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Amazing Spider-man 2 - Spoilers discussion
matchkitJOHN
Posts: 1,030
Anybody see this weekend? I took my 10 yo son and his friend today before going to FCBD.
To start off I finally saw AMS this week. It was a redundant as I thought it would be. It was maybe slightly better than Spidey 3 but not that much. Despite that I was happy they went with the more classic-looking costume and of course more advanced visuals.
I will go into more detail later. This movie did not crack my top 2 of Spider-man and Spidey 2. That may never happen. This movie was better than the first AMS. The beginning action scene was definitely one of the best. The do the same with Doc Ock in these movies and it could be one of my favorites. The rest of the movie was okay. I am not feeling Garfield as Peter Parker but he NAILS Spider-man. Not into the Peter and Gwen relationship. Jaime Foxx was not a bad Electro once he put on the suit. His Max Dillon was too cartoony for me. I give it a B-.
To start off I finally saw AMS this week. It was a redundant as I thought it would be. It was maybe slightly better than Spidey 3 but not that much. Despite that I was happy they went with the more classic-looking costume and of course more advanced visuals.
I will go into more detail later. This movie did not crack my top 2 of Spider-man and Spidey 2. That may never happen. This movie was better than the first AMS. The beginning action scene was definitely one of the best. The do the same with Doc Ock in these movies and it could be one of my favorites. The rest of the movie was okay. I am not feeling Garfield as Peter Parker but he NAILS Spider-man. Not into the Peter and Gwen relationship. Jaime Foxx was not a bad Electro once he put on the suit. His Max Dillon was too cartoony for me. I give it a B-.
Comments
Still, glad I saw it.
Point being, I'm not sure who you mean by second villain.
When I say third, I'm talking about Rhino. Second would be Green Goblin.
I went with trepidations, since I was pretty lukewarm on the previous Spidey film. I fully expected this one to be the weakest offering of the Marvel films this year. And while I had a few niggling problems here and there with the movie, I have to say I was quite pleasantly surprised by it.
Surprised by it!? I freakin' loved the hell out of it!
While I would have preferred the original Ditko-designed lightning-spikes-mask (which was always an iconic costume for Electro), I have to admit that I didn't have any real problems with what they came up with for the movie. (And that's in spite of my earlier negative reactions to the early photos that were released months ago.) I wasn't unhappy with either the visual look, the costume, or the portrayal of Electro in the movie. The film delivered. Jamie Foxx delivered.
I liked Garfield much better in this film than I did in the previous, and I thought the writing of the character was also much sharper. In fact, I thought that Garfield and Stone had much, much better chemistry in this film; they just crackled with electricity (Electro notwithstanding) in just about every scene they were in together. I could believe the relationship, and I could believe the characters.
This film has one of the best hero-villain battles I've ever seen. Maybe not the best, but, boy, it sure ranks right up there. (And it looks great in 3D!) Forget all of the rest of Spidey's arch-foes -- I want to see a rematch with Electro!
There were a number of nice little touches -- a brief walk-on by Alistair Smythe (known in the comics as the inventor of the Spider-Slayers), some glimpses of some familiar villain-gear stored away in the basement labs of Oscorp, the appearance of a woman named Felicia (we presume her surname is Hardy, but I don't recall it ever being mentioned), the return of the mysterious man in the trenchcoat standing just in the shadows. We see Peter walking the gamut between depression and being a problem-solver.
I liked this version of Harry Osborn, but I'm not yet sure of his Green Goblin. Wasn't terrible, but it might have to grow on me a little more.
If this film had any negative aspects at all, it was a lack of J Jonah Jameson, who only appears through a very brief e-mail exchange. It just feels wrong to not have JJJ somewhere in the story. But... apart from that? No major complaints from me. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I want to see the first Garfield Spider-Man movie again, if only to compare the two.
I fully expect the next film to be an encounter with the Sinister Six. Hoo-hah!!
One last thing: you need to sit through the credits. Like the Marvel Studio films, there is a teaser in the middle of the credits -- but not for Spider-Man. It's enough to make you wonder if the other studios (Sony and Fox) are tying their half of the licenses together to make a more unified Marvel Universe of their own.
