Spider-Man almost seems like he has occasionally become the forgotten superhero on the big screen for Marvel. While the various Avengers have been pulling millions across the board with both critical and financial success, Spider-Man has never really evolved the way the rest of the Marvel characters have; he still remains that comic book character that seems to appeal more to children than to adults, hardly managing to cross that divide where he becomes equally pleasing to fans and non-fans of the genre.
That’s not to say that Spider-Man doesn’t have legions of fans that are hugely dedicated to the character both on screen and off, particularly in his depiction throughout the comic series. However, the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films, although fun, never really did the character any favours, especially the third film which was slated by critics. Hope was refreshed for the character with the reboot when Andrew Garfield stepped into the Spidey suit, but disappointingly, there really was very little changes made to the representation on screen.
That is not to say that the Amazing Spider-Man was not fun itself; it just seemed that they really had nothing new to add to the original telling of the story and it certainly became the rush to secure filming rights for the character. Granted, the Marvel films themselves were being snapped up by certain studios and distributed by others, but are we not all entirely too familiar with the Spider-Man origin story? Much like Batman, everyone knows that particular tale.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 builds on the foundations of the first film. Peter Parker and his girlfriend, Gwen Stacey, continue their relationship, despite the fact that Gwen’s father’s dying wish was that Peter would leave her alone and keep her out of danger. With Peter haunted by her father’s death, he ends the relationship but continues on with his work, vigilante when needed, photographer to pay the bills.
While Peter continues to balance his life, his old friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) makes a re-appearance after the death of his father, founder of Oscorp, Norman Osborn, only to discover he has the same disease his father had, which will eventually end his life. Harry desperately tries to find Spider-Man to obtain his blood and help him survive. However, Spider-Man has much bigger problems in the form of Electro, an engineer who bascially turns into a charged-up mad man who wants to control the city and kill Spider-Man. On top of that, there’s Rhino.
Like the others, Amazing Spider-Man is just a lot of fun, but unfortunately that’s it, mostly just fun. There really isn’t the depth to character here that you would expect to have in the second film in the series and you really don’t get the depth and emotion you might get from someone like Iron Man. On the other hand, Garfield is still the perfect Spider-Man while you will just fall a little bit in love with the wonderful Emma Stone. Dane DeHaan, who we named as one to watch from Kill Your Darlings, is simply brilliant as Harry Osborn, equally petrifying and forlorn. Jamie Foxx on the other hand is woefully underused and underdeveloped while Rhino (Paul Giamatti) has absolutely no need to be there whatsoever.
The action sequences look pretty amazing, particularly the one in Times Square, but it doesn’t carry the same weight or darkness as it possibly could, partially due to the jokey nature of the character. It just never really feels like Spider-Man could possibly be in that much trouble, he just never really takes it too seriously.
Realistically, the script just has too many threads which are thrown out throughout the film; Spider-Man battles not one, not two, but three villains which are just two villains too many. The film doesn’t even seem to know itself where it’s going, let alone what the real motivations of the nasties are; it’s just too sprawling.
One for the Spider-Man fans and the kids, this is fun but nothing epic.
