Despite Foxx’s valiant efforts, even the best actor couldn’t save writing as bad as he deals with, and his character’s motivation is never quite compelling enough to be believable. The same is true of Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), who rushes an experimental treatment for his terminal illness and becomes the Green Goblin as a result. I can believe Harry’s desperation, because DeHaan is a great actor; but I can’t believe his stupidity. With two unconvincing villains, the film’s superhero strand fails to come together- a problem which the first film also encountered, in the under-motivated Doctor Connors (Rhys Ifans).
You might suspect I’m being overly harsh. In truth, there are some good things about the film. Running separate to the main superhero narrative is the love story between Andrew Garfield as Peter, and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. They have some incredible chemistry, and fans of the first film will be glad to know their shared scenes are as funny and romantic as ever. Granted, Peter does act like a dick to Gwen for a lot of the film- his main two emotional states are ‘Your dad told me not to date you’ and ‘You shouldn’t be allowed to professionally develop by going to Oxford’- but they are sweet when they are together. Apart from Peter stalking her for weeks when she breaks up with him, and her finding this cute. Hm. I guess dating is different in America?
In the third act, what little steam the film has dissipates. (I’m about to spoil the movie- if you want to know what happens, just see the film, or even watch the trailers, which give everything away). Electro plugs himself into the city’s power grid, and thanks to some quick thinking from Gwen, Peter is able to see off the villain. However, there’s another villain in play- the newly-mutated Green Goblin, Harry Osborn, who flies in and takes Gwen. Peter pursues valiantly, but is unable to save Gwen from falling to her death.
This moment is well known to any Spider-Man reader, and in contrast to the rest of the film, is incredibly well handled. The sudden dissolution of Gwen and Peter’s fierce love, believably grown over two films, deals a sound blow to the emotions and encourages the tearducts to do their thang. Emma Stone brings so much vitality to Gwen that to see her snuffed out is shocking, silencing, and unbelievable.
However, this isn’t enough to save the film, as its inclusion in a movie which is so erratic- in its approach, tone, characterisation, even musical genre of soundtrack- means it is ultimately worthless. We’re watching a movie where noted genius Peter Parker writes a post-it underneath a photo of his ex-girlfriend which reads ‘Can’t I have you as well?’. Where filmmakers are so pre-disposed to reading out subtext, theme and character, aiming at the lowest common denominator, there can’t be any true emotional connection. And that’s where this film felt false to me. I didn’t like The Amazing Spider-Man, but I felt it was Marc Webb‘s movie, and that it made sense in itself. It had his visual sense all over it, and a lot of heart. This film doesn’t feel like that, and it’s much worse off for it.
From the uneven and irrelevant plot, through the poorly characterised protagonists and boring villains, to the obligatory Avengers-esque sequel hooks, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not worth the money you’ll pay to see it. Wait until it’s on DVD. Wait until it’s on Film4 and you can’t find the remote. Don’t reward this kind of lazy filmmaking with money you earned.
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