Friday, 30 June 2017

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written June 30th, 2017*

"Dead franchise on arrival" It's the best I had in my head.....

Well, I'm finally at the end of my series of Spider-Man reviews (Thank god) before the next reboot 'Homecoming' comes out in the week. It's been a long and interesting journey, with mostly lows, but a couple of high, it's just a shame that the series ends on this low note of shit.

Did Sony learn NOTHING from the failure of Spider-Man 3? Like, seriously? The reason Spider-Man 3 failed was because of too many villains, far too much plot and it was way too long. So they did it again. Are they fucking retarded? I'd honestly like to know if the people behind this mess had IQ's in the double digits, because I seriously doubt it.

There are some moments of good in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Ah, how I missed the simplicity of numbered sequels), but they are undercut by such cancerous awfulness. Everything feels off and is extremely underdeveloped. Electro and Rhino should have been scrapped right off the bat and this should have purely been about Peter Parker and Harry Osbourne. Eveything else was unnecessary filler.

It doesn't help by the lack of effort put in by the actors. Jamie Foxx is atrocious, hamming it up to 11, which could have been fun, but comes off as painful. The design is ugly and looks fake as hell. All his scenes are accompanied by this lame and cringy dubstep score. Dear god, I forgot how bad that shit was. Paul Giamatti amounted to 3 minutes of screentime, all his scenes were in the trailers. He is equally as embarassing to watch, complete with a hokey Russian accent. It's a shame to see such accomplished actors reduce themselves to this.


Dane DeHaan fares a bit better than the rest as Harry Osbourne/Green Goblin. He's pretty good at the problem child thing by now (He was much better in The Place Beyond the Pines though). His character falls apart once he becomes Green Goblin and becomes a fuck ugly mix of CGI and poor make-up. They at least attempt to build up Harry and Peter's relationship with a cringy montage.

Being an action-heavy superhero film, I am failing to recall any memorable action. Nothing was unique or stood out, The only thing my brain can recall is how ugly and cartoony the CGI looked in a lot of the scenes. I'd go as far as saying there's not even anything here as good as the school fight in the last film.

The positives I'd say out of this mess are Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone once again show genuine chemistry. Garfield also played Peter Parker as much less mentally challenged this time, which was good. I also much preferred the costume here than in the first one, it reminded me a lot more of Raimi's Spider-Man 2 costume.


They also take a huge risk by actually killing the love-interest at the end of the film in a surprisingly brutal way (Surprising if you haven't read the comics. Which I haven't). It was a ballsy move that would have been much more appreciated in a film that wasn't such a trainwreck. I would like to see more superhero films murdering lead characters and not bringing them back. Looking at you Batman v Superman.

Another big mistake this film makes is its obsession of trying expand its world rather than tell an interesting story. It introduces a retarded amount of subplots that were never answered or even asked for. Wanna know the mystery behind Parker's parents? Well... you're never gonna get that answer. 

Hell, we still never got the Uncle Ben stuff resolved from the last film. Don't get me started on all the Oscorp shit. Fuck me.... There was one scene that was just dying to be a launching pad for spin-off films, but the franchise died and is now shared with Marvel. So we'll see what happens with that.

That's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a complete mess, overstuffed, long, boring and forgettable, but never as offensive as the "Emo" scenes from Spider-Man 3, still painfull though. Your move, Disney, Save Spider-Man.

4/10 Dans

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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