Amazing Spiderman 2 Review

When I did my review of the Amazing Spiderman, I said that I deeply loved the film. As oppose to the Raimiman films, which the kindest thing I could say would be to quote Norman Osborn in this movie, "We can do better. We deserve better." I saw the Amazing Spiderman 2 on opening day, and it surpassed all my expectations. Unfortunately a good chunk of the public disagrees with me. While still being in the minority. The people that hate the movie were enough to give it scores of 55% on RT, and 73% on IMDB. All the while boasting how superior Raimiman 2 was. Even going so far as to say that Raimiman 3 was better. Saying things like, "At least Raimiman 3 had character arcs and a plot, Amazing Spiderman doesn't have that. Amazing Spiderman 2 has no heart (The last sentence said by the bias Raimitard Trillbeereviews)." That is bullshit. Amazing Spiderman 2 does have character arcs and plot, and far better ones than any of the Raimiman movies. Especially Raimiman 2. Raimiman 2 SUCKED! It had an unlikable protagonist & love interest, 1-2 dimensional characters, a villain who is incompetent, plotholes, deus ex machina, pointless scenes & characters...and that's just the tip of the iceberg (You can see my review of that movie). But the best way to prove how Amazing Spiderman 2 is worthy of it's name is to simply review it.

Scientist Richard Parker records a video message to explain his disappearance. Later, he and his wife, Mary, are aboard a private jet hijacked by a man sent to assassinate Richard. With the pilot dead, the plane crashes, taking the lives of both Richard and Mary. But fortunately Richard Parker's video was uploaded to a secret lair. This is a great scene since it proves that the parents story wasn't dropped and forgotten like how some people believed. This was a part of what the original movie's slogan was talking about, "The untold story begins".

We cut to present with Spiderman free falling from a high vantage point and swinging into action to stop crime. This the best opening I have ever seen. The shots are well done using a mix between live shots and CGI shots. The CGI is so good that I couldn't tell that it was a fake Spiderman. They did it so well they could even replicate wind flapping throuhgh his costume. And Hans Zimmer the composer for this movie (In collaboration with the Magnificent 6, Pharrell and Johnny Harr), created the perfect theme for Spiderman, "I'm Spiderman". This song is lively & energetic, which fits perfectly for Spiderman. It even puts Danny Elfman's Raimiman theme to shame.

Spiderman pursues and apprehends Aleksei Sytsevich, who attempted to steal a truck containing plutonium vials. As we see Spiderman has vastly improved since we last saw him. He is more confident and capable than when he started out, thanks to his 2 years of experience. Thus he is able to save the day while making jokes. Alexis (Portrayed by Paul Giamatti) aka the Rhino is overtop and hammy with his Russian accent. But I can accept this since Rhino has never had much to his character outside just being a dumb brute that smashes things, which he lives up to later on in the film. And I do find Paul's performance to be enjoyable. As I did with my Amazing Spiderman review, I'm going to debunk the invalid complaints done by the people who hated this movie. One of them is how they think that Spiderman joking while dealing with Alexis as he is driving over cars is in dangering civilians' lives. No it isn't. Spiderman has his spider sense. It not only warns of danger to him, but danger to civilians and those closest to him. It didn't go off when the cars were being crushed by the truck, thus Spiderman is free to make jokes until otherwise.

To further prove my point during the chase, Spider-Man rescues OsCorp Industries employee Max Dillon. Max Dillon (Portrayed by Jamie Foxx) aka Electro is shown to be a loser who can't get the attention and respect that he should naturally get as a human being. This does remind me of Tobey Maguire's awful, stereotypical portrayal of a nerd for Peter Parker, but not annoying. I can also accept this since this is true to Electro's personality of having an inferiority complex due to people constantly treating him like dirt and even going so far as to ignore him, hence why he does whatever he can to get notice. This comes from one of his best stories, "Light the Night", which this movie will continue to base itself on. After Spiderman saves Max, Max is stunned that Spiderman treats him like a regular person but also because he told him that he is not a nobody, he needs him, and that he is his eyes and ears. As we can all guess, Spiderman was referring to the people of New York, but Max takes this to a more personal level. This will play a role later on the film.

