The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Post-release)
- Thread starter Vivek
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Solo4114
Master Member
I finally got round to seeing this. Kinda. Had it in my Netflix queue forever, then had it at home forever and just could never really justify sitting down for almost 2.5 hours to watch it.
I gotta say, I was...unimpressed. I actually didn't even get through the whole thing before I got bored and turned it off.
The first film in this rebooted series was...ok. It had potential, but Peter seemed a little overly angsty, and I thought The Lizard was a very weak villain. But hey, it had some potential and I liked that we were back to web shooters instead of bio-webs (not that one makes more sense than the other, of course).
With this one, though...the opening sequence was entertaining in a throwback kind of way. Spidey bein' Spidey and all. But the Rhino character was just...idiotic. Admittedly, I'm less familiar with the Rhino in the comics, aside from his appearance, but I never thought he was this loud, psychotic, ridiculous clown, and Paul Giamatti was wasted in the role (although I'll bet he had fun).
The real problem with the rest of the film (well, the rest that I saw, anyway) was that there was just too much crap going on, and not enough time to properly develop any of it. I'm not a fan of Electro, but the character could've been interesting. The whole "He's a total basket case who loves and then hates Spider-Man" might've been entertaining if it was given more time to develop. Like, show that Max seems like just a big fan at first, then gradually reveal more of his lunacy, and build his anger at the world, too, so that when he becomes Electro, he has a reason to act all tough-guy. Also, speaking of acting all tough-guy, the switch between dorky Max and nasty, quipping Electro was hard to buy. I get that the guy went even crazier after his accident. What I don't get is that he somehow had a personality transplant to become kind of a badass, apparently. Why wouldn't he be the same lonely dork, only powerful and more insane?
With the Goblin storyline, it didn't feel like they established Peter's relationship with Harry. Harry shows up, exchanges a few lines of quippy dialogue with Peter, and we're just supposed to accept that they were best buds in spite of having literally never heard about them. The film committed one of the worst movie sins by telling, not showing, and telling in a way that felt jarring, rather than natural. In the flashback about Peter's family leaving, they could've shown him hanging out with Harry and being frustrated, with both of them bonding over being angry at their dads, and maybe exchanging the quippy dialogue that we see repeated later. Then when Harry comes back, you could believe that they were buddies. Harry's character also just seems...I dunno...psychotic out of the blue. I mean, yeah, I get that he's got this debilitating disease that will kill him. But since I know literally nothing of his personality other than "He's rich, and pissed at daddy," I can't really see how he's falling from grace, or by contrast, how this actually is in line with his personality since he was always a bit unbalanced, because...well, because I've never seen the dude before and I don't know him. All that happens, then, is we get this weird, shifty guy who apparently was friends with Peter, who then loses his mind.
As for the relationship with Gwen, that was probably the best part of what I saw of the film, but even that felt very rushed. Peter's breakup with Gwen is preceded by two (2) moments where he hallucinates her dead father looking disapprovingly at him, and comes right when she's off having dim sum with her family (I guess so they could shoot the scene in Chinatown?). Why then? Why there? And why do they just end up back together 20 minutes later? Why break them up at all if you're going to bring them back together? You can show Peter's conflict in other ways. Have him confide his fears in Gwen or to someone else (albeit without revealing that he's Spider-Man). Hell, maybe use his fears about Gwen's safety to help establish his friendship with Harry more, to make the eventual betrayal that much more meaningful.
But instead, the film just skips from scene to scene to scene.
I think I got about 2/3 through the film before turning it off, and I have to say that it just felt like it was trying to do too much at once, and as a result, nothing was done particularly well. It wasn't bad, it just...wasn't all that interesting. It was like listening to a 5-year-old tell a story about how this happened, and then that happened, and then that happened, and then... So much happened that the film had no time to really let it sink in or reflect on it or make it feel...I dunno, anything other than very rushed. And at the same time, it felt like the film plodded. A very busy, but slow-moving film, if that makes sense. I guess because I don't really care about anything that's happening -- because I'm not emotionally invested -- the fact that lots of things are happening doesn't make it more interesting. Actually, it makes it less interesting because I have even less time to connect with anything that does happen.
