The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Dir. Marc Webb (2014)

I was never against any attempt to reboot the Spider-Man movie franchise. The character has undergone dozens of creative changes since his creation in 1962. However, insufficient time had passed when Sony relaunched the series after Sam Raimi's attempt at Spider-Man 4 fell apart. The memories of Tobey Maguire in the red and blue tights were still fresh in our memories and the reasoning reeked of a desperate bid to keep the rights from reverting back to Marvel. The Amazing Spider-Man was met with mixed reviews, but scored over $750 million worldwide, more than enough to justify a sequel. Not that it mattered; the studio had already greenlit The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Spoilers ahead.

Spoilers Ahead.

Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is set to graduate high school and has settled into his role as New York City's favorite webslinger. However, his relationship with girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) hits a bumpy road as Peter remembers her dying father's wish…that he stay away from Gwen to protect her from his enemies. Those enemies are coming out of the woodwork.

Meek Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) is an electrical engineer at OsCorp whose designs were stolen for use in the company's new power plant. He develops an obsession with Spider-Man that turns deadly when he falls into a vat of genetically modified electric eels. He becomes Electro, a being of pure electrical energy bent on revenge. Meanwhile, Peter's best friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) returns to the Big Apple upon news of his father's impending death. Harry learns that he has inherited the same rare disease that has killed his dad and the only hope may lie in Spider-Man's blood. When he refuses to help, Harry is driven to take an experiment serum that mutates him into the Green Goblin.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has so much going for it and equally as much going against it. Many of the action sequences are surprisingly good showing that Marc Webb has grown into the role of a blockbuster director. The film opens in POV as we ride along with Spidey while he swings through the bustling metropolis of Manhattan. The IMAX 3D version feels just like a thrilling rollercoaster ride. This is followed by a fast-paced set piece in which our wall-crawling hero Aleksei Sytsevich aka The Rhino (Paul Giamatti), a Russian gangster who has stolen a shipment of plutonium from OsCorp. Here, Spider-Man is at his best as he breaks out an assortment of acrobatic moves and a steady string of quips. Despite being video game-y, Webb employs Matrix-style bullet time to simulate Spidey Sense as the world slows down while Spider-Man assesses the situation. It's best employed during Electro's attack on Times Square when he saves several citizens from being fried by electrified rails.

Yet, Webb's forte is clearly the smaller, more emotional character moments. These are the scenes where the actors are allowed to shine without being buried by make-up and CGI. While both films have their problems, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone remain beacons of brilliance. No knock on Maguire, but Garfield more closely resembles the Peter Parker of the comics in both body and spirit. He's got the lanky frame and the plucky, nerdy charm necessarily to bring Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's creation to life. Stone effortlessly plays Gwen as a strong and intelligent young woman. Garfield has fantastic chemistry with her and it probably helps that they are also a couple in real life. Their scenes together feel ripped out of a John Hughes movie, especially one in which Peter crosses the street through dangerous NYC traffic to speak with Gwen. There's also a funny bit when the two hide inside a closet, then point out how clichéd it is to hide inside a closet. And nobody told Sally Field she was in a comic book movie. She plays it straight as the doting Aunt May. Field's scenes with Garfield alternate between amusing (an argument about the laundry) and heartbreaking (discussing Peter's dead parents).

Unfortunately, these events are crushed underneath the weight of a bloated script credited to Jeff Pinkner (Lost, Fringe), James Vanderbilt (Zodiac), and the omnipresent duo of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Transformers). Critics complained about Batman Returns having too many villains way back in 1992. I imagine their heads would explode after viewing this sequel. Not only do we have Electro, the Green Goblin, and Rhino, there's also Colm Feore as a duplicitous OsCorp exec, B.J. Novak as Alistair Smythe the future creator of the Spider Slayers, Felicity Jones as Felicia Hardy aka The Black Cat, and Michael Massee as the mysterious Gustav Fiers aka The Gentleman. The filmmakers have also laid the groundwork for future appearances by Dr. Octopus, The Vulture, Kraven the Hunter, Venom. Studios such as Sony, Fox, and WB have fallen in love with the way Marvel has created their shared universe. On the other hand, they lack the patience and the skill to properly build one of their own. They are so enamored with the idea of a Sinister Six movie that they've forgotten about the present. The sequel suffers from the same lack of focus as its predecessor. Subplots are left dangling and footage shown in previous trailers isn't found anywhere in the final cut.

