant relationship with Gwen Stacy (Stone), having been warned by her dying father at the end of the last movie to leave her out of his superhero business. After apprehending a criminal named Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti) who was trying to run away with some plutonium vials, he saves nervous young Oscorp worker Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), who becomes infatuated with Spider-Man, believing them to have a special friendship. Parker's old friend and Oscorp inheritor Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) is also back in town, and learns that his dying father's illness is hereditary.

With the first having shared so much with the original trilogy, it's surprising that Webb and the writers have made the same mistakes as the one that killed Raimi's baby in it's tracks. Thankfully, there's no emo Peter Parker dance scene, but there is an over-abundance of villains. Okay, Giamatti's Rhino barely registers (thankfully), but Jamie Foxx's Electro and DeHaan's emerging Green Goblin battle for screen time, and DeHaan is far too exciting an actor to feel like he's being squeezed in. Having watched Marvel's Avengers dominate the box-office, Sony are clearly starting to set-up something bigger, but they do so at the expense of the film at hand.

In fact, there's an over-abundance of everything. With a hefty running time of 140 minutes, the amount going on in the film should justify it's length. But Parker spends most of his time being angry at his parents for being dead, similar to the angst done better last time around, and his plucky conversations with on-off girlfriend Gwen soon loose their charm and quickly become annoying. The action scenes, although they look beautiful in hi-definition as Electro causes havoc, suffer from seen-it-all-before syndrome, and some of the dialogue spouted by Giamatti especially, caused me to worry that Joel Schumacher had perched his arse back on the director's chair. It's sporadically fun but mainly just a bore, but I fully expect a third instalment to turn up in two year's time.


Directed by: Marc Webb
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Colm Feore, Sally Field, Paul Giamatti, Felicity Jones
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie