Amazing Spider Man 2

[MykeHavoc]

I don't get the complaints on the grieving process. I thought him standing with the seasons changing was one of the best pieces of visual film-making in the entire film. It told me what I needed to know and emotionally impacted me in a matter of 30 seconds. That's good story-telling. That's what really impressed me with this film, was all the little moments that I FELT as a viewer. I don't recall being particularly connected much with the first film, but I was all sorts of swept up in the drama of this one.

And hammy performances? Come on now. It's a Spider-Man film. I can't see any complaints of Giamotti. Guy's a genius and totally steals the show for the 5 minutes of screen-time he has. I look forward to seeing more of him. Plus the entire ending with the kid had me welling up. That's my absolute favorite element to comic movies: the ability for them to inspire hope and bravery. It was like the Tiananem Square Jr. Loved it. I haven't even had a chance to give Cap 2 another spin yet (which I also loved), but ASM2 had so much to soak in that I want to get back to the theater ASAP. Plus I got to see it with the kid, and to have her grip my arm at the scary bits and cheer at the happy bits always is a wonderfully vicarious experience.

[Prof. Warren]

I've seen this point come up before - that we don't see the aftermath or guilt that comes due to Gwen's death. But seriously, he had a 5 month period of mourning, sitting by her grave all the time. How is that not enough grief and/or guilt for Parker?

Oh, I know. They handled the aftermath of Gwen's death perfectly. Five months is a long grieving period. And just because he returns to being Spider-Man, he isn't done thinking about Gwen, he just realizes that people need Spider-Man. He has mourned Gwen and will continue to mourn her but life takes precedence. Anyone complaining about whether Peter grieves for an appropriate length of time should remember that he took no sabbatical from being Spidey in the comics after Gwen's death. While he continued to think about her and her death haunted him, he never hung up his webs, even for an issue.

[DennisTheMenace]

I was amazed they skipped over college life too. Only issue is the film was already a bit long. I felt like they should have found a place to cut 20-30 minutes.

How did they skip over college when he wasn't even in college yet? He graduated high school in the beginning and I'm assuming the rest of the movie took place over the summer with Gwen deciding to go to England for her scholarship. I'm not sure how they skipped over something that hadn't even taken place yet or did I miss something? I'm assuming we'll see him in college in the next movie.

[juan678]

Emma Stone And Andrew - Final Kiss Spiderman 2
Emma Stone & Andrew Garfield Spider-Man Kiss Goes Bad In SNL Sketch

[ViewtifulJC]

The movie was a mess. It feels like the movie was solely made to set-up future franchise entries, instead of being a satisfying, cohesive narrative in and out itself. The villain motivations and performances are terrible, the tonal shifts between scenes is jarring, the continuity errors glaring, the exposition dumps painful and lazy, the resolution to the Parker parents a complete anti-climax, linked together with bad melodrama, cornball dialog and unfunny jokes, and loads of CGI.

Not quite as bad as ASM1, but terrible. The rotten critical reception to the movie is fully justified.

[normanosborn]

The movie was a mess. It feels like the movie was solely made to set-up future franchise entries, instead of being a satisfying, cohesive narrative in and out itself. The villain motivations and performances are terrible, the tonal shifts between scenes is jarring, the continuity errors glaring, the exposition dumps painful and lazy, the resolution to the Parker parents a complete anti-climax, linked together with bad melodrama, cornball dialog and unfunny jokes, and loads of CGI.

Not quite as bad as ASM1, but terrible. The rotten critical reception to the movie is fully justified.

Well yeah but it still was not worse than Spider-Man 3. Also the action scenes were mostly great. Garfield works better in the suit than out of it, I think. It was the other way around with Maguire.

[Confuzzled]

Was really looking forward to it. Now I will not give them a dime. Shame too. It had potential to be really good, like the first one was.

That's crazy! This is probably the best interpretation of your beloved Gwen that you'll ever get.

[Callahan]

The movie was a mess. It feels like the movie was solely made to set-up future franchise entries, instead of being a satisfying, cohesive narrative in and out itself. The villain motivations and performances are terrible, the tonal shifts between scenes is jarring, the continuity errors glaring, the exposition dumps painful and lazy, the resolution to the Parker parents a complete anti-climax, linked together with bad melodrama, cornball dialog and unfunny jokes, and loads of CGI.

Not quite as bad as ASM1, but terrible. The rotten critical reception to the movie is fully justified.

You mention villain performances being bad but Dane Dehaan is being prasied by those critical of the movie as the only bright spot. I'm interested how you say there is tonal shifts and continuity errors. Is there anything off the top of your head you can tell me about each of those?

[Russ840]

I thought Garfield was great. Stone was great. Her death was awesome.