$92 million and no competition until Godzilla on 5/16.
Jamie Foxx was terrible as Max Dillon and while better as Electro, his motivations still seemed very weak which made it hard to care.
I liked Harry Osborn but I thought his transformation to GG was way too quick and lacked the build up something like that deserved. I didnt think Harry as GG in the other Spider-Man movies was great but at least we had 3 movies to see it happen.
Didnt like the Rhino suit, if I remember right I thought the legs looked stumpy and stupid lol.
The best thing about the movie was the fact that they had the balls to kill Gwen. I know I complained about too many plot points but I actually think its a shame now that they took out MJ's stuff from this movie. I would have liked to see a friendship between the three of them before Gwen's death and possibly MJ helping Peter through it as we did in the comics.
Gwen's death is probably the thing that elevates this movie over Spider-Man 3 for me but not by much. I still think its one of the weakest.
Garfield does a great job as Peter Parker, and I love how they worked Jameson into it without showing him. Electro was a really good villain, but I agree with the earlier sentiment that Green Goblin seemed "tacked on" to the end. Maybe should have held off until the Sinister Six movie happens before killing off Gwen, but it's not a deal-breaker.
And again...more Rhino. :) (Hey, SOMEone has to like him!) :)
Strong acting (not just Garfield and Stone, but I thought Garfield and Dehaan's reunion scene went a long way to establishing a past relationship that hadn't existed for the audience prior to this film - they did all the heavy lifting needed to make that believable); much more ambitious than the first film; strong effects (looked great in IMAX 3D).
I also actually like the fact that they're not afraid to stray from the comic. I know, lots of people want Jameson in the film, but this movie doesn't feel like that's where its focus needs to be, so I'm fine with him remaining unseen. They've set up a different universe for this Spider-Man, one where I don't necessarily know what's going to happen.
The Bad
It's nice that they're setting things up for the Sinister Six, but that's often what these films feel like - one long setup. I feel more like I'm watching episodes of a TV show than a series of films. This delivered more than the previous film, but they still feel more like they're promising big things but not delivering. Killing Gwen elevated this some, but it also felt tacked on, like something that should have happened in the third film.
We've had three major deaths in two films. That's a lot of death in a short time, and it feels like a bit much to me.
And speaking of death, why make such a big deal about casting Chris Cooper if you're not planning on using him for more than one scene? I kept waiting to see that his death had been faked, and maybe it was, but there's no indication of it yet.
Overall, I've found both films enjoyable, just not something I ever feel the need to revisit.
Right off the bat, I will say that I enjoyed it much more than expected (although my expectations were LOW).
The special effects are really great. The opening sequence with Spidey swinging around NYC is so fantastic. But there is way too much "bullet-time" throughout the film, to the point of distraction.
I like Andrew Garfield as Spidey (and Parker), much more than Toby McGuire. Loved Emma Stone (and kudos to Sony for killing Gwen off), although not enough trademark Gwen Stacy GoGo Boots for my liking.
As one of the little kids with us said... "too much mush".
I did not like Jamie Fox as Electro at ALL. I thought his look was forced and would have much preferred the classic yellow and green uniform with the lightning bolt mask.
Which pretty much defines what I did not like about the film. My impression was that the writers felt compelled to make a "comic book" movie; ie. make every character cartoony. Max Dillon was the ridiculous nutty professor, Paul Giamatti (WTF is he doing in this film?) was the Krazy Russian gangster, the German mad scientist is even thrown into the mix. We are constantly hit over the head that THIS IS A COMICBOOK MOVIE. Might as well have been 1990's Dick Tracy.
Compare Amazing 2 to the recent Cap: Winter Soldier and it is night and day. Winter Soldier didn't get bogged down in making a COMICBOOK MOVIE. Marvel made an action/spy thriller that had super heroics.
But when you think about it, the old "POW", "BIFF", "ZAP" graphics from the '60s Batman TV show wouldn't be that unexpected or out of place in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
I'll save more complaining about no MJ for future threads haha