Film Rating: PG 13
Running Time: 142 minutes
Director: Marc Webb
Main Actors: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane Dehann
My Rating: 7 out of 10
Continuing the story of tumultuous teen Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), this sticky sequel furthers Spiderman’s past, present and inevitable future. Now that he’s established himself as a hero-type vigilante, Peter is swinging around New York looking for crime. His on-off girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) is still working at Oscorp and is applying to Oxford. While on one of his crime fighting escapades Spiderman saves Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), who is a nobody working for Oscorp and presently becomes obsessed with the web-slinging idol (which becomes a problem later).
As the story progresses, Dillon turns himself into Electro in an accident while working late at Oscorp. Meanwhile, disturbed Harry Osborn (Dane Dehann) returns home to his father’s deathbed and takes over the company after his father’s death. Harry and Peter are friends, but the friendship becomes strained after Harry asks Peter for something he is hesitant to give. All the while Peter is still obsessing over his parents and finding out who they really were.
If you’re looking for a complicated and sappy superhero movie, you’re there. Although the deeper storyline and inner turmoil did add depth, the promotional commercials were misleading in depicting an action-packed adventure with three villains for Spidey to fight. That most definitely did not happen. The Rhino is barely in the movie, along with the Green Goblin. And the deeper storyline told all—there was hardly anything left to the imagination or to detective work for the viewer, as the first Amazing Spiderman held. I was expecting a bunch of pulse-pounding action and received ridiculously long slow motion scenes. They were nice, but were over-exemplified and lasted far too long. Those types of scenes work better in Sherlock Holmes, not action flicks. And as always, Peter was walking around in his tortured state, moping about his girlfriend, parents and hero status.
Now don’t think that the movie was terrible; the computer-generated imagery (CGI)and story were both great. It was just a let-down from what the trailer implied and what the first movie set forth in expectations. The slow motion was for the most part used effectively, and was necessary to exemplify the CGI of the electricity and flying webs. Even though I’m not a comic book reader, I’m sure this flick was closer to the originals than the first set (directed by Marc Webb). I also enjoyed the relationship between Harry and Peter much more than in the first set (even if I liked James Franco more as Harry) for the way it showed a much deeper connection in their past.
Of course the acting was impeccable; Garfield performed wonderfully as a hilarious and tortured teen, and Stone was a super-smart, caring and funny girlfriend. Foxx was surprisingly talented as the nerdy and socially awkward engineer and Dehann was wonderfully creepy and contempt as the company’s inherited billionaire.
Overall, I was disappointed with the action and how slowly the movie moved along; I kept waiting for the next action scene just to watch more kissing and talking. But, the CGI and storyline made up for the lack in action (I mean, come on it’s a superhero movie!) and the actors picked up the slack with humor and characterization to their roles, which doesn’t always happen. We’ll have to see how number three turns out (two sequels are already in the works), and I’ll make sure to lower my expectations ahead of time; maybe it will be a reverse in quality from the original set.