Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

What do you do when you have to pick between what you want and
what you have to do? In May 2014, one hero realized that having a personal life and being a crime fighter... just doesn't go well together.

Directing this 142 minute action/adventure/fantasy is Marc Webb.

Helping tell this heroic tale is: Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro, Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn/Green Goblin, Sally Field as Aunt May, Paul Giamatti as Aleksei Sytsevich. With appearences by Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn and Denis Leary as Captain Stacy.

After the loss of Gwen's dad, Captain Stacy, Peter has had some trouble trying to juggle his private life and crime fighting. Haunted by the words of Gwen's dad, Peter knows that the people around him could always be in danger. Yet, how do you let go of the one you love, even when you know you
should. Unfortunately, Peter doesn't have a lot of time to try and straighten out his personal life. Because a powerful new threat has risen, and it's time for his alter ego, Spider-Man, to swing in and save the day. Before Electro turns everyone's lights out... for good!

To start off, yeah I'm a Spider-Man fan. Have been since the old television show called The Amazing Spider-Man (1977) which then got me into the comics, and later on down the road watching the movies. I've followed this character for a long time. Now the reason I brought that up was because after I watched The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) I was really torn on the movie for a lot of different reasons. So I didn't hold a bunch of hope on liking the sequel when I heard it was coming out. Especially after I saw the villain role call. You're going to cram three super villains in this flick and be able to give a good storyline? After what I saw in the first movie... I think not! Well, guess who was wrong... me!

Writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner and James Vanderbilt came up with a solid story. Now what impressed me the most was the way everything has played through up to this point. The few rough spots that I didn't care for in the first movie has set the stage for an even better playthrough in the sequel. Even though I would have liked to have seen more villainous action from the bad guys, what we do get in this movie is really good, and now the stage is fully set giving the next movie even more room for great things.
                                 

As for the cast, Garfield (even though I didn't really like him in the first go round) has won me over with what he's done with the Peter Parker/Spider-Man character. The fun bantering and friendly Spider-Man (that I've always enjoyed) is what fills the screen for some seriously cool looking action. Garfield does a great job portraying that being Spider-Man has it's ups and downs, and how it's a hard road to walk when you live two different lives. I thought Garfield and Stone had great on screen chemistry, and Foxx lit up the screen with a really good job as Electro. I didn't care for DeHaan as Harry Osborn, he just didn't quite fit the part in my opinion.

Unfortunately I'm still not sold on everything they did in this one. As other characters are brought into the story I didn't really care for the path they took to get known characters into the (rebooted) world of Spider-Man. Some of the (rebooted) story changes they've made in Spider-Man I was like "ok what ever", while others I thought they could have found better ways to make the change.

The special effects were great and the fight scenes were, yeah, I'm gonna say it... amazing! Yet then again with a budget of around 255 million, how could you not make something look cool. I know times they are a changing. So I guess I'll have to get use to the new look of the Rhino character. Something I will gladly do just as long as Giamatti keeps playing the part.

Side note, it looks like we will be getting our third instalment of this amazing wall crawler around the year 2016 with the forth around the year 2018. Supposedly Garfield was only signed for three films, so lets hope they fix that contract quick and get him on board for the forth one. An upside to all this spidey action is the spin-offs that are in the works. For all you comic fans, it looks like they're going to do not only a Sinister Six movie but a Venom flick as well.  Awesome!

Overall, this one is well worth catching in the theatre, and is something the kids will get a kick out of as well.

It's rated PG-13 for violence.

4 stars


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