I’d like to start out by saying I’m a huge fan of “The Amazing Spider-Man“.  I thought the first movie of the new series was great.  And what an amazing turn around from “Spider-Man 3” and the dancing-emo Peter Parker.

Warning, minor spoilers to follow.  The first ASM started off showing a little bit of Peter’s parents rush to leave behind their life.  ASM set up a little bit of mystery as to why they had to go, but we knew it was related to Oscorp.  I guess when they started writing ASM2 they decided to stick to that formula, because after a small recap from ASM1′s opening scene we get to see what happened to Richard and Mary Parker.

After that we are fast forwarded to current time and get to see Peter struggle with dating Gwen.  At the end of ASM Peter had promised Captain Stacy that he would stay away from his daughter, as to not put her in danger.  Of course, as often happens with young love, disobeying a father’s request was bound to happen.  We get a glimpse into the hearts of Gwen and Peter as they fight over what to do.  After the breakup we really get to see how much they care for each other.  It’s just too bad that most of the relationship development we see is with the two being broken up.  Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield have a great onscreen presence, and rather than exploring how good of a couple Peter and Gwen were we only get to watch them pine over each other.  There is a bit of banter between the two but a couple doesn’t need to be broken up in order to show they care for each other.  The Peter Parker-Gwen Stacy relationship is something that is pretty essential to this movie, and unfortunately between ASM and ASM2 we are only witness to the shell of their relationship.

Now for the villains of the movie.  This was my biggest concern going into the movie.  The last time Spiderman had to face three villains we were left with the disastrous  Spiderman 3.  Having Electro, Green Goblin, and Rhino all in the same movie seemed like it was going to be a return to something that just didn’t work.  But it did work… kind of.  Instead of having too many antagonists this movie felt like it didn’t have an antagonist.  Peter spends so much time with his Gwen relationship and figuring out stuff about his dad, it feels as if the villains are just a side plot.

Lets start with Electro.  Max Dillon was pathetic.  Not pathetic in the same way as the comic book Electro is.  A villain that is constantly defeated by Spider-Man and is left looking like a fool is one thing, but this Electro didn’t deserve the bad rap.  Max is just an everyday guy and is overlooked to the point where he feels nonexistent.  At one point Gwen runs into him at work and remembers his name and he is genuinely excited that somebody remembered his name.  When Spiderman goes out of his way to save Max it makes him feel special, so of course he becomes a fanboy.

Max is just a pathetic guy who wants to be recognized by someone.  So when he appears as Electro and all cameras are on him he’s finally noticed and feels good for once.  Then Spiderman shows up and barely even remembers Max so he starts to get a little grumpy.  The spotlight then changes to Spiderman and Max goes full blown crazy.  But the character himself leaves you feeling really sorry for the guy.  Which brings me to another point, why does Spiderman have to be loved by the city in all these movies?  He’s supposed to be a vigilante that the city is ungrateful to have.

I will say this for Electro though, his first fight with Spiderman is a pretty great scene.  The team managed to do some great stuff with the soundtrack, and the special effects were amazing for the fight.  Everything was very impressive, then Spiderman had to show up wearing a fireman’s hat and ruin everything.  I think even I would join the Spiderman’s rogues gallery after this movie.

Next up is Harry Osborn, the Green Goblin.  The original Spider-Man series did a much better job of the Green Goblins, even though it was pretty stupid in its own way.  Harry shows up to see his dad die from a genetic disease.  Norman Osborn looks pretty bad and could’ve been a great Green Goblin.  But in this series Green Goblin 1 is just skipped over all together.  So Peter shows up, after not seeing Harry for 8 years, and they have a bit of an awkward friendship.  There’s not a clear friendship between the two.  There’s no Norman referring to Peter as the son he never had.  There’s no small bits of jealousy among their bromance, there’s not even a bromance.  They’re just two kids that lost their parents and once kinda sorta knew each other.  I won’t go into the rest of how Harry becomes the Goblin or why he wants to kill Peter, but lets just say they weren’t good enough friends for him not to struggle with the decision.

Lastly, the Rhino.  This guy didn’t even have enough screen time to be in the movie.  Rhino in ASM2 is a dude in a tank.  Nothing more.  He stomps around, very slowly, and shoots missiles and bullets.  Cops can’t really hit him cause he’s in a tank even though he lower’s the chest cavity several times, revealing his face, so he can spout out some back talk.  Actually if they had put a guy in a tank it would’ve been much better than putting Rhino in this movie.  I say that because of the last scene we see of him; Rhino’s tank/robot thing getting on all fours and galloping towards Spiderman.  It just looks stupid.  Also *MAJOR SPOILERS* this is how they end the movie.  No we don’t get to see Spiderman kick any butt, no we don’t get to see what happens, all we see is Rhino galloping.

I had very high hopes going into this movie.  I thought the ASM series could redeem the Spider-Man movie franchise.  Sony Pictures has only proved that the only thing they care about in the Marvel Universe is how much money they can make and how long they can keep the rights to Spider-Man.  All-in-all Amazing Spider-Man two is a great movie, with a not so great story.  There’s so much room for improvement you could drive a Rhino tank through it.

-F

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