Amazing Spider Man 2

[Mister Mets]

... homage? Rip-off?

It's either an inevitable result of having Jamie Foxx play a guy with Electro's powerset, or a ripoff. It doesn't seem like a homage.

[magnum]

I don't think any of the Sony movies have been good. Fox doesn't have much of a track record with me either. On the Marvel side the Thor movies and Iron Man 2 were a bust but I think everything else has been solid. It actually alarms me how bad ASM2 is, Sony is making the same mistake Marvel did with Iron Man 2 by worrying more about building their universe than they are making a good movie.

I agree Iron Man 2 was a bust, the first one was great and number 3 was solid. I thought both Thor movies were ok but I can also see why people thought they were a bust. Avengers was well done, Captain America both were excellent with Winter Soldier being fantastic!

I can see your point completely.

Hopefully the new X-Men is as good as I think it can be and GotG.

[AJBopp]

On the Marvel side the Thor movies and Iron Man 2 were a bust

I'm curious what you mean by "bust." Normally in this context it would mean commercially unsuccessful, but that's not true for these movies.

The context seems to suggest that they weren't well-made, but by and large they were, even if they weren't spectacular.

Really, the suggestion seems to be they were a bust because someone somewhere decided (s)he personally didn't like them.

[MykeHavoc]

Loved both Thor movies and IM2 grew on me more with each viewing. Still upset at IM3 though.

[CyberComics]

Loved this movie a lot! My favorite Spidey movie yet! Everybody acted great (besides Giamatti's character). There were a couple of unnecessary scenes in it (like the whole part about the planes about to collide) and a missing scenes from the trailer as well! I feel like they revealed a little much in the trailers too. But I love Emma Stone as Gwen (she is so damn gorgeous). Garfield kills it as Peter Parker. DeHaan kills it as Harry/Goblin. Foxx does a good Electro (I doubted him at first).

Did anybody notice the clock tower in the scene? It stops at 1:21... :0

IF you don't get it, why are you on this site?

[Sousa]

This was really really bad.

The portrayal of Spider-Man and his abilities is fantastic. Peter and Gwen have good chemistry. Thats about it.

It's a romantic comedy between two people and it ends up going nowhere. All of the juvenile "I love you but can't be with you" back and forth crap resulted in nothing. I get it, Gwen and Peter love each other and Peter has some guilt. Don't spend half the movie on it.

The Parker Past plotline stunk. All of the build up serves a single purpose: It makes Harry hate Peter. And in doing so it completely ruins the origin. Peter is biologically the only person who could become Spider-Man. It's the opposite of the problem the Raimi origin had. In Raimi's film the spiders were genetically created and for no apparent reason their bite was able to transform Peter's biology. There is nothing that says the spiders and the accident could not be replicated. Here it is only possible for one person to be Spider-Man. The original story made it a completely freak accident. The right spider got hit by the right radiation to bite the right person at the right time, and thats where Spider-Man comes from. The actual narrative integrity of the story has been cheapened in order to be more "realistic." Total nonsense.

The Green Goblin story was lackluster. Harry was played well, yet the relationship with Peter feels extremely fake. Worse, they seem to be dedicated to telling the story in reverse. In the comics Harry and Peter started off disliking each other and eventually became best friends. Here they start off as "close" friends and drift further and further apart. In the comics the Goblin was known only as Goblin, with hints gradually dropping in before the big reveal. Here we know the Goblin in his civilian identity first and he only becomes the Goblin for five minutes at the end. And of course, they reversed the order of the Goblins.

They were obviously trying to combined Ultimate Spider-Man's Venom story with the Oz story, with the Oz formula taking the place of the Venom Symbiote, right down to it being keyed for Parker DNA. But the magic of the Venom story was that Eddie Brock Jr wasn't just desperate to cure himself of a disease (which seemed to accelerate extremely quickly), he was trying to hold onto the last piece of his father. Goofy adaptation.

