Amazing Spider-Man 2, The (2014) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Fantasy

It's great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there's no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp.

Storyline: We've always known that Spider-Man's most important conflict has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that his greatest battle is about to begin. It's great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there's no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp. Directed by Marc Webb. Produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach. Screenplay by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner. Screen... Written by Sony Pictures Entertainment

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, August 11, 2014 -- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has it all. It's the classic modern Superhero movie through-and-through. It's built on state-of-the-art visual effects. There's web-slinging and swinging aplenty. The action is ferocious and perfectly choreographed. All the major characters are here. Slick editing. Great music. Human interest stories. And just not much of a heart. The film's downfall may very well be its perfection, its glitz and glamour and embodiment of everything everyone expects in a Superhero movie, at least on the (mostly) superficial level. It's mindlessly fun in every way a Superhero movie should be, right until the end, an end in which the filmmakers pull the rug out from underneath the audience and redefine everything before and reshape everything to come. Suddenly, a soulless movie is so filled with soul there's no room for anything else. And then the movie does everything else -- something that should have taken the entire next movie to do -- in about five minutes. It's an uneasy, yea, violent, swing of emotion makes the heart and soul of the "first" ending almost meaningless, as if what happened is something that can be brushed aside in mere moments when in reality a lifetime's worth of pain couldn't cure it. The movie could have been so much more, and its sequel greater still, had this film's final shots been the next movie's final shots, with a whole lot of drama leading up to and through them. Oh well. At least audiences are treated to Spider-Man whipping through skyscrapers. Again.

While Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) struggles to reconcile his relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) -- on one hand, he loves her, and on the other, he made a promise not to involve her in his deadly line of work -- bad things are afoot in New York City. Oscorp CEO Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) lies on his deathbed and hands control of the company over to his son, Harry (Dane DeHaan), Peter's one-time best friend. Peter's search for the truth behind his parents' disappearance accelerates while his caretaker, Aunt May (Sally Field), struggles to continue in the service as a de facto mother figure. In the meantime, a clumsy, unconfident man with an unhealthy obsession with Spider-Man, a brilliant Oscorp employee named Max (Jamie Foxx), is accidentally infused with a unique power -- the ability to harness and control electricity -- and becomes the villain known as "Electro."

Like most every other Spider-Man movie, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 falls over the map in terms of its action and drama. There's no shortage of stuff going on: flashbacks, Peter's search for his parents, Peter's on-and-off relationship with Gwen, Peter's relationship with Harry, Peter's relationship with his aunt, Peter's relationship with his alter-ego, the emergence of Electro, the slow build towards Green Goblin, backstory and scientific mumbo-jumbo galore, tons of action, a fair bit of comedy, and a mostly linear core story that's criss-crossed by all of the above. It's not that none of it works, its that none of it works in perfect harmony. For example, the Max/Electro character feels thrown in to extend the movie and provide some sparks along the way, a face for Spider-Man to fight while the real villain rises in the shadows. It's not that Foxx isn't good or that his villain is uninteresting, it's that Electro does feel under-developed. The writers have given the character a quality feel -- he's sort of like Gus Gorman from Superman III meets Nuclear Man from Superman IV meets the video game Infamous -- but not much substance (even while serving as something of a foil for Peter Parker), a good foundation for a backstory but one that's not explored to satisfaction. They have further given the villain a jolt of excitement and ensured that his battles with Spider-Man are everything they should be -- these are the most purely enjoyable moments of the movie -- but it's ultimately little more than a slick and stylized regurgitation of the usual Spider-Man battle antics that see him slinging around, shooting webs (with a little science-y help), and ending the battle with a few tears in his costume but otherwise ready for the next challenge.

And that's the problem with the entire thing. It's all a bunch of themes and action scenes that have been done before. It's why the end is so good and almost simultaneously so bad, pushing the story forward and then really pushing it forward, skipping out on all the stuff that should have set the third installment apart but ultimately just ensured that it would (more than likely) be nothing more than another round of the same: more slinging, more city destruction, more cop cars piled up and burned out, and so on and so forth. This series has always been, at its core, about the inward struggle, about balancing life and risking limb, about coping with the reality of heavy burdens and responsibility, about living up to an ideal even if it means falling down towards physical and, seemingly more important, emotional death. There's tons of room for the sort of depth the character deserves, but the filmmakers just can't seem to find that perfect little progression towards something more purposeful, more meaningful, something in which to contextualize all of the action beyond mere repetitious nods to the "struggle." They come close here at the end, and then gloss over all the heavy lifting that should really define the character, both his past progression and his future crime-fighting enterprises. The film needs Spider-Man to have deep-down, drag-out fight with himself that would be so much more satisfying than another fight with the next "villain of the movie." Instead, it's all about stagnation in the guise of motion, about having enough action to show in previews, about having another image of a slinging Spider-Man to plaster all over some fast food bag or beverage container.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 should have been so much more. Even if it was two hours of the same song-and-dance but punctuated with the first end rather than ruined by the second end, it would have made every last oozing bit of repetition worthwhile in hopes that the next movie might have been the truly spectacular one, not another clone. Granted, it's way too early to dismiss whatever may be awaiting in The Amazing Spider-Man 3, but it's not hard to predict, particularly not after this film did that film's job in five minutes, when this film's end shot battle should have been that film's end shot. But at least The Amazing Spider-Man 2 does everything else to baseline satisfaction. The movie is exceptionally well-done from a technical perspective. The action is terrific, the editing faultless, the music great, and so on and so forth. It's everything fans expect, but is it everything they want?. High scores and lots of money say "yes," so expect more of the same next time. Sony's Blu-ray release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 delivers perfect video and audio, just as expected (and, in this case, "predictable" is a good thing). A plethora of high quality bonus content is included. Fans can't go wrong with a purchase.

[CSW] -2.4- The Amazing Spiderman 2 is another solid (acting, special effects, etc.) entry into the superhero pantheon of films. It is bright, flashy, and technically flawless. The Special Effects are truly special. It is amazing how good they can make everything look. You will enjoy this film if you enjoy superhero films, especially from the Marvel Universe. That being said, it is not on par with the real great superhero films of late like Ironman, the Avengers, or the Dark Knight trilogy. Although the acting was good the script was a hodgepodge with fairly generic dialogue. There is really no central story but only one that jumps around far too much, which results in a constantly shifting tone. The plot pieces don't fit particularly well together and for a movie with no story, it is pretty long and mildly tedious. You keep expecting all of the disjointed plot lines to somehow tie together and make sense, but they never do. You will come away with an almost two and a half hour experience that you won't really remember a week from now.
[V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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