Yesterday I talked about how 2014 has been a great year for super hero movies and went through three different films that have brought something either new or refreshing (or both) to the superhero genre. Captain America: The Winter Soldier went in a completely different direction from the first film in the franchise and proved that a superhero movie can work as an espionage thriller. X-Men: Days of Future took the scope and scale of the series to a whole new level and restored the series to its former glory. And Guardians of the Galaxy introduced a whole new world with whole new characters in a hilariously fun way. Yet one superhero was not on the list, and unfortunately, that superhero happens to be our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Unlike these other films, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 brings nothing new to the table that we haven't seen before, and instead chooses to be just more of the same. And while this film could have corrected the mistakes of the first installment (released in 2012), it contains all the same mistakes...and they are much worse here. Be aware that the remainder of the article contains major spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Perhaps the greatest problem with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is that it lacks focus. It is trying to do way to many things at once, and trying to tell way too many stories at once. Of course at the center of everything, you have the story about a teenager/adult who has to balance everyday life with the responsibility of having super powers, that is the key element of every Spider-Man story. Then you have the romantic side-plot between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, still no problems here. But then we are forced to see this extensive side-plot about Peter's parents and what "really happened" to them which has next to nothing to do with the main plot of the movie. And then, since Sony wants to make as much money as possible, the Sinister Six (like the Avengers of Spidey villains) needs to be set up ASAP, so we have not one, not two, but three villains, two of which have their own side-plots. So here we have a movie trying to juggle five different side plots along with the main plot in only two hours. It's so overstuffed and cannot ever hope to work.
This is unfortunate because there is one thing that director Marc Webb does a good job with, and that is the romance. The chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone is the greatest strength of this rebooted franchise, and I wish there could have been way more time devoted to the love story of Peter and Gwen (and now because of Gwen's death, that will never happen) because it likely would have resulted in a slightly better film. Yet, even the success of the romantic story arc is constantly taken away from by the other useless story arcs, whether its watching some oddly placed German doctor experiment of Electro, or another scene about Peter's dad that kills the pacing of the movie. Anytime that the film starts to make us think it can shine, those thoughts are diminished from the overstuffed narrative, which can mostly be attributed to all the villains.
The villains of the Raimi films (for the most part) had a lot of thought put into their backstories, development, and motivation, particularly the fantastic character of Dr. Octopus played by Alfred Molina. In every good superhero movie, we should get just as excited about seeing the villains as we do about the heroes (ex. Loki, The Joker, Magneto). There is no thought put into the villains in this movie and Electro in particular has nothing to do with Peter's story except that Spider-Man has to fight someone who can create awesome visual effects. The whole reason he becomes a full on villain is because Spider-Man forgets his name...really? And while Harry Osbourne's motivation might be more believable, we don't get nearly as much time with his character development to care about him at all.
To wrap things up, the first Amazing Spider-Man was about a high-schooler who is trying to find answers about his parents, while at the same time trying to balance being a superhero with dating Gwen. Along the way he fights a villain that used to work at Oscorp, finds out a few things about his parents, and has to witness the death of a Stacy family member. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is about a high-schooler who is trying to find answers about his parents, while at the same time trying to balance being a superhero with dating Gwen. Along the way he....fights a villain that used to work at Oscorp, finds out a few things about his parents, and....has to witness the death of a Stacy family...wait what? Its the same exact movie. It's something we have all seen before and now it's just plain boring. It's a shame because Andrew Garfield IS Spider-Man when he is in the suit, and the romance is fun to watch, but there are just too many problems that make these achievements seem pointless. If this movie was released ten years ago, there's a good chance that it would have been viewed as a lot better. But today, when there are as many as five superhero films being released in a year, the same-old formula that this film uses just can't compare with the new and more exciting superhero films that are being released around it. Which is why The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is such an unfortunate disappointment.
Oh, and would it be too much trouble to at least say the classic line, "With great power comes great responsibility," somewhere in the film?!
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