Title: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Release Date: April 18, 2014
Director: Marc Webb
Production Company: Columbia Pictures | Marvel Entertainment | Arad Productions, Inc. | Matt Tolmach Productions
Summary/Review:
While not quite the steep dropoff in quality of Spider-Man 3, this sequel is mediocre compared to its predecessor and for many of the same reasons. To wit, there are too many antagonists competing for screen time and a lack of focus and pacing to deal with them. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has to deal with the arrival of Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx) after yet another accident at Oscorp (this one ludicrously involving falling into a tank full of electric eels!). Meanwhile, Peter’s old friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) makes his debut in this series and immediately adopts the Green Goblin persona (instead of dragging it out over three movies like James Franco).
Max is more of a sad figure than a threat so there’s not much pleasure derived from seeing Spidey fight with him. Meanwhile, Harry is so obviously a creepy ass villain that it seems unlikely that Peter would be friends with him. Gwen (Emma Stone) has a good role in the movie, helping Peter as much as he helps her, but she’s [SPOILER] dead by the end of the movie [/SPOILER] which feels very fridgey to me. Plus the finale of the film is overwhelmingly hokey. Why do people in New York in these movies stand around watching superheroes battle supervillains with their small children anyway?
Rating: ***