THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 flashes back to the events of May and Richard Parker leaving Peter with Aunt May and Uncle Ben before flashing to their moment on a private jet where they meet their fates,   That is how the sequel starts in what is a movie that is mixed with humor, action, character development, and tragedy.   Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) fails to keep away from Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) even though he made a promise to Gwen’s father (before he died) to stay away from her and not have her in harm’s way because Peter is Spider-Man.   With great responsibility comes tragedy as fans of the comic book will know what is coming in this sequel miles away, but it doesn’t make THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 any less tragic as the paths of Peter/ Spider-Man will collide with Peter’s childhood friend Harry Osborn who has returned from overseas to witness his sick father Norman Osborn die after parting a few words with his son.   Harry learns he has the same disease that affected his father and he wants to cure it.  He believes Spider-Man could cure it.   Meanwhile, Gwen gets word that she could be going to Oxford.   Peter must make some hard decisions and come to terms with the secrets of the past, but the real question will events and being Spider-Man let Peter move into a future together with Gwen.

 

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 is as good as the first film as it continues the threads form the first film while planting seeds for the future.   Jamie Foxx is fun and tragic as the crazy Electro while Harry Osborn’s arc is a little rushed at the end, but the pre-Electro arc as Max is a really bad written train wreck.   The Electro and Spider-Man fights are well crafted and great to watch and yet I wish they had a better crafted bad guy for Spider-Man to face off against.  It seems like these new Spider-Man films are great at nailing who Spider-Man is, the romance between Peter and Gwen, and even give some good development to some of the characters turned bad by tragedy, but they just don’t know how to write the other type of super villains at all. The chemistry between the actors is amazing in addition to the fun smart alec nature of Spider-Man when he fights bad guys.   I do wish they explored Harry’s arc a little more and found a way to fit Daily Bugle editor-in-chief Jonah J. Jameson into the movie more instead of a faceless presence who underpays Peter for his photos of Spider-Man and you only hear about him (and see one email reply from J.J. Jameson.

 

 The sequel has lots of things going on as they manage to nicely weave the arcs in the movie, but I wish they could have played out the beginning arc of the Green Goblin more than what we get in the sequel.   The ending does plant seeds along with another scene for the next movie and the Sinister Six movie that Sony wants to make.  If you’re also observant, you notice Harry’s assistant is named Felicia which makes me wonder if she is Felicia Hardy (aka the future Black Cat).  I just wonder where the third Spider-Man film will take things as the movie ends on a tragic and hopeful note at the same time.   I do like how they manage to craft a Spider-Man film series I love more than Sam Raimi’s take of Spidey, but I wish they have the writing be more consistent.    Reviews have been mixed as people who hated the film sometime even attack the people who like it which I feel is just bad taste and insane.  I enjoyed the sequel even when I see the flaws in it like the fist AMZING SPIDER-MAN also had obvious flaws that stem from the writing.  I was really entertained and delighted by this sequel and the first one due to how the action, casting, chemistry, little things like the Spider-Man theme song being whistled by Spider-Man in one scene (and being used as his phone ring tone in another scene), and the small moments all come together despite how some parts are badly written.  I do hope they can craft a better script for the next AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and call it something other than the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3.

 

This review is ©5-4-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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