While speaking by phone with Gwen Stacy, Peter sees a vision of her father, police captain George Stacy, reminding him to leave Gwen out of his affairs as Spider-Man. At the graduation, Gwen gives a heartlifting speech (We'll get to that at the end) and Peter arrives fashionably late (Plus Stan Lee cameo). Afterward, Peter meets with Gwen at a restaurant outside, but insists he needs to keep his vow to her father by staying away from her, and a frustrated Gwen ends their relationship. This was a great addition because people complained that Peter Parker disregarded the wishes of a dying man just to be with a girl. That's not the case. Spiderman in the original movie chose to be with Gwen because she needed emotional support since her father died. This was him applying Uncle Ben's lesson, "If you have power to do good in the world, you have a moral obligation to do those things." More so he has been feeling conflicting guilt between this and keeping his word to Cpt. Stacy. What he seeks from both choices is to keep Gwen happy and safe, but now he feels that the best thing to is end the relationship.

Confused Matthew said something in his review of the Amazing Spiderman 2, and I agree entirely. That a common theme that goes on in the movie and ties it together so beautifully is the theme of abandonment and how the characters respond to it. Peter and Gwen are the first to experience this theme. Peter abandoned (In a sense) by his parents and Gwen by Peter. We will see how they choose to respond later.

We then cut to a year later. Another thing I loved in this movie was that they still did the people's mixed reactions towards Spiderman's actions. Some think he is being a hero others think he is a dangerous vigilante who might even have a hidden agenda. What makes it even better is that we see Spiderman as a personal hero. We see him stop convenience store robberies, despite being sick. And we get to see one scene where Spiderman stops some bullies from picking on a nerd. He even goes the extra mile to help repair the kid's project and compliment on it. It shows that Spiderman even has time for those not being threaten on a huge scale, and won't treat them any lesser. This really shows what a great hero he is.

Peter's childhood friend Harry Osborn returns to Manhattan to see his terminally ill father Norman, CEO of OsCorp. This scene while short is very powerful, as we can see just what kind of relationship Harry has with his father. Harry thinks his father is an estranged parent who distanced himself and never gave him a proper childhood or father figure, and Norman thinks that Harry is spoiled and squandered his potential. We also see that Norman holds survival and pragmatism over sentimental things. This creates great conflict between the Osborns and a backstory & motivation for Harry. Norman explains his illness is hereditary, and Harry is at the age where it first develops. Norman gives Harry a small device he claims contains his life's work. The next day, Norman dies (He's not dead, Norman Osborn throughout his character's history has been known to fake his death for an agenda) and Harry is appointed the new OsCorp CEO (We also got a cameo for J Jonah Jameson via email; hope he gets reprised by J.K. Simmons). He accuses the OsCorp board of trying to wrest control from the Osborns, as they have been privy to Norman's secret biogenetic projects for foreign military powers. He appoints that Felicia Hardy(Who will later on become the Black Cat) will be his right hand. This will play a role in the late part of the movie. Harry is told next that Peter Parker has come to visit.
The 2 bond over old times with eachother, discuss what they've been up to since they've been separate, and how they felt their parents abandoned them. This creates a great connection between the 2. Many have said that Peter and Harry's relationship is rushed compared to the Raimiman trilogy as well as his transition to villainy. Again I say that is bullcrap. For one while Harry in Raimiman did get more exposure he was rendered pointless within the end of the 1st movie by presuming Raimiman killed his father even though Raimiman, the butler, or a forensics team can tell them his father killed himself, and considering he made revenge his sole purpose, he is freaking poitneless. While Harry and Peter's relationship is short in viewing comparison, it does show as strong bond. And we will see how not rushed Harry's descent into villany is.

