Marvel May - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, we talked about what is seen as one of the worst Spider-Man movies last week with Spider-Man 3, and now it's time to discuss a movie that was such a box office disappointment that Sony jumped into making a deal with Marvel Studios to have Spider-Man join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is my review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 once again directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Campbell Scott, and Sally Field, and also featuring newcomers like Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx, Felicity Jones, Chris Cooper, B.J. Novak, Colm Feore, Marton Csokas, and Paul Giamatti. 

          Now, the movie opens with a prologue in which scientist Richard Parker destroys some of his research, and sends the rest to a private server so that it cannot be taken and continued by Oscorp. Having taken his son, Peter, to live with the boy's aunt and uncle, Richard and his wife Mary go on the run, but are attacked on the plane they're traveling on and are killed. Years later, and we see Peter doing phenomenal work as Spider-Man, where he thwarts a high speed chase involving petty criminal Aleksei Sytsevich, who has ripped off several canisters of plutonium from Oscorp. During the chase, Peter saves the life of a pedestrian, who turns out to be Max Dillon, an electrical engineer at Oscorp. After stopping Sytsevich, Peter makes it to his graduation from high school, and he and Gwen get pictures together. 

          It's around this time where Harry Osborn, son of Oscorp CEO Norman Osborn, returns to New York from Europe, where he sees his father dying from a rare disease, and said disease is genetic, passing from father to son, which means that Harry will start to contract it very soon. Norman dies, and Harry assumes control as new CEO of Oscorp. Harry eventually reunites with Peter, who he thinks can help him by putting him in touch with Spider-Man, as he discovers that Spider-Man got.his powers from the bite of a spider that was part of a research project being worked on by Norman Osborn and Richard Parker as an attempt to cure Norman's disease, the same disease that now afflicts Harry. 

        Meanwhile, Max is working on his birthday, and is sent to the lower levels of Oscorp to fix an electrical line, but gets electrocuted when the power isn't shut off by his request, and he falls into a cylindrical tank of electric eels, that attack and mutate Max into a being of pure electricity. Max then makes his way to Times Square to feast on the electrical energy in the area, and faces off against Spider-Man, who is there to prevent several bystanders from getting hurt because of Max. Max, now going by the moniker of Electro, is captured and taken to a facility known as Ravencroft. 

         Peter and Gwen, meanwhile, are having a rough patch in their relationship, as he wants to be with her, but her aim is to attend college overseas at Oxford. At the same time, Peter continues to learn about the work his father did at Oscorp. Peter, as Spider-Man, goes to meet with Harry, and tells him that his request for Spider-Man's blood can't be granted, as it may do something bad, and may not cure Harry after all. Harry then learns from his assistant, Felicia, that there is extracted venom from the spiders in a lower vault beneath Oscorp. However, Oscorp executive frames Harry for a number of things, including what happened to Max, and takes control of Oscorp from him. Harry then goes to break Max out of Ravencroft to get him back into Oscorp. 

        Peter, meanwhile, finds his father's lab in an abandoned Subway station, where he finds video testimony from his father, where he reveals that Norman Osborn and Oscorp planned to use his research involving the spiders for military applications, but he DNA locked the spider venom to himself, meaning that without the bloodline of Richard Parker, Oscorp would be unable to continue his research without him. Harry, meanwhile, injects himself with the spider venom, but as predicted it accelerated his condition, turning him into a more hideous, goblin-esque monstrosity, forcing him to don a technological suit with life support function, which is, of course, attached to a glider. 

       Peter leaves a message for Gwen along the suspension cables of a bridge, and he agrees to go to London with her, as she accepted the Oxford scholarship. Unfortunately, Max causes a massive blackout, forcing Peter and Gwen to work together to stop him, first by making his web shooters immune to Max's electric attacks, and then by causing an overload at the electrical grid that he has gained control of, and happened to design, by the way. After Max is defeated, and power is restored, Harry arrives, and upon seeing Gwen, finally figures out that Peter is Spider-Man. The two have a fight in the clock tower, and Gwen is dangling by holding onto one of Peter's webs. Harry gets knocked out, but unfortunately the web snaps, and Gwen falls. Peter tries to save her, but the web that grabs her doesn't keep her back and neck from snapping, and she dies. Harry is locked up in Ravencroft, and Peter gives up on being Spider-Man. 