All that aside, I'll say this. The actors were all pretty capable (although Jaime Foxx was miscast -- he's a fantastic actor in the wrong role), and the Oscorp storyline -- in broad strokes -- is an interesting and fresh (well, fresh to me) hook. But the execution...it just seems frenetic, unfocused, and suffering from similar issues to what happened in Sam Raimi's third entry: too much crap happening, leaving me not caring about any of it.
I gotta say, I was...unimpressed. I actually didn't even get through the whole thing before I got bored and turned it off.
The first film in this rebooted series was...ok. It had potential, but Peter seemed a little overly angsty, and I thought The Lizard was a very weak villain. But hey, it had some potential and I liked that we were back to web shooters instead of bio-webs (not that one makes more sense than the other, of course).
With this one, though...the opening sequence was entertaining in a throwback kind of way. Spidey bein' Spidey and all. But the Rhino character was just...idiotic. Admittedly, I'm less familiar with the Rhino in the comics, aside from his appearance, but I never thought he was this loud, psychotic, ridiculous clown, and Paul Giamatti was wasted in the role (although I'll bet he had fun).
The real problem with the rest of the film (well, the rest that I saw, anyway) was that there was just too much crap going on, and not enough time to properly develop any of it. I'm not a fan of Electro, but the character could've been interesting. The whole "He's a total basket case who loves and then hates Spider-Man" might've been entertaining if it was given more time to develop. Like, show that Max seems like just a big fan at first, then gradually reveal more of his lunacy, and build his anger at the world, too, so that when he becomes Electro, he has a reason to act all tough-guy. Also, speaking of acting all tough-guy, the switch between dorky Max and nasty, quipping Electro was hard to buy. I get that the guy went even crazier after his accident. What I don't get is that he somehow had a personality transplant to become kind of a badass, apparently. Why wouldn't he be the same lonely dork, only powerful and more insane?
With the Goblin storyline, it didn't feel like they established Peter's relationship with Harry. Harry shows up, exchanges a few lines of quippy dialogue with Peter, and we're just supposed to accept that they were best buds in spite of having literally never heard about them. The film committed one of the worst movie sins by telling, not showing, and telling in a way that felt jarring, rather than natural. In the flashback about Peter's family leaving, they could've shown him hanging out with Harry and being frustrated, with both of them bonding over being angry at their dads, and maybe exchanging the quippy dialogue that we see repeated later. Then when Harry comes back, you could believe that they were buddies. Harry's character also just seems...I dunno...psychotic out of the blue. I mean, yeah, I get that he's got this debilitating disease that will kill him. But since I know literally nothing of his personality other than "He's rich, and pissed at daddy," I can't really see how he's falling from grace, or by contrast, how this actually is in line with his personality since he was always a bit unbalanced, because...well, because I've never seen the dude before and I don't know him. All that happens, then, is we get this weird, shifty guy who apparently was friends with Peter, who then loses his mind.
As for the relationship with Gwen, that was probably the best part of what I saw of the film, but even that felt very rushed. Peter's breakup with Gwen is preceded by two (2) moments where he hallucinates her dead father looking disapprovingly at him, and comes right when she's off having dim sum with her family (I guess so they could shoot the scene in Chinatown?). Why then? Why there? And why do they just end up back together 20 minutes later? Why break them up at all if you're going to bring them back together? You can show Peter's conflict in other ways. Have him confide his fears in Gwen or to someone else (albeit without revealing that he's Spider-Man). Hell, maybe use his fears about Gwen's safety to help establish his friendship with Harry more, to make the eventual betrayal that much more meaningful.
But instead, the film just skips from scene to scene to scene.