Meanwhile thinking that they have become friends, Max idolizes Spider-Man. It is here we see the depths of Max Dillon's mind. His life as nobody has made mentally unstable, as he even goes so far as to have imaginary conversation with Spiderman, making it seem that Spiderman has come to his birthday party (With just him (In a deleted part it was suppose to be him and his mother, who calls him a loser and nobody needs him, which would've helped with the "You need me?" part). He has also done things such as dedicate a shrine to Spiderman, thought of ways to boost Spiderman's reputation (Even giving him the monicker Amazing Spiderman). This even extends to when he goes to work at Oscorp. He tells his fellow employee Alistair Smythe (Another villain of Spiderman, but not important right now) that he designed the power grid that Oscorp made for the city, to which Alistair says, "Right. And I'm Spiderman". This causes him to have outburst in his mind where he acts like a fanboy ready to maim a person for using their idol to mock them or their idol (I thought that was a bit of funny metaphor). This further illustrates how Max is treated illy as a nobody, as Oscorp has stolen his creation and the employees don't believe him. Further building up to his transition into he becomes. While tending to some maintenance in an OsCorp laboratory, he loses his balance and falls into a tank of genetically modified electric eels. They attack him, and he mutates into a living electric generator.

Meanwhile, Peter attempts to maintain a friendship with Gwen, but she reveals she may move to England for school. This is part of Gwen's involvement in the abandonment theme. She feels Peter has abandoned her for the saken of the people's need for him, and to protect her from his enemies. As a result she has chosen to move on with her life and go to college.

Before they can discuss it, Max (Now Electro) wanders into Times Square and accidentally causes a blackout by absorbing power from the power line. Spiderman arrives to defuse the situation. He at first doesn't remember Electro, which is a mild blow to his pride (But to be fair Spiderman hasn't seen him in a year and as he said his skin has mutated), but remembers when he mentions he was saved from Alexis. Spiderman tries to calm Electro down by saying he knows he's confused and scared and they can go somewhere & talk to ease the situation, while promising nothing bad will happen. This is an interesting light to show Spiderman in. Normally we see Spiderman resort to action first. Especially in the Raimiman movies, and reasoning comes second if at all. Here Spiderman learns that this guy isn't a villain (Yet)and just needs to be calmed down. He knows this is the best course of action because otherwise Electro will get hurt as the civilians. Electro explains that he just wanted everybody to see him, and now he finally has that attention, but he doesn't want people to hate and fear him.  Electro accidentally steps in a puddle, short circuits and is shot by a police sniper, causing him to retaliate. Spiderman stops Electro from attacking, but destroys one of his webshooters. Using his spare one, Spiderman saves the cop and gets the adoration and attention, while Electro is left with the public's hate. As this is going on, we hear another song done by Hans Zimmer and his crew called, "My enemy" in it we can hear Electro's thoughts. As he sees the monitors turn towards Spiderman and away from Electro, and the crowd turning against Electro, he thinks in his head that Spiderman betrayed him to get glory from the public. Feeling betrayed by the one person he thought was his friend he now considers Spiderman his enemy. Electro tries electrocuting Spiderman, and Spiderman dodges the attack. His spider sense activates and he sees the civilians are about to touch the rails conducting electricity. He uses his one webshooter to save them all. This was a innovative way to use Spiderman's spider sense using it as a detective vision (Not to reference Batman Arkham games). As Spiderman continues to fight Electro, Electro continues to see the public turn against him, and he, much like Frankenstein's monster resigns in the notion, "That no matter what I do I can't get these people to love me. If they see me as a menace then I will be one." and thus Electro considers the world his enemy. He continues to explore his powers by flying and shooting bolts that disintegrate people. He is finally stopped by when Spiderman & the fire department shoot a fire hose at him. Max is ultimately sent to Ravencroft.

In Ravencroft, Electro vows to get vengeance on everyone by taking power away & kill Spiderman, so that everyone will know what it is like to live in his world, " A world without power. A world without mercy. A world without Spiderman". This is also the scene where gives himself the name Electro.