The Electro "story" sucked too. They spend time establishing Max Dillon's character but there is no payoff. He is a sympathetic guy, then he becomes misunderstood power guy, then he becomes Harry's henchman. I guess they had to set up the sympathetic angle to give Harry a means to enlist him? So why set up the whole Spider-Man relationship? And why not try to take it back to his sympathetic roots at the end and have him come to his senses? You establish the guy as being emotionally needy and obsessed with Spider-Man and you end that story that pumping him full of electricity and writing him out of the story? The only other effect Electro has on the narrative is to help the "Lets get Harry out of the company" thing which goes absolutely NOWHERE.

Rhino was shoe-horned in and very badly played. So was Dr Kafka. Campy garbage like this isn't fun, it's douchechill-inducing. I feel sorry for the actors to have to humiliate themselves infront of the crew.

Aunt May was sweet I guess. We got the one emotional beat from her and it was completely out of place. This movie is devoid of a supporting cast. You have Peter, Gwen, the three villains and Aunt May. Peter and Gwen have their stories, the villains have their stories, and thats it. What makes Spider-Man so distinctive is he has hands down the best supporting cast of any superhero and it goes unused here. Aside from Aunt May and Gwen the supporting character that gets the most play is freakin Denis Leary.

I'm actually having a hard time understand why the Spider-Man movies are consistently bad. Unlike pretty much every other character the Silver Age run holds up really well. The scripting and artwork may be dated but the character development and story progression is really strong.

Going way back to beginning there is an actual story. When Uncle Ben dies Peter mans up and starts contributing to the household. Raimi sidestepped this by having Peter immediately go to college while Webb plays it off with a gag about JJJ. Within 12 issues he starts standing up to Flash (Flash is way underutilized in both series) and starts dating Betty Brant (underutilized in the Raimi movies, ignored here) while Aunt May tries to set him up with Mary Jane (the Raimi movies made a mess of MJ and she doesn't get a single mention here). After nearly 30 issues Peter has broken up with Betty and graduates from high school, with most of the supporting cast moving with him to Empire State. At college he meets Harry Osborn and the two have an immediate dislike (I have no idea why both series have tried to sell Peter and Harry and longtime friends) and Gwen Stacy (who actually got treated well in this series before they killed her). Peter starts to really come out of his shell at this point and hangs out with Harry, Gwen and Flash a lot (Peter remained a loser throughout Raimi's series while in Webb's he has no supporting cast to hang out with). When Flash goes to Vietnam Peter wishes him his best and they part on good terms (the previous movie ruined the Flash dynamic by having Flash's friendship with Peter grow at the same time his admiration of Spidey does). Harry gradually becomes Peter's best friend and roommate while he starts seeing Gwen. Then Slutty Ho MJ is introduced and the story really takes off. Harry gets strung out on drugs and his father eventually kills Gwen. In the aftermath MJ starts showing her emotional depth and bonds with Peter.

It's a story that actually works. Peter believably transitions from being an outcast to having a tight circle of friends. Relationships grow and mature while others fade away. There is genuine emotion involved. Yet every single movie screws it up.

They spent literally 3 scenes on their relationship being rocky . The break up scene, the being friends turns to Spidermans battle with Electro ,and where Peter follows Gwen to her oxford interview. I don't see how thats "half"the movie

I will say that the Parker past plotline is certainly interesting and has potential, it wasn't done with perfection but I thought it was only just ok. I think it works just fine in the context of their story, the whole cross species genetics works even though the origin is changed but thats ok. You need to get out of the assumption that this should be exactly like the comics. I do wish movies took more beats from them but this is clearly different and was always meant to be.

Again, stop making this about the comics. Especially seeing as this is more about the Ultimate Universe rather than the 616 universe. I too didn't enjoy the idea of Harry being the first Goblin at all but it makes sense within the context of the story. It's a different story being told, its not meant to take directly from the source material issue by issue. Harry is dying and from his understanding, Peter's blood would save him but Peter knows it wouldn't and would kill him but he can't tell him why he knows that he just thinks hes being rejected. Harry panicked and nearly died when he took the venom because rightfully the "cure" doesn't work for him much like it didn't work for his father and Curt Connors

Well yea they're obviously using the Ultimate universe more so why are you complaining that it isn't taking directly from the 616 universe? lol

Rhino was very shoe-horned in I agree. You can look at it this way, its Peter's "destiny" to be a hero. There's more to him being Spiderman then some freak accident that anyone could be. Think of it like Steve Rogers and becoming Captain America. Sure you can put anyone in the suit or inject anyone with the super soldier serum but not everyone would be "Captain America" or "Spiderman". It takes more than just the radioactive bite or the serum for them to be who they are. It also sets up the sinister six movie as well so there is SOME good to come of it. They did mislead people into thinking Spiderman would be fighting all 3 at once.

