Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 received harsh reviews despite being a solid Spider-Man film.

I'm not sure what critics wanted.

I almost skipped out on this film, despite being a huge Spider-Man fan, simply because of the harsh ratings this film was receiving.

I'm glad I didn't.

To be fair, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not a genre game-changer. It doesn't chart brand new horizons for comic book films.

But it stands alone as the better of the two post-reboot films, certainly. It stays true the the comic book roots of the franchise. And the plot development actually leaves the viewer in the position of wanting more.

The film pits Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) against awkward electrical engineer-turned-spark plug Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx). Garfield turns in much the same performance as in the first film, although he is faced with more emotionally charged scenes in which he does an adequate job. Foxx is his usual brilliant self, although the pre-Electro character of Max Dillon was a bit over the top for my tastes. This could easily be the writing and not any of Foxx's doing, though.

Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone, is developed into a more independent character than the first film. Stone's portrayal of Stacy was good, but the efforts to make her more complex were middling. Sally Field's portrayal of Aunt May is solid - if anything, she could have used more screen time.

Dane DeHaan almost steals the show as Harry Osborne.

The real surprise for me was Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborne. I missed DeHaan's previous work in Chronicle, which I will now be forced to go back and watch.

DeHaan absolutely kills this role. He oozes the trademark Osborne combination of confidence, anger and instability. There's absolutely no comparison between him and James Franco, who played Osborne in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films. DeHaan clearly understands the character and he just blows the performance away.

The best part is that despite Osborne's villain status, he faces issues of his own that make you want to cheer for him, even if just a little bit. And given the film's set-up for a future standalone Sinister Six spinoff, I'm looking forward to more of DeHaan's work in the future.

The film itself is not perfect, as I mentioned before. One of the criticisms that I tend to agree with is that the sub-plot regarding Peter's parents, and their connection to the project that turned him into Spider-Man, is overly long and has no real impact on the main plot. This is especially disconcerting because the film actually opens with a flashback dealing with this sub-plot.

Besides a moment of realization, nothing is really gained from a plot perspective. Spidey still has to fight the villains and he gains no advantage from his discovery. It felt more like the writers really wanted to get the plot out of the way before the next film.

Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, is based on the character
from Marvel's Ultimate universe.

Besides this, I thought the film was fairly well-constructed. One criticism I thought was unfair was a comparison to the dreadful Spider-Man 3: too many villains.

There are basically two villains, who work together at one point. Is that too many? They both have their own motivations and reasons for hating Spidey. They both try to harm him in their own way. He has to adopt different strategies to defeat both.

I don't understand how two is too many. It doesn't significantly draw out the film, nor is it the part of the plot most eligible for pruning (I'd argue the parents plot or some of the Gwen Stacy plot could have been cut, honestly). Rhino is not part of the main plot, does not complicate the plot, nor is he encountered until the credits are about to roll, so I can't count him as a villain here.

Some people complained of pacing, but I was never really bored. It felt a lot like a series of issues of Spider-Man: he doesn't just fight villains. He has a set of responsibilities, a support network that he continually places in danger by fighting crime, and the mundane grind of daily survival, including paying the bills.

And when I think about it that way, I understand why some of the critics may have been disappointed. Spider-Man, despite his extraordinary powers, has always really been an ordinary person. Those struggles are part of who he is, and a large part of what has made the character interesting. And if they came into the film expecting high-flying superhero antics like The Avengers, then they were never going to be satisfied anyways.