Movie Review: The Amazing Spiderman 2

It's an all-video clip review!  No simple still images here, kids.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014)


When New York is put under siege by Oscorp, it is up to Spider-Man to save the city he swore to protect as well as his loved ones.  Short synopsis of The Amazing Spiderman 2 taken from IMDb.com  

Won’t write much in the way of review for this one.  Amazing Spiderman 2 was fairly standard stuff, and ultimately somewhat forgettable. Jamie Foxx as Electrode was… well, the performance I’m sure was as good as he could manage, but the character himself annoyed me. The whole reasons to flip his emotions and go from loving to hating Spiderman seemed a bit forced.  And the way the character utilized his super power was dumb too. We have a big set-piece battle at the end involving Electrode and Spiderman that Electrode obviously didn’t want to win. I don’t care how super-spiffy Spiderman is, electricity moves faster than spiders, or even spider-enhanced men!


Plus, why even take human form if you can just live in the power system? A villain like that would be really cool, but instead, he keeps taking human form, which makes him weaker and more vulnerable. Just silly.

And then there was what? Five minutes of the Green Goblin? I do admire them not making it like the first Spiderman film series, where each movie was ultimately about a grand confrontation with a villain (until they over-did it with that third movie, but the less said there, the better), but still… The Green Goblin deserves some screen time.


Just thirteen minutes?

And that kid can’t beat William DeFoe. I am right up front to argue 2001’s Spiderman villain had more than a touch of Power Rangers vibe, but without the mask? DaFoe nailed it. Scared the hell out of me. This kid as Goblin? Just a whiny twenty-something with a cool toy and some mutant stuff in his blood.

Oh, and spoiler alert, but killing off Gwen Stacey was somewhat predictable. I didn’t SEE it coming, but it was far from shocking, based on all the foreshadowing. But that hitting her head on the concrete part? I did like that. Not that I liked her dying… not what I meant. But the way the filmmakers did it. Instead of the cheesy “you hit the concrete full-tilt after falling thirty stories and we’re having a touching moment together before you die” method. All I can say in this instance is: way to coup-de-grace.

But Amazing Spiderman 2 as an overall?  I fell asleep halfway through the film, and if that speaks to my interest level, then you got it. I actually could have stopped at that point and felt satisfied. It wasn’t painfully bad, like Man of Steel. Just… well I’d say Amazing Spiderman 2 was unforgettable, sans the “un”. Not recommended unless you are a big-time Spiderman fan, comic book tie-in aficionado, or a completist. If you say to yourself (and I know some of you, like me, do): “I saw the first one, so damn it, I gotta see the second one!” then this is for you. Otherwise, skip it and save the rental cost. Heck, skip it if it is free and just watch something better, if you can.


The parting comment:


...and the winner for best parody of a trailer goes to.......  that one.  Very nice.