The rest of the film is a noisy convoluted mess in my opinion. There was far to many plot threads. It seemed as though the film was just jumping around from one place to the next. Awful writing.

The content related to his dad and origin should have been information revealed In The first film.

I actually prefer Spidey 3 to this.

I will have to watch it again once it's released on blu ray to see if my thoughts change.

For me it's a shame. But I will say that the first sequence of him swinging around pursuing the truck had me smiling. It was, excuse the pun, amazing.

[suss2it]

You mention villain performances being bad but Dane Dehaan is being prasied by those critical of the movie as the only bright spot. I'm interested how you say there is tonal shifts and continuity errors. Is there anything off the top of your head you can tell me about each of those?

There was definitely some tonal shifts but that's not a con to me.

[jgprime]

The movie was a mess. It feels like the movie was solely made to set-up future franchise entries, instead of being a satisfying, cohesive narrative in and out itself. The villain motivations and performances are terrible, the tonal shifts between scenes is jarring, the continuity errors glaring, the exposition dumps painful and lazy, the resolution to the Parker parents a complete anti-climax, linked together with bad melodrama, cornball dialog and unfunny jokes, and loads of CGI.

I'm not too sure about the villains and tonal shifts. You'd have a very valid point regarding villains like Electro and dwelling too much on Peter's parents. But at the same time as we're all Spider-Man fans here we know that though Peter Parker & his supporting cast are characterised as very realistic, Spidey's villains are colourful and until recently characterised with weird motivations, as many of em date back to the 1960s. Rhino is supposed to be as dumb as a brick. Electro is a B-lister in Spidey lore and doesn't usually call the shots (though he could've characterised as more tragic instead of comedic early in the movie). Harry was to me, the villain highlight (even if he's not the Goblin for long in the movie), because he is pretty cunning and close in characterisation to 90's 616 Harry.

You can't deny that Peter has some very good moments with Harry at the start of the movie, with Aunt May when she confronts him about his obsession with his parents and tells him that she has always seen him as her boy, with Gwen throughout the movie, Gwen's death and his mourning before going back to being Spider-Man. Also the bits where he interacts with common New Yorkers.

[AJBopp]

You can't deny that Peter has some very good moments with Harry at the start of the movie, with Aunt May when she confronts him about his obsession with his parents and tells him that she has always seen him as her boy, with Gwen throughout the movie, Gwen's death and his mourning before going back to being Spider-Man. Also the bits where he interacts with common New Yorkers.

good moments with Harry? Well the actors did play well off one another, but their good moments largely felt like extemporized acting exercises that had no real connection to the larger story that was trying to be told, so I kept wanting the film to "just get on with it."

Good moments with Aunt May? I felt the scenes with Aunt May were some of the most inappropriate of the movie. The emotional focus of scenes tended to snap around with wild unpredictability, and I guess I have too much familiarity with Aunt May to really buy that she isn't supportive of Peter's parents and so defensive of the notion that Peter is "her son."

The bits with common New Yorkers were the best bits of the movie, though.

[AJBopp]

Well yeah but it still was not worse than Spider-Man 3. Also the action scenes were mostly great. Garfield works better in the suit than out of it, I think. It was the other way around with Maguire.

Upon reflection, I'd have to say that yeah, it was worse than Spider-man 3. Both films had the problem of trying to cram too much into a single script, but Raimi pulled it off slightly better than AMS2

[jgprime]

Good moments with Aunt May? I felt the scenes with Aunt May were some of the most inappropriate of the movie. The emotional focus of scenes tended to snap around with wild unpredictability, and I guess I have too much familiarity with Aunt May to really buy that she isn't supportive of Peter's parents and so defensive of the notion that Peter is "her son."

It felt realistic to me. I've always been a fan of Ultimate May. She is pretty much, Peter's mother. And I wouldn't expect a mother to take the backseat in her son's life when he's chasing ghosts and acting strangely. She was due some development that would give her character dimensions, not just giving Peter advice and grieving for Ben.

[Vworp Vworp]

Upon reflection, I'd have to say that yeah, it was worse than Spider-man 3. Both films had the problem of trying to cram too much into a single script, but Raimi pulled it off slightly better than AMS2

Yep. Spidey 3 is flawed, often ridiculous and wastes its villains, but it still somehow manages to be slightly entertaining. ASM2 is flawed, often ridiculous and wastes its villains, and ends up coming across as a little dull and pointless because of that.

I don't know, maybe it's cos Spidey 3 is intentionally that little bit cheesier that its flaws don't completely drag it down. With ASM2, it's like it's trying to play it that little more 'realistically' (in so much as you can in a Spidey movie) and so it comes across as the emptier, shallower film, because it ends up so much further away from the mark it's trying to hit.