I think I got about 2/3 through the film before turning it off, and I have to say that it just felt like it was trying to do too much at once, and as a result, nothing was done particularly well. It wasn't bad, it just...wasn't all that interesting. It was like listening to a 5-year-old tell a story about how this happened, and then that happened, and then that happened, and then... So much happened that the film had no time to really let it sink in or reflect on it or make it feel...I dunno, anything other than very rushed. And at the same time, it felt like the film plodded. A very busy, but slow-moving film, if that makes sense. I guess because I don't really care about anything that's happening -- because I'm not emotionally invested -- the fact that lots of things are happening doesn't make it more interesting. Actually, it makes it less interesting because I have even less time to connect with anything that does happen.
All that aside, I'll say this. The actors were all pretty capable (although Jaime Foxx was miscast -- he's a fantastic actor in the wrong role), and the Oscorp storyline -- in broad strokes -- is an interesting and fresh (well, fresh to me) hook. But the execution...it just seems frenetic, unfocused, and suffering from similar issues to what happened in Sam Raimi's third entry: too much crap happening, leaving me not caring about any of it.
glunark
Sr Member
Sorry for the bump, only just got round to watching the bluray, even though I bought it months ago, had been put off by other people's opinions, but generally I found the movie to be fine, some of the scenes seemed stage to maximise the 3D, and I never watch movies in 3D, but if people have said the action is a bit too comic strip, to me that is what is good with the film, the fact that it respects the source material rather than be frightened of it.
The shot of Stacey falling reflected in his eye was brilliant, and my wife who knows nothing of comics knew as soon as her head snapped back she was a gonner, and not many films nowadays have the balls to kill off one of the main leads.
Plus it didn't feel too crowded with villains in the way that spiderman 3 did, as it was mostly Electro, with just a small amount of Green goblin, and Rhino was little more than a cameo.
Did anyone else get the impression that aunt May knows Peter's secret, but doesn't want him to know that she knows?
The shot of Stacey falling reflected in his eye was brilliant, and my wife who knows nothing of comics knew as soon as her head snapped back she was a gonner, and not many films nowadays have the balls to kill off one of the main leads.
Plus it didn't feel too crowded with villains in the way that spiderman 3 did, as it was mostly Electro, with just a small amount of Green goblin, and Rhino was little more than a cameo.
Did anyone else get the impression that aunt May knows Peter's secret, but doesn't want him to know that she knows?
Just finished watching it. Wow, that was an ordeal. The movie was both good and bad. The good was the optical and emotional texture. The bad was the rushed setups of almost all of the main characters, everthing felt really flat. It was an okay movie with a tendency to be a bad movie. Electro was very stereotypical science nerd with a very shallow motivation for choosing Spidey as his arch-enemy, psychological baggage or not. The Harry/Peter-relationship felt very superficial. I mean they haven´t seen each other the last time when they were kids, how does that make them best buddies in adult life?!
The movie came across as having had a very rushed development, a little streamlining would have been in order to make it a really good movie.
The movie came across as having had a very rushed development, a little streamlining would have been in order to make it a really good movie.
crabra comander
Master Member
Sorry about coming off like that. I just thought that there are enough plot holes in super hero flicks to be able to turn a blind eye to the obvious implications of mass produced super products in the real world.
Although I can't think of anything awesome being produced in that quantity, including real spiders webbing, which is supposed to be strong anyways. So why don't we have spider armor is my next concern?
Although I can't think of anything awesome being produced in that quantity, including real spiders webbing, which is supposed to be strong anyways. So why don't we have spider armor is my next concern?
Sorry about coming off like that. I just thought that there are enough plot holes in super hero flicks to be able to turn a blind eye to the obvious implications of mass produced super products in the real world.
Although I can't think of anything awesome being produced in that quantity, including real spiders webbing, which is supposed to be strong anyways. So why don't we have spider armor is my next concern?
Ha. I salute you for waiting this long to respond to that. Having had time to process I think I mostly agree with you. I still think mutant web ability is better than using an invention, but it is an easy enough detail to suspend disbelief over. Ultimately I think you're right. At some point I need to just enjoy the movie.
