Friday, May 30, 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Now it’s time for the finale of “Spiderman Month.” Let’s wrap things up with “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which came out (as I said when I started this month) on the 2nd.

Emma Stone had said that “The Amazing Spider-Man” was going to be the first in what was going to be the start of the new series. Columbia Pictures said in March of 2011 that writer James Vanderbilt was contracted to write “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” By April of 2012, Sony had Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Jeff Pinkner under contract to re-write the sequel.

In August of 2011, which was roughly a year before “The Amazing Spider-Man” was going to be released; Sony announced that the release date for “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” was going to be May 2, 2014. Not too long before “The Amazing Spider-Man” was released, Andrew Garfield said, “If we do [a sequel], I hope I can do it — I hope they'd let me do it. ... They already have a release date for the second one. But no script! So we have our priorities in order.” On September 14, 2012, Garfield was confirmed to return for the sequel and Marc Webb would come back as director.

J.K. Simmons also expressed interest in appearing in this series as J. Jonah Jameson. However, he doesn't appear in here, and there are only a couple of mentions of the Bugle.

On October 10, 2012, Shailene Woodley was announced to have the role of Mary Jane Watson. It was confirmed that Woodley would play Mary Jane Watson, but it would be a small role, and the role would be bigger in the third movie. However on June 19, 2013, it was announced that Mary Jane was taken out of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” in order to streamline the story and focus on Gwen and Peter’s relationship.

Jamie Foxx was in “early talks,” on November 1, 2012, to play the role of Electro in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” and later it was confirmed that he would be playing Electro. It was also revealed on November 16, 2012 that Harry Osborn would be in the sequel. Marc Webb then announced on December 3, 2012 that Dane DeHaan was going to play Harry. In February 2013, one of the funniest actors, Paul Giamatti, was revealed to play Rhino, and another great actor, Chris Cooper, was going to play Norman Osborn.

Now here is what I thought of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2:” All the Spider-Man fights were awesome and, best of all, Spider-Man was funny! There are some humorous lines from Garfield, DeHaan, and especially Stone.

But the love story got old really fast. I don't mind it too much because I always like it when Garfield and Stone are together, but it always goes back to Peter and Gwen saying they can't be together, then they get back together, then saying that maybe they are not destined to be together, then getting back together. Why are you wasting our time with this? Peter is trying to protect Gwen because of his promise to Captain Stacy before he died, but Gwen is always trying to come in and help Peter out because she is a strong love interest.

Uncle Ben's death apparently means less to him than Captain Stacy's, which is stupid. Anytime Aunt May brings up Uncle Ben in the movie, Peter is completely expressionless. It's like it doesn't matter to him about Uncle Ben dying, which I get really annoyed at. This is why I prefer Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies because he always went back to Peter feeling sad about Uncle Ben’s death, and feeling responsible for it. Also, Uncle Ben and Aunt May are the main reasons why Peter became Spider-Man. He was irresponsible and did not listen, so his actions caused him to feel bad for not listening to Uncle Ben, which is why he decides to become Spider-Man. Also, Sally Field is given more screen-time, but Webb doesn't give her enough to do, which is why she doesn't do as good of a job as Rosemary Harris. In "Spiderman 2" when Peter finally confesses to Aunt May about what happened to Uncle Ben, they aren't on speaking terms for a while, and then she says she forgives him and is glad that he told her the truth. Why isn't there anything like that in here? Why doesn't Peter just tell Aunt May what happened the night Uncle Ben was shot? Peter is begging Aunt May to tell him about his father since he wants to know why his father left him with Uncle Ben and Aunt May, which I like, but Aunt May should demand Peter to tell her what happened the night Uncle Ben got shot. I understand that they didn't have time to do all of that, but they could have filmed the wrestling match, they could have given more time for Uncle Ben and Aunt May so that Peter always was inspired to stay as Spider-Man. You might have the same complaint for "The Dark Knight Rises" where Alfred is absent throughout a good majority of the movie, but at least he said to Bruce that he wasn't going to help him anymore. I also understand that they can't get Martin Sheen to come back and do cameos as Uncle Ben, but why can't they let Martin Sheen be in this movie as a small cameo by having Uncle Ben appear in Peter's thoughts and dreams, which continuously inspires Peter to stay as Spider-Man? It can be done! This is what Marc Webb lacks is the story following a traditional three-act structure.