The most egregious example is Shailene Woodley who filmed scenes as Mary Jane Watson only to land on the cutting room floor. Aunt May working as a nurse to put Peter through college never goes anywhere while Jones, Novak, and Chris Cooper in his lone scene as Norman Osborn could have easily been chopped off. The corporate backstabbing angle has already been done in Raimi's Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, not to mention Jamie Foxx's transformation into Electro is painfully reminiscent of Jim Carrey's Riddler in Batman Forever. Therein lays another problem, characters that go from 0 to 100 with no logic or consistency. Garfield and DeHaan are great young actors, but the script doesn't do enough to establish them as best friends. Harry goes insane fairly quickly and that disease seems to hit him remarkably fast. Nobody bothers to ask why Harry doesn't utilize the same procedures his father used to extend his life. And why does Peter Parker, a scientific genius, still need to watch instructional YouTube videos about how batteries work?

At its heart, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a comic book movie and a certain level of silliness is inherent, but that doesn't excuse how dangerously close the picture skirted into camp. We could have done away with Marton Csokas as the cartoonish Dr. Kafka, Peter seeing the ghost of Captain Stacy (Denis Leary) or Electro playing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with Tesla coils. These goofy elements work to undermine the genuine moments. Too bad the subplots involving Peter's parents (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz) had been edited out as they were in the first Amazing Spider-Man. The sequel opens with a poorly done plane crash depicting Richard and Mary Parker's deaths. It all leads to Peter discovering a secret subway car deep within a hidden underground tunnel containing evidence of OsCorp's dirty deeds. The big revelation is Richard Parker encoded OsCorp's spiders with his own DNA. Thus, Peter was destined to become Spider-Man, which blatantly goes against the very core of the character as an everyman suddenly thrust into the role of a superhero.

And was it absolutely necessary to kill Gwen Stacy? The Death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most heralded storylines in comic book history due to several factors. It was released at a time when killing off major characters was rare as compared to today where publishers use death as a marketing ploy to boost sales numbers. Secondly, when characters were killed back then, they didn't return a year later. For eight years, Gwen was a major part of the Spider-Man mythos and her death still resonates to this day. As wonderful as Emma Stone is, her Gwen hasn't had the opportunity to embed in our consciousness the same way. To their credit, the filmmakers did an excellent job in portraying her death; her body hitting the bottom of the clock tower drew an audible gasp from my audience. However, there was really nothing to be gained by paying lip service to the comic book audience. Why go back to Mary Jane when Stone's Gwen was well on her way to being far more interesting?

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 repeats the exact same mistakes that torpedoed Spider-Man 3, an overstuffed script with too many subplots and too many characters.

Rating: ** (*****)

The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man - Dir. Marc Webb (2012)

British journalist David Quantick coined the phrase, "Pop will eat itself," in regards to the way in which pop culture constantly recycles what came before. In more esoteric terms, pop culture is the Ouroboros, the symbolic snake that consumes its own tail. This leads us to The Amazing Spider-Man, Sony Pictures attempt to call a mulligan on its lucrative Spider-franchise.

It's only been ten years since Sam Raimi brought the wall-crawler to life with Tobey Maguire donning the red and blue tights in the titular role. Spider-Man is widely regarded as one of the finest comic book adaptations, but Raimi and company were just getting their feet wet. "Spider-Man 2" was the rare sequel that topped its predecessor in nearly every way. Unfortunately, too many cooks spoiled the broth that was Spider-Man 3. Despite pulling in nearly $900 million worldwide, the conclusion to Raimi's trilogy was lambasted for its slapdash script and overabundance of characters. Mindful of the criticism, Raimi was ready to make it up to the fans and went to work on Spider-Man 4 with John Malkovich attached to play the Vulture. But, studio execs weren't happy with the story causing Raimi and his cast to depart.

In Raimi's place is the appropriately named Marc Webb, whose only previous directorial effort was the rom-com (500) Days of Summer. The screenplay is credited to James Vanderbilt (David Fincher's Zodiac), Alvin Sargent (who worked on the previous trilogy), and Steve Kloves (Harry Potter). English actor Andrew Garfield, who turned heads with his turn as Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network, replaces Maguire as Peter Parker. Raimi was an ardent admirer of the old school Spider-Man and his films captured the spirit of the Stan Lee & Steve Ditko era. The Amazing Spider-Man borrows from the Ultimate Spider-Man series by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, which rebooted Spidey for the modern era. Trouble is, it had been nearly forty years since readers had seen Peter as a teenager coming to grips with his newfound powers. For movie-goers, a scant five years have passed since Spider-Man was last seen in theaters. Sony would have been better off simply continuing the franchise with a new cast and crew. Changes in creative teams happen all the time in comics, after all. Instead, Sony has decided to start from the beginning with a new hook revolving around the mystery of Peter Parker's parents, his so-called "untold story."