Spiderman movies aren't consistently bad, its just that you have ridiculous high expectations and expect the movies to be panel by panel adaptations. The movie is fine, if you don't like it then its ok you do have some valid points but complaining that it isn't exactly like the source material is really pointless to complain about.

This movie is definitely geared towards the kids more than the adults so complaining that its more "campy" makes it kind of silly but even then Gwen's death is certainly not something for the kids.Honestly it sounds like you only want to complain because the movie wasn't directly taken from the comics and thats unfortunate. Did you hate the Winter Soldier despite it not being anything like the book at all? I doubt it

[TrillxRegime]

I absolutely loved this movie! 9/10 for me.

The Amazing Spider-Man felt like an early Bendis volume of 'Ultimate Spider-Man' to me and this felt like the next step up, a Slott volume of 'Amazing Spider-Man'. Like others have said, Peter is morphing from the 1610 Peter to the 616 version before our eyes. Garfield was great as both Peter and Spider-Man. Best casting for a character in my opinion since RDJ as Tony Stark. Stone was great and I enjoyed Foxx's Electro. I also really enjoyed DeHaan's scene with Foxx and Feore at Oscorp. It showed the early stages of what his Goblin could be, "welcome to the bonus round" gave me chills. The death scene was handled to near perfection and I can't wait to see Norman fleshed out since Chris Cooper already said this was just an introduction to the character.

Can't wait for the Blu-Ray, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and the spin offs.

[ViewtifulJC]

They spent two freakin' movies building to the dramatic point of Peter learning something, then not actually show him learn it, then skip over all the actual character changing in a "time passes" sequence, giving us no indication he's learned or changed at all. And then rushes to tell us about the next movie and ending the movie on something else entirely.

[tabo61]

The lesson of this movie is for everyone who decides to be a superhero or heroine, don't let your love ones tag along with you when fighting crime.

[The Doctor]

Well I finally saw it. Not bad or series crushing, but a step down from Amazing Spider-Man.

Peter Parker - Love the look over Tobey, despite being about 30 I can see Garfield being a HS graduate. Sometimes he's overly playful and funny, which gets on my nerves but is annoying.

Gwen Stacey - Emma Stone played the role well and they did have chemistry with each other. I'd rather them have let us gotten more emotionally involved with the two of them than having them break-up and get back together near the end. Her death would have stung much more especially since there are a ton of Emma Stone fanboys out there.

Peter's parents - I hate them having a major role. They were just regular typical parents that unfortunately died nothing more.

Norman Osborn - I don't see anyone topping Willem Defoe who's probably the best overall Spider-Man villain in all five movies, so to let him die early (if he did who knows) was a good choice IMO.

Harry Osborn - James Franco played a good Harry, but a terrible GG2. Dane I think fit the role and was a better actor for this character and he's probably the highlight of the movie. My issue is I preferred the old relationship where they were friends throughout High School and interacted a lot. Kind of sped up the relationship and they seemed to comfortable for guys that haven't seen each other since they were like 12 or something though reaching out through his fathers death and a time of turmoil made it more manageable. He played a decent Goblin Im just disappointed we didn't get to see more. I like the direction they went with the look. It's not completely there but closest we've had.

Electro - I loved Jamie Foxx, loved the overly obsessed and lonely Max Dillon. Comes out confused once he is transformed. I never saw a clear reason for him to hate Spider-Man other than he stole his one chance in the spotlight, which seems a bit much, but its made obvious that the man had mental health issues underneath. Gets power realizes his power and wants to take down everyone for taking credit of his work and ignoring him. I understand that being lonely and ridiculed can drive a person to hate people.

