Title: The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro (2014)
Director: Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer)
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Martin Csokas
Plot: Being a human spider ain’t easy, as Peter Parker (Garfield) discovers (again!) that the balance between protecting the people from crazed villains such as Electro (Foxx), fighting his love for Gwen Stacy (Stone) and a friendship with his sick friend Harry Osborn (DeHaan) is tricky business.
“Lets go catch a spider”
Review by Eddie on 23/04/2014
The are many bad things in this world, and one of them is those occasions in which we find somebody or something saying/doing a lot but really not saying/doing anything at all – Marc Webb’s follow up to his surprisingly great popcorn adventure from 2012 is sadly one of those such occasions. Upon conclusion of this 130 minute plus blast of hot air it becomes clear that the hope we had with the reboot of an already new franchise is now sadly hanging in the balance of movie purgatory, a place that is neither here nor there and a place where we the audience now will find it hard to care what else this franchise has to offer.
Webb’s 2012 film benefited greatly from a fresh sense of direction that Webb harnessed to great use in his breakout movie 500 Days of Summer, but here just a few years on the direction and pace of this “amazing” adventure feels well and truly drained of its power. As mentioned in the opening the film exists to cover ground that has been covered before and makes this venture seriously hard to warm to when so many words and scenarios are playing out for playing-out’s sake. With Webb’s direction feeling now lacklustre the bad mojo spreads to his cast in particular Andrew Garfield who gets lost in a movie that his natural charm can’t escape from, his Spider-Man and Peter Parker that showed youthful enthusiasm in the first is here nothing more than a wisecracking, sulky mess that makes you wonder if we should actually even like him, although the story Garfield has been placed in is so overplayed now over all these incarnations that it could just be fatigue from over familiarity that even the introduction of two new villains cant solve.
Jamie Foxx coming off his most beloved film Django Unchained was a hot casting choice as the sorry and powerful Electro while Dane DeHaan so good in Chronicle and The Place Beyond the Pines was also a score for the movie’s casting, but both man sadly don’t get much shift with a particular wasting of Foxx. Foxx’s dweebish Max Dillon is neither scary or human enough to be memorable and he does overplay the outsider nature of the character to unbelievable levels, while DeHaan has small moments, his Harry Osborn is perhaps being saved for later entries to shine truly. The ensemble as a whole here feels weak which is a shame, an indictment backed up the fact Paul Giamatti who appears for 5 or so minutes seems far more interesting.
Without a real stand-out action piece, and with far too much exposition that has been covered before this Amazing movie feels anything but. For a film with a $200 million budget and with talent in all departments it’s a real shame that it turned out to be the movie that it is, although with 5 separate Spider-Man films now done and dusted, one must wonder if there is anything that could make this blockbuster staple truly jaw dropping again.
This particular reviewer would be leaning towards the answer of highly doubtful.
2 mid air data transfers out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys) 
I had a feeling this was going to be a dud after seeing the first trailer. It just looked… hmm. Too over-produced? Not quite the sense I am getting at. Like they tried a too hard, not in any one area, but nicely evened out with the result being that it has no heart or soul or whatever you wish to call it.
Very well put, I don’t think having so many writers did the film any favors either. Far to many cooks in the kitchen.
Eddie
Yeah, creativity by committee is almost always a bad idea.
Good review.
Everything I’ve read about this film puts me off slightly, but I do need to watch it, I get the feeling everyone is overblowing the negatives – to me it looks like a fun film that gets lost within itself.
Hopefully, a third film can come along and return the franchise to a simpler narrative that focuses on just the one villain – akin to the first film.
I found the fun factor badly lacking in this one buddy, Webbs first flick had a much greater sense of entertainment.
Eddie
I’ll still go watch it. Gotta watch something!
I was satisfied enough with Sam Raimi’s three-part take on Spider-Man that I did not watch the first entry in this franchise reboot. Now that I’ve read your review of “Spider-Man 2,” I’ve lost interest altogether.
I felt very much the same to you although I really did find myself enjoying the first one in this reboot series thanks to some fresh and lively performances and some neat direction, this one lost all that badly.
Eddie
This was terrible.