The Amazing Spider-Man opens with a young Peter Parker being left in the care of Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). His parents, Richard (Campbell Scott) and Mary (Embeth Davidtz) disappear into the night before dying in a plane crash. Flash-forward to today and Peter attends Midtown Science High School where he harbors a crush on the beautiful Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Stacy is an equally brilliant student, who favors mini-skirts and thigh high boots. She interns for Richard's former colleague, Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), one of the top researchers at OsCorp. It is there that Peter receives his fateful bite from a genetically enhanced spider. If this all sounds familiar, it should.

All the major events that comprise Spider-Man's origin are present. Peter's bullying at the hands of Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka), the bite, and the death of Uncle Ben are told in slightly differing fashion from the source material and Raimi's films. These scenes may be different, but they are hardly unique. Amazing adheres too closely to the basic structure of Raimi's Spider-Man as well as other comic book movies. Gwen is now the romantic lead rather than Mary Jane Watson. Gwen's father, Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary) of the NYPD, fulfills the antagonistic role once held by J. Jonah Jameson. He is hell bent on arresting the masked menace known as Spider-Man. The primary villain, the Lizard, repeats what had already been done with Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn. In Spider-Man, Osborn desperately injects himself with an experimental serum that drives him mad and turns him into the Green Goblin. In Amazing, Dr. Connors desperately injects himself with an experiment serum to re-grow his missing arm. The results drive him mad and transform him into a scaly and monstrous creature. Amazing even includes another sequence of rah-rah, post-9/11 patriotism as New Yorkers band together to assist their web-slinging hero.

The one element that is supposed to set the reboot apart is the mystery of Peter's parents. Their deaths have been touched upon in the comics, but none of those issues are well-regarded. Indeed, their subplot is one of the least interesting aspects of Amazing. It's also one of the many plotlines that are dropped halfway through the picture. Peter's search for the truth about his mother and father along with his quest for the killer of Uncle Ben are forgotten by the mid-point as Spidey focuses on defeating the Lizard. The former is no small loss as it seemed to hint that Richard Parker may have mucked around with his son's DNA. Other tidbits from the trailers and marketing materials have also been excised leaving the final product with a haphazard feel. Amazing is also a tangled web in terms of tone. The filmmakers want gritty and realistic, yet utilize cartoonish facets like the Lizard's dastardly plot to mutate all of New York City into reptilian creatures. And don't ask about the scene where Peter refines his Spider-agility inside an empty warehouse ala Kevin Bacon in Footloose.

The Amazing Spider-Man never finds its footing visually either, despite the improvement in technology since 2002's Spider-Man. Some of the effects are good. The way in which Spidey swings across the city and his contorted poses are reminiscent of Todd McFarlane's artwork. A brief POV sequence looks as if it came from a video game and NYC appears awfully artificial. The Lizard is by far the weakest screen villain in the Spider-Man franchise. Yes, weaker than Venom or the Sandman from Spider-Man 3. He's a clichéd baddie hampered by poor design work and shoddy CGI. Marc Webb is clearly out of his element when it comes to action. A moment where Peter confronts a group of thugs in a subway train is indicative of many American action movies. Too many close-ups and rapid editing that reduce the scene to a series of disembodied limbs.

The reboot's greatest strength lies with its cast. Andrew Garfield had the unenviable task of following in the footsteps of Tobey Maguire. Garfield looks more like the comic book version of the character, specifically the one drawn by Humberto Ramos with his poofy hair and lanky frame. Garfield's Peter Parker is less of a loser than Maguire's and has more confidence. He rides a skateboard and isn't afraid of standing up to a bully though he gets his ass kicked. He's also more of a wiseacre and more of a science whiz. This Peter has honest-to-goodness webshooters of his own devising, which should please sticklers upset by the organic shooters. Perhaps, we'll see the Spider-tracers in future sequels?

Garfield has excellent chemistry with Emma Stone and their scenes together are the best parts of the movie, particularly their first awkward steps towards a sweet teen romance. Their performances make you forget that they are too old to be playing high school students. While I think Kirsten Dunst is a fine actress (I enjoyed her turn in Lars Von Trier's Melancholia), Stone is an upgrade as the love interest. She's also not a helpless damsel in distress, but a strong female character assisting Spider-Man with her intelligence. The supporting cast is uniformly good with Martin Sheen being inspired casting for Uncle Ben and Rhys Ifans doing a splendid job as the tortured genius. Sadly, none of them get enough screen time to leave a lasting impression.

The Adequate Spider-Man may not have the same ring as The Amazing Spider-Man, but it is a far more accurate description. Most folks know that Sony must continue churning out Spider-Man flicks in order to retain the rights. One can't fight the feeling that the reboot merely exists as a blatant cash grab. It retreads old territory without offering anything distinctly original.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)