May Parker - comics, original movies, and animated always had May as a very old white haired lady. I miss the look, but Sally Fields is just as good at acting as anyone else so her characters par for the course. I'm probably more impressed with the last Aunt May just because she did better than one may think.

Rhino - Sorry I love Paul Giamatti. I swear he's done a Russian accent before and it wasn't very good. He was too comical of a character whereas he looks like he should be very serious. I wish they hadn't made him Russian I think without the accent Paul could had done a very good job because he's certainly a talented actor elsewhere. This job however came off as weird and dumb. I think they were shooting for comical and funny though.


Best scenes

Harry importing Electro at the mental institute for help getting back into Oscorp. I liked the talking back and forth. Electro didn't seem to want to help until he said he needed him and proceeded to desperately beg for his help when they tried to take him away, which snapped Electro into a sense of needing to help him.

Gwen's death - minority disappointed I couldn't tell if she smashed her head or her neck snapped because it was such a close call (ill assume the original cause of death). But it was still sad despite them lowering the feels by having them broke up for most f the story.

The quick Goblin fight and the desperate air they created with them grappling around with each other while Gwen hanged on for her life.



As for the Rhino's suit I wish they went with something smaller. Like a large iron man type suit where he could still be a machine, but with more of a classic rhino size and ability to fight. It seemed more like a vehicle than a suit.


Aside from Rhino the characters were all fantastic and acted well, but the story just didn't quite do it. Stuff could have been done better. So the story is weak, the characters are great which makes this like a 3/5 movie. With e majority of characters being awesome there's tons of potential for ASM3 they just need to improve the story.

[mathew101281]

[Mister Mets]

I don't think any of the Sony movies have been good. Fox doesn't have much of a track record with me either. On the Marvel side the Thor movies and Iron Man 2 were a bust but I think everything else has been solid. It actually alarms me how bad ASM2 is, Sony is making the same mistake Marvel did with Iron Man 2 by worrying more about building their universe than they are making a good movie.

I don't think either was a bad movie, but Iron Man 2 had the advantage of Mickey Rourke. His Whiplash was a much more compelling villain than Electro.

[ViewtifulJC]

I think Hulk mentioned all the crummy stuff about this movie.

Its really a shame that they got great actors like Garfield and Stone here, and they give them such crap to work with.

[jgprime]

Dude laughed at Gwen's death scene? What was it, the web forming a hand trying to reach her? The fact that she hit her head (or did she)?

Eh, guess everyone has his/her own opinions (especially with this movie where they're all over the place), but I really can't take reviews like these seriously were they try to make it sound funny (and in my opinion fail miserably). Often comes off as vapid and as straight-up hate for the movie instead of criticising.

[CrazyOldHermit]

I'm curious what you mean by "bust." Normally in this context it would mean commercially unsuccessful, but that's not true for these movies.

The context seems to suggest that they weren't well-made, but by and large they were, even if they weren't spectacular.

Really, the suggestion seems to be they were a bust because someone somewhere decided (s)he personally didn't like them.

I'm using "bust" as a word for "bad movie." But to be fair, Thor and Thor 2 weren't bad, they just weren't particularly good. Iron Man 2 was bad though.

They spent literally 3 scenes on their relationship being rocky . The break up scene, the being friends turns to Spidermans battle with Electro ,and where Peter follows Gwen to her oxford interview. I don't see how thats "half"the movie

Really? Felt like a lot more.

I will say that the Parker past plotline is certainly interesting and has potential, it wasn't done with perfection but I thought it was only just ok. I think it works just fine in the context of their story, the whole cross species genetics works even though the origin is changed but thats ok. You need to get out of the assumption that this should be exactly like the comics. I do wish movies took more beats from them but this is clearly different and was always meant to be.

My problem isn't that it's not like the comics for the sake of not being like the comics. My problem is that Peter's origin in the comics is better than what is presented in either of the movies. Should I not be disappointed that they went with an inferior story for the sake of being different? And the entire "Richard Parker mystery" has no place in the movie and serves no purpose. It could have been cut completely and the outcome would have been the same.

