Too many damn villains
I’ve previously mentioned that having three villains could lead to a big sloppy mess of a movie, and I was pretty much right on. Now Max Dillon and Harry Osborn are very developed characters. Their alter egos Electro and Green Goblin are not. First off, there’s really only three Electro-centric scenes. For most of the time he’s pushed to the side and it’s easy to forget that he’s even in the movie. Even worse is Green Goblin, who gets maybe five minutes of screen time, and that’s being generous. He’s only Green Goblin for around 15 minutes of real time. And as Rohan pointed out in his review, they don’t explain how he knows to work the glider. I couldn’t even stand on a skateboard the first time I got on one, let alone on a rocket controlled air glider, but he’s proficient enough to go toe to toe with Spider-Man on it?
Everybody talks about how Spider-Man 3 had too many villains and I tend to sway on how I feel about that. Harry Osborn is a necessary villain to the story of Spider-Man and was set up in the previous films, while Sandman was pretty well developed in my opinion anyway. People complain about Venom being in the movie, but that was the studio shoving him in there and Eddie Brock at least had some personal ties with Peter that played into his arc overall. Rhino has no place in this movie. NO F&$@ING PLACE in this movie. He is outside of the plot 100 percent. He is only there to set up a Sinister Six movie. This is Paul Giamatti’s worse performance of his career, he is completely wasted and downright awful in this. He has no depth, no decent dialogue, and doesn’t even have any character. And his being there really bogs down the movie, which leads into…
The movie is a mess
Because the movie needed to shove in The Rhino it throws in scenes that are unnecessary to the story. There’s an epilogue that is completely out of place with the rest of the movie, and while overall this is a lot darker than The Amazing Spider-Man it falls into the same tone as the first one with Spider-Man messing around with Rhino and cracking jokes while he runs an 18 wheeler into civilian cars. This movie reminds me a lot of Iron Man 2. It’s got too many characters and too many subplots. Nobody feels like they’ve got enough screen time. By having Rhino in the movie it takes away from Electro and especially Green Goblin. Even Peter Parker himself, who also seems like he’s barely in the movie.
It’s too derivative
This movie, just like the first one, feels like a collage of other superhero movies. Electro’s formation scene was reminiscent of Dr. Manhattan’s from Watchmen, Oscorp is full of corporate espionage, similar to Batman Begins, and Rhino’s suit looks like Marc Webb dug in Michael Bay’s trashcan and found rejected fan art for Transformers: Age of Extinction or the Iron Monger suit from Iron Man. Even Harry’s loft is exactly the same as the one from the Sam Raimi movies. I’m not exaggerating. It has the exact same design. This franchise needs to focus on being iconic on its own, rather than ripping off other movies.
It has no story
After you see the movie you might think to yourself… what was the story? I still don’t know. I know there’s a bunch of subplots. There’s Harry and Peter’s relationship. There’s Peter and Gwen’s relationship. There’s Peter finding out about his father. There’s Harry and Oscorp. There’s Spider-Man and Max. Now most of the time I imagine a writer crafts an overall story they want to tell before thinking of stuff for characters to do. Here it seemed to be the opposite, with the writers having separate mission statements that don’t interweave very well, if at all. Peter has no arc of any kind and although he’s creating enemies there’s no lesson to learn here. He does nothing to deserve the plight he goes through in this movie, because he has so little control over his own universe.
It’s all set up
The first Amazing Spider-Man movie suffered due to being a place holder. It’s just something that was made as a foundation for future movies. Now Iron Man was also a movie that did set up an entire franchise of franchises, and it did leave some strands open, but for the most part it’s a contained story. There’s no nod to a wider universe except the post credits stinger. With this sequel, we get to where all the stuff in the first movie should pay off, but it doesn’t. We just learn stuff we already know about Oscorp and Peter’s father.
*MAJOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*
Gwen Stacy dies. Anyone who’s ever read a comic or even seen the trailer will probably know that already. It’s so incredibly cheesy how it’s teased throughout the movie, with Gwen Stacy getting a scholarship offer elsewhere and her opening monologue where she gives a speech about what it means to be alive. Aside from that I just kept thinking to myself, why? Why kill Gwen Stacy off in the second movie? It makes no sense. The entire franchise has been building up to this and I’m scratching my head as to why. Especially as the movie wraps up that storyline in literally five minutes. Peter stops being Spider-Man until Rhino attacks the city. This is something that should have had a huge effect on this franchise, but it’s all wrapped up in a neat little bow. Why? Because we need another Rhino scene to end the movie. I spit in the general direction of whoever made this decision.
*SPOILERS OVER**
Overall The Amazing Spider-Man 2 only really functions as a fun movie, and a set-up for The Sinister Six. The best part of the sequel is the villains they set up (and this franchise is in danger of having Batman syndrome where the villains are the star instead of the hero), but there must be a way to set up Sinister Six while telling a complete story. Captain America: The Winter Soldier set up and changed the dynamic of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, but still worked as a great sequel to The First Avenger. I enjoyed The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but the more I think about it my enjoyment weakens. Fans may tell me I’m wrong, but for me this is another misstep in a once great franchise.
Anthony Stokes is a blogger and independent filmmaker.
Originally published May 2, 2014. Updated April 15, 2018.