The best part of the movie was seeing Marc Webb’s name in the credits again. It was an amusing reminder again of: “Wait, did Sony hire this guy because of his surname?” lol
Very fine and sadly not far from the truth coment.
Eddie
Darn, too bad. Thank you, I’ll save this for late-night boredom. I am sooo tired of smart-mouth leads in any action movie, you know? The constant wise-cracking is annoying enough, but the actor can lessen the annoyance or make it worse. Oh, whatev. Where’s my Balinese Dragonhead cane? Rant! Rave! (shakes cane)
It does seem to feature more promententily than ever in modern day action/superhero flicks it’s fine in moderation but not every sentence.
Eddie
Agreed. Did Bruce Willis or Eddie Murphy start this craze?
I haven’t even seen the first Amazing Spider-Man yet
Not a whole lot of reason to now mate with this weak second effort.
Eddie
I feel like there are too many of the same comic movies coming out too close to one another. Spider-Man being one of them. Superman, Wolverine. I know they are staples in comic history, but I think they need a break.
Agree wholeheartedly, seeing the trailer for the new X-Men movie before this one just made me want to cry! A break is definitely the order of the day.
Eddie
I like it more than you do Eddie, but damn there’s far too much going on plot-wise, meaning proceedings feel scruffy and unresolved. I’m looking forward to seeing DeHaan in part three more than I’m looking forward to seeing part three itself, which is a bit of a problem. Great work Eddie!
Adam.
Agree on those points Adam, I think DeHaan would of been far better off if they had focussed more on his Harry, hopefully number 3 might allow him to shine more and keep things flowing in a more steady direction.
Eddie
I feel about the same on this one. Instead of really going for it with one if his bad guys or plot strands, Webb tries to if too much. As a result everything feels bland and familiar and very little is adequately resolved by the end. Hope the shock ending can drive some new energy into 3.
They need a whole lot more energy that is for sure which is weird with such an electric villain I this one.
Eddie
That is pretty much what I expected from the trailer (which I blogged on when it first came out 100 years ago). I’d heard the banter between Peter and Gwen is good, no? Raid 2 it is then.
Fantastic choice man, Raid 2 provides some serious movie goods. The banter in Spider-man felt a little lacking to me man, especially compared to the first installment,
Eddie
Oh dear. I really liked the first one!
I’m the same, it was a real let down this one.
Eddie
Wow! You guys got this Spiderman early. I’ll probably see this movie, but it was good to get your take. My expectations have been lowered, though.
Joan
Very rare for Australia to get a movie early normally we wait months for the lesser releases and sometimes a few weeks for the blockbusters.
Eddie
Enough of the god damned super hero movies already!! I would love for them to disappear!
I wouldn’t be to sad if that were the case man, hopefully that way we would see more original pieces.
Eddie
I haven’t seen this yet but I do feel like it is over produced and the CGI and acting look terrible
Pretty much spot on there lad, a shame it was such a mess.
Eddie
Great review
Though I liked it a little more than yourself, you do hit the nail very much on the head. They seem to be more concerned with setting up sequels than actually making this good instead of a complete narrative mess with rushed baddies and set pieces chucked in for the sake of it. Also, why they have decided to give it the subtitle ‘rise of electro’ in Oz is completely beyond me!
Yeah agree MoodyB, in regards to that title I think that is the worldwide moniker for it but they just don’t advertise it as that. I must say it’s not much of a rise of Electro he seems pretty tacked on to the whole shebang.
Eddie
Oh it appears that I am quite easily entertained! I do not rate the movie as one of the best ones I’ve ever seen, but I have not watched very good movies lately, and Amazing Spider-Man 2 was at least quite entertaining. I kinda liked the romance between Gwen and Peter. As for the rest (effects, storyline, villain) though, I’d say they’re just ok… I suppose it’s just the same kind of stuff you’d expect from Hollywood these days anyway. Great blog you have here, jordanandeddie!
Cheers for the kind words mate. Glad that you liked AS2 but I really found myself thinking it was a lot less entertaining that the first outing and the action a little less uninspired. The chemistry is quite good between the two leads which is to be expected considering there a real couple 🙂
Eddie
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