Sam Raimi’s 2004 “Spider-Man 2” is a great superhero film. And while “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” isn’t as good, it will delight many fans who have given this new Spidey a second chance.
Director Marc Webb (“500 Days of Summer”) showed us in 2012 that he understood the emotional core of Peter Parker. That film’s failing was that the action set pieces seemed lacking, forced, and even cheesy when compared to something like “The Avengers” that opened in the same year and pretty much gobbled up the box office. Clearly, the action quotient had to be ratcheted up for the Spider-Man sequel. And action is certainly the focus of this spirited film.
Following the death of Capt. Stacy in the first film, Peter (Andrew Garfield) has continued to pursue Stacey’s daughter Gwen (Emma Stone). But Capt. Stacy’s legacy haunts Peter – he did promise the good captain to stay away from the adorable Gwen. Meanwhile, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) has returned to the city to take over his father’s business. And this leads him on a quest to find Spider-Man in hopes of enlisting his help. While Harry battles inner demons, he also has to deal with insidious corporate forces that threaten OSCORP and the city.
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is inconsistent even to the point of frustrating. The love story between Peter and Gwen is just about perfect, but when combined with wildly over-the-top supporting characters, the film flows over into outright camp (remember “Batman & Robin”?). Case in point, Jamie Foxx plays the villain Electro, who can absorb and control electricity. His origin story has him playing a bumbling, nerdy electrician who is in love with Spider-Man. When he accidentally falls into a vat of OSCORP electric eels, he emerges with super powers and a bad attitude. And even though he can suck up an entire city’s power supply and use it against an opponent, he can’t for some reason electrocute Spider-Man. There is surely some kind of logical explanation for this, but the film just throws a series of loud and confusing action sequences at us. The character is neither frightening or really a bad guy, given his mental health, and, therefore, comes off one-note and forgettable.
Worse still, Dane DeHaan (“Chronicle”) makes one creepy Osborn but lacks some of the sex appeal that made James Franco’s turn as the character more appealing. Instead of caring for the tragic Harry, you really want to divert your eyes when he’s on screen–the guy is really off-putting. When Harry makes his transformation into a super villain, it is almost laughable.
The goal is to evoke a goofy vibe while retaining some of that magic teen angst that made Peter Parker such an iconic character in comics. But even when the tragic Gwen Stacy story plays out, it is hard to ignore the ridiculousness that surrounds the harder hitting drama. The problem is one of tone, and comic book fans may defend the film as closer to the source material. For me, the movie moved from emotion to emotion so carelessly that a viewer might need medication.
There are other things that are bothersome, but overall the film is not a complete disaster. In fact, it is funnier than the last one and, at times, quite joyful. Parker’s classic one-liners harken back to the comic book and will satisfy many diehards. Still, it is often impossible to suspend your disbelief when absolutely every piece of technology in the movie is visibly branded with the Sony logo. Sony is after all the studio behind the film.