Later at Oscorp, Gwen Stacy, who was in the crowd in Time Square, recognized Electro as Max Dillon (Who was also one of the few people who acknowledged him) and learns Oscorp has been covering up not only his accident, but his entire association with Oscorp to protect their reputation (Which was strained by the Lizard incident in the last movie). The guards then start chasing after Gwen. Elsewhere in Oscorp, The first symptoms of Harry's illness show, and he uses the device Norman gave him to deduce that Spider-Man's blood could help save him. He asks Peter, who has been selling photos of Spider-Man to the Daily Bugle, for help finding Spider-Man. Peter attempts to dissuade him, unsure of what effects the transfusion would have. This not only creates a tender moment between Harry & Peter, since Peter wishes to help but can't since there are too many risks, but it shows Harry isn't being rushed to villainy. He is acting like a normal person. When Peter asked, how is he going to get Spiderman's blood, he say, "Uh...I'll ask him." That is what a normal person would do. Harry had plenty of reasons before to be rushed into villainy, but the makers decided to make it a gradual, and that impressed me. Back with Gwen, she meets with Peter and tells him about the cover up. Peter helps her escape and she meets Harry in the elevator, and he deduces she is Peter's girlfrien and hope (Note that). I have heard a complaint (And a very stupid one at that)that the fact Gwen met Max Dillon and Harry at the same place  (Not all at once) was contrived. Here is what these people seem to have forgotten. Gwen, Max, and Harry ALL WORK AT OSCORP! They're bound to meet each other at some point. I haven't heard complaint this stupid and desperates since people saying they were going to bash this movie before came out so it would do poorly and Sony would give the rights to Marvel (The people who currently can't write Spiderman right) so he can be in the Avengers. -_-

Later Peter comes to Harry as Spiderman, and again refuses to give Harry his blood, due to the risk of killing him faster or making him a cross species and Harry develops an intense hatred towards Spiderman. Harry now has a reason to begin his descent into villainy. His one hope has been taken away from him, despite him pleading and bribing with money. The latter of which is akin to Harry in the comics, as he feels people always want his money and he needs it to get friends & respect.

Back with Peter, his aunt sees that he is looking for more info about his parents' disappearance and asks Aunt May for answers. She retorts with, "No Peter! I'm not going to tell you about your past, because I'm your mom! I raised you!" My friend, AshED65 mentioned this in his review and I agree as well, that this made her act like an actual aunt...a mom even. As oppose to Raimiman's Aunt May who was just a fortune cookie in human form. She eventually caves in and says that his parents were traitorus spies, which she has been deceived into believing. Peter then uses information to find the truth at Richard Parker's secret lair. He later sees a video explaining that Oscorp has been doing nefarious projects with his research, not just for the sake of curing Norman Osborn, but militarizing his resarch. Richard Parker also explains, while spider blood can cure diseases, only those of his bloodline can bond with spider DNA properly. Anyone else will suffer side effects. He also gives his version of the responsibility motive. Here we tie into Peter's reaction the abandonment theme. He felt he was abandoned by his parents and lost in cofusion & emptiness. In response he kept searching for answers and learned all this. This ultimately ties to what kind of character Peter will become as Spiderman.

Back at Oscorp, Felicia Hardy notices Harry is sick with the disease and dying. Feeling sympathy, she tells him that she overheard, Donald Menken (Norman's #2) has saved the spider venom in the "Special Projects" division. Unfortunately Donald Menken frames Harry for covering up Max's accident, and remove him as CEO. Harry having learned about Electro from Norman's device realizes Electro is the only one who can help him get back to Oscorp for the spider venom. Electro after being freed agrees to help Harry get back into Oscorp in exchange for the power grid, and that Spiderman gets killed for both of their vengeance. This ties into both Electro and Harry's role in the abandonment theme. Electro has been abandoned by Spiderman and has thus become a villain, and Harry has been abandoned by everyone and slowly becomes a villain. More so they have some things in common to justify the alliance. Both know what is like to be betrayed by Spiderman, and know what it is like to be cast aside. Again I must offer contrast to how Raimiman 3 offered that excuse that both Not Venom & Sandman wannabe wanted Raimiman dead so they should team up. The problem is Sandman wannabe only wanted to get money cure his daughter's cancer. This is one of the many reasons I say the whole "Raimiman 3 > Amazing Spiderman 2" is bullshit.

