We've always known that Spider-Man's most important conflict has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that his greatest battle is about to begin. It's great to be Spider-Man. For Peter Parker, there's no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen. But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro, Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn, returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Movie Reviews
I can't say I went in to the theater with high hopes. I did enjoy the first installment of this unnecessary reboot, almost anything seemed like a step up from "Spiderman 3", and Garfield felt way more natural than Maguire, and Emma Stone is always welcome. But after seeing the first trailer I thought it seemed like a total mess, and I wasn't convinced by Electro one bit. Unfortunately I was spot on, I hoped to at least get an enjoyable time at the cinema with my friends, but ended up feeling quite uncomfortable and laughing throughout most of the film.
Garfield and Stone has their chemistry and does their best with the incredibly thin script and cheesy one-liners, but their potential quite beautiful scenes together gets lost in the over-full and messy plot. I can't buy an emotional scene that is interrupted by heavy dub-step and a blue electric guy.
Oh Jamie Foxx, how did you go from Django to this? Before he goes all CGI-Electro he tries to play the nerdy unseen scientist (with a worse comb-over than Christian Bale's 'Hustle'-look). As Electro it's hard to say how much is his fault, and what can be blamed on the rest, I'd go with the rest. You don't sympathize with him nor do you believe how fast he becomes this super-villain.
Everything that Dane DeHaan did so well in "Chronicle" just feels unnatural and (maybe not misplaced, but wrong) here. And his character development is way too rushed and quite unnecessary for this film, it just becomes another sub-plot standing in the way of what really matters.
Sally Field does good work as Aunt May, but leaves no lasting mark. Paul Giamatti's Russian criminal is just in the way and only gives a couple of dreadful and laughable scenes. And then there's the mad German scientist named Kafka and I rest my case.
The action and visuals isn't bad, but still doesn't make up for the low "trying to be Marvel"-comedy and horrific soundtrack, a soundtrack that almost itself destroys the film throughout the exhausting 142 minutes. And sometimes it feels like the movie is taking us as an audience to be stupid, with pointers to what is going to happen. I would like to say that you might enjoy it if you just try and see it for what it is, but it's hard, but hopefully possible! It had an interesting start, with a glimpse inside the past and Peter's parents, but it's left underdeveloped, as is almost everything else, to make room for all its action and villains.
It's amazing how the difference between two big-budget superhero-movies can be so huge, if you put this against "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", a great and, opposed to this one, original film.
Oh how I wish that Marc Webb could have continued with a "(500) Days of Summer"-esque movie instead, he could keep the sub-plots starring Garfield, Stone and DeHaan, and it could very well be a great film, and probably not such a waste of talent.
I was amazed about the fact, that Peter Jackson said NO to too much CGI, that he used real sets, models, amazingly detailed costumes and beautiful cinematography.
ALL of that went down the drain with this one... this boring, crappy looking CGI-disaster, this Mexican Standoff in Middle Earth.
What was the "story" again? Some greedy dwarf does not want to come out of his cave - and suddenly all kinds of armies show up... to fight each other in a ridiculous way...
The last 10 minutes then felt like some different move... somehow like the original Trilogy... BECAUSE THERE WERE REAL LANDSCAPES.
It felt like something really beautuful standing next to something really ugly. But this short moment of "how to make a nice, decent, GOOD movie" did not save and also not redeem this perversion of cinematic history! This could as well be titled: WORLD OF WARCRAFT - THE MOVIE.
Other titles: Legolas, Dwarfes, CGI-ORCS and other stupid stuff in: TO HELL WITH GRAVITY! Watching THE FELLOSHIP OF THE RING makes you believe in the good things in this world: Friendsip, beauty, decency, good filmmaking... everything that is right and just and good. Everything a guy like Aragorn would put into an epic speech before a battle that mattered.
The battlescenes of the CGI-Creatures did not matter. And having too many trolls with too many artificial limbs - or an Orcs with a Klingon Bathleth-Prosthesis (and I usually like STAR TREK references... maybe just not in a Middle Earth Movie) I am not just disappinted. I am shocked by this mess. How can the SAME director that made the BEST TRILOGY EVER do this? Well, the same question has been asked countless times about George Lucas.
Good Job, Peter - you killed filmmaking. I am also not sure if you are honest about promoting this disgusting gimmick called 3D or you just have to do it because the industry wants you to do so! Damn it - this is the time of bad movies gone too far, the age of darkness... J.R.R. Tolkien could write some words of truth about this - but he's dead (lucky him... so he does not have to bear what they did to his beautiful vision!) This is the age of darkness indeed. The age of greed! I tend to believe that it is not completely Peter Jackson's fault - it is the perverted, greedy film-industry. They do not think in art or beauty or decency - they think and care only about profit! They exploit everything.
The sad part is the people defending all that because the wrongly connect it to something that is good and beautiful. But the connection is wrong! Just because it has partly the same actors, the same director and is supposed to play in the same universe as the good trilogy does not make it the same.
George Lucas tried (and failed) in doing the same. Overkilling something with CGI and bad writing is not filmmaking - it's a shame! Personally, I do the same here that I do with this terrible STAR WARS PREQUEL TRILOGY: I never watch it again. I imagine the events of Bilbo's adventure with the dwarfes from the visual and artistic perspective of Ian Holm in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS - there could still be something great being made - but please by another director.
Somebody young and hungry and talented. Some person like the Peter Jackson of the 1990s. Somebody who LOVES the source-material and has a vision of it - but not a financial one! What also works - and it's totally for free: Imagination. Having a good actor talking about something rather than showing it invokes a million times more beautiful images than cramming it down your throat with a CGI funnel! Anyway - whatever. This needed to be said! And somebody like RED LETTER MEDIA should really make a review similar to the STAR WARS PREQUEL reviews! May the Force be with you - GandalfThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) movie download