        Months later, Harry is visited by a man named Gustav Fiers, who helps Harry set up a group to wreak havoc using weapons in the Oscorp vault, starting with Aleksei Sytsevich, who is given a mechanized suit, and begins calling himself the Rhino. Peter, after watching a video of Gwen's speech at graduation, suits up once more and faces off against the Rhino, and the movie ends as the fight begins. 

      Okay, so what worked about this movie. Well, the connections between Peter and Gwen, as well as between Peter and Aunt May, definitely worked. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Sally Field definitely did a great job in this movie, and I absolutely enjoyed all three of them. Continuing to flesh out Peter's father and his connections to Oscorp was awesome, and Campbell Scott and Chris Cooper both did really well as Richard Parker and Norman Osborn. I will admit that I was stunned by the death of Gwen Stacy in the movie. I mean, I had a feeling that it was going to happen in this movie, but when it happened, it really felt like a shocking moment. The raw emotion on Garfield's face when it happens is just amazing, and you really feel the heartbreak that he's going through. 

        Unfortunately, the fact that we have yet another Spider-Man movie overstuffed with too many villains is an issue. Not that any of them were bad, because both Jamie Foxx and Paul Giamatti were excellent choices for Electro and Rhino, and Dane DeHaan was fine as Harry, but the designs were weird. I mean, I get it, still going for realism and trying to ground them in real science, but I think that having a man become a being of electricity from being attacked by electric eels in a cylindrical tank is stretching the science a little too much. Plus, I really don't get why they went with the Ultimates route from the comics and made Electro blue, especially since his color scheme has always been yellow in every other incarnation. And why does the Rhino suit look like a frickin Decepticon? This is Spider-Man, not Transformers! But the real issue is in trying to ground the Green Goblin in reality. Honestly, I have no idea what writers Jeff Pinker, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman were thinking with that one. That was just too weird, even for me. 

       I'm also not a fan of how we got fan favorite characters from comics, like Felicia Hardy, Alistair Smythe, and Ashley Kafka, and they either didn't do much, or weren't quite faithful to their counterparts from the comics. For example, Felicia Hardy in the comics is a jewel thief known as the Black Cat, and is an adversary and occasional love interest of Spider-Man. In this movie? Nah, she's just Harry's assistant. As for Smythe? He was an enemy of Spider-Man in the comics, known as the Spider Slayer. In this movie? Nah, let's just put B.J. Novak in a suit and have him be an executive at Oscorp. And, why did they make Kafka a dude in this movie? I mean, I am a big fan of Marton Csokas, but I have no clue what they were going for with him in this movie, and why he was put in this role, given that in the comics, Kafka was a woman who would have one of her clones become the Queen Goblin. 

          The music in this movie, which was primarily by Hans Zimmer, was really good. Zimmer was joined by a supergroup that included the likes of Pharrell Williams, Junkie XL, Johnny Marr, and a few others, and we're referred to as the "Magnificent Six," a nod to the villainous group known as the Sinister Six. I really enjoyed the use of dubstep in the music involving the character Electro. And honestly, it does make sense, as Electro is an electrical villain, and dubstep is a pretty hardcore form of electronic music. I also enjoy the end credits song "It's On Again" by Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar. And honestly, I think that the song should be featured in other superhero movies, because it really has a superhero vibe to the song, not exclusive to Spider-Man. 

       So, what happened here? Why is it that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the last entry of this particular Spider-Man series? Well, I think that it's mostly to do with writing, and trying to sow the seeds for future movies. I mean, if you watch the closing credits, they were showcasing the planned lineup for a live action version of the Sinister Six, which would have consisted of Aleksei as Rhino and Harry as Green Goblin, as well as Doc Ock, Vulture, Kraven the Hunter, and one of either Mysterio or Chameleon. Unfortunately, the film, while doing well at the box office, was too divisive amongst critics and viewers. I think that maybe the fans were still a little sore about the circumstances surrounding The Amazing Spider-Man films, and probably were wanting to see the character of Spider-Man join the Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which would happen two years after the release of this film in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. 

        All in all, there is a lot to enjoy about this movie, but not enough to ignore the plot and pacing issues. I'm giving The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a mild rating of 3.95/5. Well, that'll wrap up my reviews of all of the non- MCU Spider-Man movies for Marvel May. Don't worry, though, because I still have a few more reviews to get through, including this Friday's review of the 2004 film The Punisher, as well as next week with the 2005 film Fantastic 4 and its 2007 sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer. But, join me later on for a brief touchback on the film Spider-Man: No Way Home later today. This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys later as Marvel May continues.