Amazing Spider-Man 2: Almost Amazing

Honestly, I didn't have any high hopes coming into this film. I didn't really enjoy the first Amazing Spider-Man an amazing amount. I'm probably one of the few people who actually in the last Spider-Man trilogy past the first film. Still, I sat down, grabbed a bag of popcorn and watched Amazing Spider-man 2 so you don't have to, but let's all be honest here. You're going to see it even if I say it's bad. 

*Warning, minor spoilers from this point on*

I'd like to start with the ugly about this film. The ugliest part would have to be some to the character designs. I'm not even joking this stuff is just ugly. If you're going to go Green Goblin, go full Green Goblin. The armor and the glider was awesome, I can't deny that. But, all they did was push Harry's hair out of his face and throw a slight green tint on his hair towards the front. That's all, no green skin, no pointy ears, none of that. I could deal with it if you were going for a modern Goblin without all of that, but you didn't and you still gave him a few scales on his face. Sure the Green Goblin was ugly, but it wasn't the ugliest thing in this film. Rhino's suit was in this film for about five minutes and managed to be the ugliest thing in the movie. You've seen pictures of the monstrosity, but when it's actually shown on screen it's easy to see just how horrible it looks.

You know what else is ugly? Andrew Garfield in emotional scenes. Anytime Peter's having an emotional conversation with anyone, he has the same face. Mad at Harry, sad Gwen broke up with him, hurt but Aunt May's speech, doesn't matter he's got the same face. On the contrast he's kind of perfect for Spider-Man, just not Peter. He's hilarious in the suit and even the emotional scenes in the suit are better. It's like the body language is there, just not the facial expression.

The ugliest thing in this film, by far, has to be Harry Osborn. I was hoping he wouldn't be in any other films, but the ending made it clear he's going to be sticking around for a while. Here's some tips if you're going to be sticking around.

1. Voice Inflection-You've got loud or quite, you whisper or yell everything you say
2. Facial Expression-You've got two total. One for joy, sadness, pain and rage. Two, Goblin Crazy face.
3. To no fault of Dane DaHaan, he just played the role he was given. Could Harry please not be 89% of the emo trust fund child that has appeared in majority of films for the last thirty years?

Alright, lets talk about the bad now. The camera work is amazing for the first hour of the film. Then you get tired of all the slow motion and zooming. It's like 300 you enjoy the camera work until you realize they've been doing it over and over again for the last few hours. There's a few parts that confused me. The first time Peter is defeated by Electro he just decides to look into his father's research. Electro didn't give him any words about his father, his father's research had nothing to do with that fight. Peter came home after getting beat, throws his costume in the closet, sits on his bed, decides to go through his father's research. Why? They just needed to get it in there somewhere.

The music choices were somewhat strange. I'm not talking about the score, that was awesome and fit well. What was wrong is they just threw random songs in for no reason. At one point Peter is fighting Electro in Times Square, there's an amazing orchestral score playing in the background. Then all of a sudden, there's some grunge metal just because. It lasted for 30 seconds then it was gone. Why was it even in there? In one scene Peter turns on his iPod, I confess I've never written a Spider-Man comic, movie or even a fan fiction but I'm pretty sure Peter doesn't listen to country music in 30 second bursts. Again, they just tried to jam music in there just because.

There's a few plot holes as well. It's never discussed how Oscorp manages to catch Electro, they just did. After the battle in Times Square Peter looked up and Electro was gone. Harry breaks into Ravenscroft after being ousted so he can get help from Electro. He tells Electro that he he needs his help to break into Oscorp, but he just broke into Ravenscroft alone. Surely after passing all of those guards he would have no problem getting into a building carrying his name. Afterall, he's been built up as an infiltration expert. Not only that, Peter is built up as a genius and his intellect is only second to Gwen's, so why did he have to load up a YouTube video to learn how batteries work?

Consider this a bridge from bad to good. The movie has no problem paying homage to the classic cartoons and comic books. We all know the song "Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can. Spins a web, any size, catches thieves just like flies. Look out! Here comes the Spiderman!" If I hear that song again I might become a villain myself. When Pete's cellphone rang and a nice 8-bit version of the song played and it was cool. Then he sang the lyrics during a fight. Then Max (Electro) sang the song in his apartment, then Harry quoted the song saying "Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can." It was funny and dare I say cute, the first time it happened but by the 8th time it's just pandering. I need to see the movie again just so I can count how many times the word "amazing" is said. I swear they were saying it just to fit it in, and you know they had Spider-Man say "I'm The Amazing Spider-Man." It's cheesy, but I like cheesy so it's okay. Also be sure to look out for the classic Spider-Man stickers in the background, they don't serve a purpose, just cool.

Now for the good. I know the movie is called The Amazing Spider-Man, but it really should have been called The Amazing Electro. If you didn't want Jaimie Fox to be Electro, you'll change your mind. When he's introduced as Max he's just a socially awkward electrical engineer that really needs a psych evaluation. It's clear right away that something is off about him. Spider-Man saving him and just calling him by name created this strange infatuation. In a beautifully creepy scene Max sings happy birthday to himself while having a conversation with Spider-Man on both sides. This man is not right. Then he goes to work and it's really obvious he's screwed in the head. He hallucinates about attacking his boss. Gwen notices he's created flyers for his birthday party. He says he'd invite her but the list is full and there's going to be a lot of celebrities. This party was just going to be him and Spider-Man. In fact there was no party.

Fast forward and it's clear Electro isn't a real villain, he's just crazy. He doesn't yet have control of his powers and Spider-Man arrives. After a brief conversation he goes nuts when Spider-Man doesn't remember who he is. When the police shoot at him he accuses Spider-Man of betraying him and states they're no longer friends. They were friends? He's only calmed when he sees himself on the many screens in time square. He smiles and is glad someone finally noticed him.

Later Harry says that he needs him and Electro who had given up hope simply breaks out. Harry promises to be his friend and Electro is delighted to have a friend who needs him. Electro has no evil intentions at any point in the film, he's just crazy.

Speaking of crazy, those fight scenes are awesome, all of them. Just incredible fight choreography. I don't have any more to say about the fights. I'd also like to compliment the jokes. The jokes were so bad and cheesy they were hilarious. I know I said Andrew Garfield lacked multiple facial expressions, but what he doesn't lack is charisma and timing. When the whole actor thing is over, try standup comedy. The delivery of those horrible jokes is worth the price of admission alone.

*Warning Major Spoilers*

The movie does take some liberties with the comic books, but the ending let me know they're going to try to stay faithful through the important parts. Gwen falls to her death in a clock tower. Spider-Man shoots a web to stop her fall. She dies from the whiplash just like the classic story The Night Gwen Stacy Died. Sure it was a sad scene but it showed that they're going to stick the script. 5 months pass and Peter is still blaming himself for Gwen's death. Harry is talking to his shadow friend from the first film again and has managed to recruit Rhino and give him an ugly new suit.

*Spoilers End Here*

This was a good film, you read what I've written so I'd be lying if I said it was horrible. I'd also be lying if I said it was perfect. I'm not going to be an arrogant film critic and tell you that you need my opinion on if you should see the film or not. I'm not even going to give it a score. That's not what movie reviews are about. It's your choice to see it or not but I'd definitely go see it A.S.A.P. if I were you.

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