Electro and Harry both started great, but by the end they jammed all the villains together and didn't really finish their stories properly. It's handled worse here than in "Spiderman 3" because I love Paul Giamatti since he is a funny actor and is magnificent in everything he is in, but they don't give him enough screen-time. He's only in the beginning and in the end. It's like we had completely forgotten about him, and the main focus was on Electro. I thought that Jaime Foxx did an excellent job as Electro, even though they made him exactly like Edward Nygma in "Batman Forever" and made Electro too pathetic, but Dane DeHaan as the Green Goblin was nothing new. I had seen this done before. Osborn goes crazy because he wants more power, takes the injection, and becomes the Green Goblin. He's dying over a disease, which Norman told Harry it must be genetic, and he's crying that he's going to die. Harry, your dad was like in his 40s before he died, I think you at least have some time before Peter tests out everything before he gives you a sample of his blood. But no, he's in a rush to get a sample of Peter's blood so that he can live, which eventually leads him into being crazy because of him being impatient. He's only Green Goblin at the end before they lock him in a penitentiary, and Harry talks to the shadowed man to bring together a team, which must lead up to the Sinister Six. You could compare that to Venom in "Spiderman 3," but I would like something new with the Goblin. Also, they say Norman Osborn died in here, but I think that's a smoke screen and they'll bring him back. Why are you going to say that Green Goblin and Rhino are going to be in the movie when they don't play that big of a part?

But the end was really emotional. Gwen's death was perfectly done, and the final scene with the Rhino and the little kid, played by Jeremiah Burch III, was everything I want from Spider-Man, pushing through his grief to help the people of New York. I thought with Peter giving up being Spider-Man because of Gwen’s death was stronger than in Spider-Man 2. Not wanting to be a superhero because of feeling responsible for a loved one’s death is much more effective than the stress of being a superhero. Not to say that I thought Raimi didn’t do a good job with that in “Spider-Man 2,” but I think it worked better here. Also, as I had mentioned last week, I knew going in that Gwen was going to die. I wasn't surprised when I found out that I was right when I saw the movie not too long ago. Remember that in the comics, Gwen was Peter's first girlfriend before she was killed and Mary Jane entered in. What really made the scene sad was that Peter was extremely close to saving Gwen, but came up just a tad short. Also, with the little kid, it's very similar to "Spider-Man 2," when Aunt May says that the neighborhood kid missed Spider-Man and was wondering where he went and wanted him to come back. It's very similar in this movie with that little kid because in the beginning of the movie, the little kid gets bullied by some kids and they destroy his science project. Spider-Man comes in, scares the kids away, he fixes his project, and walks the kid home. That little kid gets inspired by Spider-Man that he decides to walk in the middle of the street and stand up to Rhino, which takes a lot of guts, before Spider-Man flies in, thanks the kids, says that he'll take over, and high fives him.

Both Captain America and Spider-Man shows me the heroes I want, unlike Superman, because they were shown as superheroes who cared about people, they weren't whiny, and they had a sense of humor. They were serious without losing their sense of humor and good nature. Also, they showed that they had inspired little children or other citizens to be like them. As much as I like "Man of Steel," I do acknowledge the flaws, one of them being that Superman is completely expressionless and emotionless. That wasn't the case with this movie and "Captain America The Winter Soldier."

In the end, I think that this movie is better than the first one, but the original two Sam Raimi ones will never be topped. I liked that Marc Webb cleaned up the humor, making it funnier, gave us a better Peter Parker and a better love interest, and best of all, great action scenes, but he should give us more of a story, make Aunt May and Uncle Ben have more to do than he is giving them, and work more on the villains. Plus, the pacing problems in this movie has really hurt the film a lot and Marc Webb should fix that. Definitely check this one out if you haven’t already, because I believe it won’t be in theaters for that much longer.

It has been confirmed that there will be a third and fourth movie in this series, a Venom spin-off, and a Sinister Six movie. This would be great. Andrew Garfield’s contract is only for three movies, but I think he should keep reprising his role as Spider-Man because he does a fantastic job. Then again, it is up to him if he wants to keep reprising the role since in the end, it is the actor’s decision and not the fans or filmmakers. We’ll see, but I think he’ll keep playing it for right now.

Thanks for joining in with me during “Spiderman month.” I hoped you enjoyed these reviews as much as I did making them. I will see you all next month.

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