Electro helps Harry extort Donald into taking him to the special projects, and he is free to take over the power grid. Harry is then taken to the special projects bunker. There he finds a suit of armor and other equipment made by Norman, as well as venom from the now-destroyed genetically altered spiders. At first, they appear to cure him, but instead accelerate his illness and transform him into a hideous, goblin-like creature. The suit detects Harry's condition, and a built-in, emergency protocol stabilize his goblin condition, and he becomes the Green Goblin.

Peter then hears a voicemail from Gwen, telling him she was offered the scholarship in England and is heading to the airport earlier than expected. He manages to catch her and professes his love for her, and vowing to go wherever she goes, they agree to go to England together. Electro causes another blackout, and Peter heads off to fight him. Gwen wishes to help, but Spiderman webs her to a car to keep her out of trouble. Spiderman confronts Electro, who plans to control the power in New York, leaving the people in darkness, and make himself a god (Going back to being based on the Light the Night story). Spiderman begins the fight with Electro by trying to beat him with water, but Electro has learned from this tactic and evaporates the water. After a tense battle, Spiderman barely beats Electro with the help of Gwen by overloading Electro with electricity. This causes Electro to explode into pure electricity (He'll return for the Sinister Six).

Afterward, the transformed Green Goblin arrives equipped with Norman's armor and weaponry; upon seeing Gwen, Green Goblin deduces Spider-Man's true identity and, swearing revenge for being refused the blood transfusion, kidnaps her (Taking away his hope like Spiderman did to him). He fights Spider-Man at the top of a clock tower. Spider-Man subdues Harry, but despite his attempts to save Gwen, she falls, is caught by Spiderman's web (Which started off as a hand, nice symbolism), but whiplashes and causes Gwen's head to get injured & she dies. A distraught Peter gives up being Spider-Man and he spends several days throughout the year at Gwen's grave. Unlike the original Raimiman where they tried "adapting" this scene from the iconic story and left out Gwen & the love interest dying, this an accurate adaptation of the scene. So much so, that Jerry Conway, the writer said that nobody else understood or did an adaptation of his story more than the people who did this movie. He was so moved it brought him to tears.

Over the next five months, Harry is healing from his transformation at Ravencroft. His associate, Gustav Fiers (the "man in the shadows/Gentleman" from the first film), visits Harry and breaks Sytsevich out of prison. Equipped with a mechanical suit of armor, Sytsevich calls himself the Rhino and rampages through the streets. Peter, inspired by Gwen's graduation speech, returns to battle him as Spider-Man.

Unfortunately I must bring up more of the people's invalid complaints again. 1. That Rhino is being under utilized. As said before Rhino doesn't have much to his character outside being a dumb brute. And everyone working on the film said his role wasn't big, it would be bigger in the sequels. So they should stop complaining. 2. People have said that Spiderman acting the way he did makes it seem that Spiderman didn't care about Gwen's death.  They missed the point entirely. Being light hearted and humorous is who Spiderman is. Uncle Ben was close to him & died, yet Spiderman didn't change in personality, and the same is with Cpt. Stacy and Gwen. The point of the Death of Gwen Stacy in the comics and this film, is to point out that bad things will happen, but Spiderman can't let that haunt him and keep it from doing what he does and live life. This was his character arc (Unlike what people such Sam Gavin and Trillbeereviews would say). All these things are going to make Spiderman who he is.

Overall: I really loved this movie. I don't even think the title Amazing can justify how great this movie is with it's character usage and development and well done story. So I'll give the movie the score it rightfully deserves: 10/10.

And yes I'll do a review for all the other Amazing Spiderman movies and their spin offs.