Gwen Stacy: Emma Stone
Max Dillon/Electro: Jamie Foxx
Harry Osborn: Dane DeHaan
Aunt May: Sally Field
Donald Menken: Colm Feore
Felicia: Felicity Jones
Richard Parker: Campbell Scott
Aleksei Sytsevich: Paul Giamatti
Columbia Pictures presents a
film directed by Marc Webb. Written by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci &
Jeff Pinker and James Vanderbilt. Based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee
and Steve Ditko. Running time: 142 min. Rated PG-13 (for sequences of sci-fi
action/violence).
Two-years ago Sony, the
owner of the film rights to Marvel’s Spider-Man characters, decided to reboot
the franchise after a mere five years since the very successful original
trilogy. There was some legal mumbo jumbo involved about securing the film
rights so they wouldn’t revert back to Marvel, which would’ve made Spider-Man a
Disney film property.
Anyway, so “The Amazing
Spider-Man” is released in 2012 on an unsuspecting public, rehashing the same
origin story we’ve already seen for Peter Parker and his superhero alter ego
Spider-Man. Sure, some of the details changed. We get a girl by a different
name, Gwen Stacy, instead of Mary Jane Watson. Oscorp—the advanced technology
company founded by Peter’s best friend Harry’s dad, Norman Osborn—is somehow
involved in Spidey’s origin, including the mysterious disappearance of Peter’s
parents. Yet Harry is nowhere to be seen. We get one of the more obscure Spidey
villains with The Lizard, who looks great, but doesn’t really have a great beef
with the webslinger. The action is great, but the story feels redundant; and it
all feels a little like it was slapped together with some pretty sloppy
storytelling elements.
Now, we get “The Amazing
Spider-Man 2”, which is a foregone conclusion. But now, we’ve already rehashed
the origin story and start getting
into those more mysterious elements of Oscorp that were teased in the first
movie. Suddenly, this franchise is feeling fresh again, and despite a few of
those sloppy story elements hanging around, this thing is starting to click
again. Yes, some of the love story elements are similar to those from the first
trilogy, but they’re dealt with in a slightly different manner here. There are
too many villains, but the main opponent—another of Spidey’s b-class—is given a
treatment that makes him seem much more significant than his comic book
counterpart. This thing is on again.
We pick up with Spidey still
saving the day for the people of New York. He’s even become popular with the
police of the city. Only the Daily Bugle still calls him a menace. He and Gwen
have embraced their romance despite the fact that her father’s dying wish to
Peter was to stay away from her. Peter is haunted by him promise to Captain
Stacy, however, and eventually is overcome with guilt about it. It is Gwen
who’s had enough, though, and calls it off.
We’ve seen some of this
before in Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship from the first trilogy. In that one
it got to be a little much. Are they a thing? Aren’t they a thing? Will they be
together? Won’t they? Oh, just decide already! This time Peter’s hesitations
are a little better supported, and the screenwriters pull the reigns a bit on
the whole back and forth thing. It’s a little more of a mating dance than a
soap opera. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone do make for very good actualizations
of the comics’ Peter and Gwen.
Meanwhile, at Oscorp, Harry
returns to his father’s deathbed and it is revealed that all of the corruption
and theft of intellectual property in the name of science was not perpetrated
just to cure Norman of an affliction that turns his skin green and will
ultimately kill him, but he’s done it to save Harry as well. The condition is
hereditary.
Harry ascends to the Oscorp
CEO chair after his father’s death, but the corruption is so rampant that even
the man who has helped his father run the corporation can’t be trusted. Shut
out from company secrets that may hold his salvation, Harry sees Spider-Man as
his only hope. The spider that bit Spider-Man gave him powers that could help
Harry cure himself. He turns to his friend Peter to contact Spidey, but Peter
worries about how the notoriously unscrupulous company might use his blood and
how it might affect Harry, so he refuses.
Although Harry isn’t given
quite as much screen time, this allows his feeling of betrayal from his friend
seem a little more justified. It’s also nice that they make the whole persona
of the Green Goblin adapted by Harry to be more of a monster than just Harry
acting badly. Dane DeHaan, who we saw turn evil with superpowers in the much
lower budget “Chronicle”, makes for an easier to accept villain without James
Franco’s good looks and charm. It’s good that the filmmakers spend less time
with him, as that would run the danger of the rehash problems of the first
“Amazing Spider-Man”.
Desperate, Harry turns to
another of Oscorp’s castoffs, Max Dillon, an electrical engineering genius
whose power grid designs for the city were stolen by the very company he worked
for, with credit given elsewhere. Dillon feels invisible, until one of those
classic comic book freak accidents finds him shooting electric bolts out of his
fingertips. Jamie Foxx handles Max and later his transformation to the really
super villain Electro. His Max is just a little too comic book movie nerdy. I’m
not sure he’s a person that could function outside of an institution. However,
the film’s handling of his Electro personality is quite impressive. With a
little inspiration from “Watchmen”s Dr. Manhattan, this Electro is more
impressive than any version I’ve seen in the comics. He is an awesome force
that makes you believe Spidey just might not be able to handle this.
I’ve read some complaints
that this movie is overstuffed. Certainly, putting too much into the movie was
the downfall of “Spider-Man 3”. Here it might seem they’ve done the same thing
by including so many major plot lines, but unlike the series’ first stumble,
Director Marc Webb and his screenwriters take the time necessary to develop
these stories. They hold back where it’s not necessary, as with Harry Osborn;
but they dig deep where necessary, like in revealing the mystery of Peter’s
parents.
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