The rebooting of Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man was a bust. Even within the confines of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 they seem to realize this as Dane DeHaan, playing Harry Osborn, jokes about the silliness of a “guy that wanted to turn the whole city into lizards”. Thankfully, in terms of the overall story, this sequel is a step up from the movie about said lizard man, but as the second of two parts that are about to become four more, already announced movies, we’re looking at a narrative mess that is clearly flying by the seat of its pants, trying to figure out how to enlarge the world the film exists in, in an effort to make billions. The ultimate sacrifice is narrative cohesion, but do they really care?
Spider-Man 2 opens, reminding us Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) was abandoned by his parents for mysterious reasons. More to that mystery is revealed early and it becomes something of an obsession of Peter’s throughout, but like most things in this movie, his concern for what happened to his father comes at random times and only when he isn’t having to rescue people from falling police vehicles or bickering with his on-again, off-again girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone).
When last we left Peter and Gwen, her father (Denis Leary) told Peter to stay out of Gwen’s life, protecting her from the possible harm that could come to her as a result of him being Spider-Man. Peter struggles with this throughout the entirety of this movie and it becomes a redundant “go to” whenever director Marc Webb decides to scale back the action for a beat.
Speaking of which, another wrinkle thrown in Peter’s path is the aforementioned Harry Osborn (DeHaan), returning home after his father sent him away ten years ago to now see his father (Chris Cooper), and CEO of Oscorp, on his death bed. His father’s passing ultimately leaves the company in the hands of Harry, but Harry’s time seems limited as he is suffering from the genetic disease that took his father’s life. Cue his interest in Spider-Man, a genetically altered human as a result of biological testing his father commissioned in an attempt to save his own life.
Oh, and yes, there is also Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), a lackey genius working at Oscorp, but no one seems to know he exists. After Spider-Man saves his life early in the film he develops an unhealthy obsession with the webslinger. Max, however, is about to have his life changed when a workplace accident turns him into the self-described Electro, a being that seems to be made wholly of electrical energy. His obsession turns to hate, badda-bing badda-boop, and he wants to kill Spider-Man. Things happen and so the story goes…
While it’s easy to look at all of this and point to the fact there are too many villains — after all, Paul Giamatti has a small role in this one as another villain (think The Underminer in The Incredibles) — but the villains aren’t really the problem. It’s the poor pacing, the editing and tonal conflicts that prevent it from being as good as it could have been.
Webb can’t seem to decide if he’s got an action film on his hands or a relationship drama, and while you might say he has both, he certainly can’t figure out how to tell the two stories at the same time. The way this thing is edited each cut to a new scene should have included title cards saying “Meanwhile, on the other side of the city…”
The new characters are also severely undeveloped. Had the Harry Osborn character been introduced in the first film it would have not only given the first movie more weight, but also would have meant the character’s inclusion here wouldn’t have been as rushed. Instead it’s like, “Hey Harry! Oh, you’re a bad guy now? Got it.” The movie ultimately trades one Osborn for another, something it took the first trilogy three films to do, here it takes about five minutes.
On the other hand, I was surprised at how little I minded the light-hearted nature of the first two-thirds of the film. It doesn’t get into silly season in the same way Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man 3 did, but it is rather playful, which I get the impression is due to the comic book source material, though I’ve never read it. This playfulness does come at a cost once you reach the final act and we’re expected to take things so seriously. It’s a cheat and it really doesn’t work if you’re looking to take such a light-hearted approach to so much of the story only to ask us to take it so seriously when you decide it’s time to be an adult.
Another problem the film faces are the heavies at Oscorp in which Colm Feore and Louis Cancelmi, the latter credited only as Man in Black Suit, trade evil glares and talk a bunch of nonsense as a pair of stereotypical, cliched bad guys. What’s the point? Why not just paint “BAD GUY” on their foreheads while you’re at it?
Of course, this is the sacrifice the film has made as it has bitten off more than it could chew because the first film bit off so little. So, since Sony already has The Amazing Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 4, Venom and The Sinister Six lined up, they couldn’t waste anymore time and had to get characters up and running so those films made some sense. Too bad, because had they merged the two storylines from Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 a little better, they might have had two solid features, and a lot more excitement for what’s to come.
As for the rest of the film, a lot of it works. I liked DeHaan as Harry before they rushed him into bad guy mode with dialogue equivalent to “You’re a fraud, Spider-Man!” as he crashes through end tables. The chemistry between Garfield and Stone is great, even if the scenes they share are pretty much the same thing over and over again and Foxx was a good choice for Max/Electro, adding a bit of comedy to his earlier, geeky persona and embracing the corniness of the character once we get into visual effects mode.
Speaking of the effects, this is digital candy galore. Electricity is flying everywhere and Webb, more than once, freezes the action and zips his camera all around the set. Granted, I might have enjoyed it even more had I not been forced to wear those terrible fake IMAX 3D glasses that sit inches away from your face, cutting into your nose throughout, but visually it’s a bit of a treat.
Overall, I recognize this isn’t about making one great movie, it’s about making a movie that sets up the next movie and, collectively, The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel give us more than enough to move into the next phase. I just hope they’ve finally figured out what they want to do with the characters and the villains so they can stop making things up as they go and just get down to telling a story.
