Official Synopsis
Peter Parker finds there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing his role as New York City’s hero and spending time with Gwen. But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx, Best Actor, Ray, 2004), Spider-Man faces his greatest battle yet.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a film that is done in two halves.
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The first half starts off promising with a great explanation of what happened to Peter’s parents, as well as our favorite web-slinger tracking down a shipment of stolen plutonium from a bunch of goofy Russian thieves led by Aleksei Sytsevich ( Paul Giamatti’s character, who later becomes the Rhino). You truly could not have asked for a better opening to a comic book film.
Sadly, the film soon finds itself shifting into low gear and turning into a teenage drama. The main focus in the first part of the movie is on the relationship between Peter and Gwen. Carrying over from the first film, Parker is at odds with himself because of the promise he made Gwen’s father before her father died – mainly to keep Gwen out of his life because it’s only going to endanger her.
Well, that single conflict causes the two to break up (not permanently), but the length of time it takes for them to get to that point, and get back together, seems like ages. Peter’s dilemma and responsibility to Gwen’s safety goes on and on like a kid trying to figure out what candy he wants at the store. It does create a solid relationship between the two, but after the first 45 minutes of it, it gets old. Plus, with such a great opening to the film, how can director Marc Webb pull back the action and layout this sort of drama to a comic book audience? I can see why people might have been turned off by this point in the film.
Gently and calmly, Webb sets up our main villain Electro (Jamie Foxx) while going through this emotional journey with our two love birds. This is another point of weakness, as Foxx doesn’t nearly get enough screen time to develop his character Max before the inevitable fall occurs. We see Max briefly with Spider-Man in the opening scene, but then we just see bits and pieces of him here and there. There’s no real flow to his development until he becomes Electro.
One thing that this slow pace did develop well, or at least it felt like it, was that it told the Osborn story and set up the relationship between Harry and Peter pretty well. Before we continue, let me just say that Dane DeHaan was solid for the role of Harry Osborn. He was, in my opinion, much better than James Franco’s take. DeHaan’s Osborn carried himself somewhere between a rich kid and a kid struggling to have some sort of friendship in his life (a void that Osborn’s father couldn’t fill). When things go wrong in the second half of the film for Harry, you feel the kid’s pain even more. He kind of matched Garfield’s Peter Parker perfectly in that regard.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, the first half of the movie spends a lot of time in the drama department. It takes things slow and I can understand why this might have rubbed critics the wrong way. On the other hand, all of this ‘running through mud’ storytelling was setting up a strong finish to the film.
When Electro finally makes his way into the scene, all hell breaks loose. He is a foe that Spider-Man can’t quite figure out. Electro’s out of his mind mad at the world for putting him down and trying to keep him down, and he isn’t shy to take that out on everyone – even the web-slinger. When Electro is on screen and in action, he’s fun to watch and Foxx does a fantastic job with properly showing the amount of frustration and anger that belong with Electro’s former persona Max. His end fight with Spidey is a treat and it makes sense within the frame of the story.
Aside from Electro, Peter also has to deal with a dying Harry Osborn, whom he could probably save with his own blood. Regretfully, he doesn’t and Osborn looks within Oscorp for a cure to his genetic ailment that was passed onto him by his father. The ‘cure’ ends up turning Harry into the Green Goblin, which means bad news for Spidey and Peter, especially when the Green Goblin figures out their connection.
Thankfully, Webb doesn’t bring the Goblin into the picture until the very end, and even then it’s a brief (yet effective) appearance. He doesn’t pull a Raimi mistake (even though Raimi isn’t fully to blame for it) where the story is stuffed with villains and shows little substance. Webb let’s Spidey and Electro be the focus of the action. He includes the Green Goblin to set up the third film, and that setup is damn good (not going to give it away).
In the end, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is better than the first film. It has more substance to it, though the way the film is divided (drama/action) can be a bit tiring. You do get more of a traditional drama in the first half of the film, which slows everything down to a crawl, but all is forgiven when the comic book action starts in the second part of the movie. The film really does end on a high-note, well at least in what fans were expecting. Don’t discount this film, folks. It’s not perfect, but all the hate it’s getting is completely unjustified. It’s a good film, much better than the first, but it has its flaws, much like the lead character.
Add it to your list, dear readers.
(3D reviewed in Passive mode)
The 3D is effective only in the second half of the film. While the 3D effect is quite good during the drama portions, everything looks and feels like it should during the drama part of the film, it doesn’t really come to life until the action kicks into fifth gear. When Electro is fighting Spidey, you get some great visuals in 3D. Lots lively lightning streaks that seem to come off the screen in a gorgeous, eye-candy flow. If there was ever a villain created for 3D, it would be Electro. The separation from background to mid-ground and foreground is orchestrated beautifully during the action. In a way, the 3D helps to magnify the comic book action of the second half of the film. It pushes it and reinforces how intense things are getting when the Electro/Spidey fight happens. If you’re a 3D buff, you might consider this when you’re picking the Blu-ray up.
As for the Blu-ray, while I think the animation of Spidey needs to be touched up a little bit (still looks a bit too animated and not life-like enough), it’s a flawless HD transfer. The action sequences really show off how good the HD looks on the Blu-ray. Lots of blacks, blues, purples, reds and whites come through without any graininess or artifact issues. It’s a great looking movie. Also, most of the action scenes with Electro are done at night, to help show his electrified skin and eyes creepily the best possible way, so there were plenty of opportunities for compression and color banding problems – thankfully, none to report. If you’re going to get The Amazing Spider-Man 2, get it on Blu-ray. It’s worth it.
As for the audio, you get it in DTS-HD 5.1 (where’s the 7.1??) and the aspect ratio of the film is 2.40:1.
Finally, as for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– 4 All-New Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Marc Webb
– Filmmaker Commentary
– Alicia Keys “It’s On Again” music video
– 9 Additional Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Marc Webb, including “Peter Meets His Father”
– “The Wages of Heroism: Making The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” featuring revealing, in-depth segments including:
– Lessons Learned: Development and Direction
– Heart of the City: Shooting in New York
– Triple Threat: Attack of the Villains
– A More Dangerous World: Transforming Electro and the Green Goblin
– A Bolt From the Blue: Visual Effects
– Spidey Gets His Groove Back: Music and Editing
There’s a lot here, folks. The six segments of the production are worth its weight in gold. You get to see Marc Webb talk about the struggles they went through in the first film and how they tried to correct them in the second. You get a good taste of how the production went in New York (and sorta in New York), as well as some other cool featurettes on make-up for the villains and visual effects. It’s a solid amount of special features for this Blu-ray release. That’s on top of commentary and deleted scenes, some of which should have been in the film (the Max scenes would have helped).
This is what you would hope for in a set of special features. It helps the movie out and gives a bit more perspective on intentions. Great features for a good movie.