Again, stop making this about the comics. Especially seeing as this is more about the Ultimate Universe rather than the 616 universe. I too didn't enjoy the idea of Harry being the first Goblin at all but it makes sense within the context of the story. It's a different story being told, its not meant to take directly from the source material issue by issue. Harry is dying and from his understanding, Peter's blood would save him but Peter knows it wouldn't and would kill him but he can't tell him why he knows that he just thinks hes being rejected. Harry panicked and nearly died when he took the venom because rightfully the "cure" doesn't work for him much like it didn't work for his father and Curt Connors

Same thing here. Harry's story and the Goblin's story in this movie aren't just different, they're inferior. I could accept a different interpretation if that interpretation wasn't garbage.

Well yea they're obviously using the Ultimate universe more so why are you complaining that it isn't taking directly from the 616 universe? lol

I'm complaining because they're aren't adapting either story well. They adapted the basics of the Venom plot and didn't carry over the emotional weight.

Rhino was very shoe-horned in I agree. You can look at it this way, its Peter's "destiny" to be a hero. There's more to him being Spiderman then some freak accident that anyone could be. Think of it like Steve Rogers and becoming Captain America. Sure you can put anyone in the suit or inject anyone with the super soldier serum but not everyone would be "Captain America" or "Spiderman". It takes more than just the radioactive bite or the serum for them to be who they are. It also sets up the sinister six movie as well so there is SOME good to come of it. They did mislead people into thinking Spiderman would be fighting all 3 at once.

Why is setting up the Sinister Six movie a good thing? Why should I be excited for the Sinister Six movie after seeing this garbage? From what I can tell this movie was worsened by having to set up Sinister Six.

Spiderman movies aren't consistently bad, its just that you have ridiculous high expectations and expect the movies to be panel by panel adaptations. The movie is fine, if you don't like it then its ok you do have some valid points but complaining that it isn't exactly like the source material is really pointless to complain about. This movie is definitely geared towards the kids more than the adults so complaining that its more "campy" makes it kind of silly but even then Gwen's death is certainly not something for the kids.Honestly it sounds like you only want to complain because the movie wasn't directly taken from the comics and thats unfortunate. Did you hate the Winter Soldier despite it not being anything like the book at all? I doubt it.

The Spider-Man movies are pretty bad. Spider-Man 2 is easily the best and that one is just OK (it would be really good if it wasn't for the contrived Mary Jane drama). I don't expect a panel by panel adaptation, don't be silly. You're missing my point. My point is that Spider-Man is a character who has gone through a fantastic storyline in the comics. Somehow, against all odds, over 50 years of storytelling Marvel has created an epic tale of one man's growth from boyhood to manhood and nobody to hero. When you step back and look at it as a whole it's a genuinely great story. And yet all of the movies ignore that in favor of telling a lesser story. All of them. It makes no sense to me. I get changing the story if you have a better idea, but they never do.

There is a very strange trend in comic book adaptations. They all follow the formula started by Richard Donner's Superman: You take the main characters, pick a villain or two and jumble them together in a brand new story. I can't think of any other case where this sort of adaptation is the norm. Nobody does that to Romeo and Juliet, Moby Dick or Lord of the Rings. Those movies follow the text, adapting for the screen where they have to. For the most part this adaptation formula is the way to go. Most characters have histories that are too jumbled, too inconsistent and too goofy. It would be impossible for Chris Nolan to pick one version of Batman and adapt it faithfully, so he came up with his own story and it worked pretty well. Same goes for the Iron Man movies, and pretty much all of the MCU stuff.

But this isn't true of Spider-Man. With Spider-Man you have A-grade material to work with. There is a real story arc that the character goes through. It makes no sense to me that the movies keep turning out so lackluster. Why would you ignore the gold in favor of your own mediocre ideas?

And a movie doesn't have to be campy to appeal to kids. There is plenty of entertainment out there that is aimed at kids and doesn't camp it up. Batman and Robin camped it up. Is that supposed to make me think the movie the movie is better?

I don't think either was a bad movie, but Iron Man 2 had the advantage of Mickey Rourke. His Whiplash was a much more compelling villain than Electro.

Mickey Rourke was definitely awesome in that movie.