THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 – The Review

Here’s the first official entry to “Summertime with the super heroes 2014″(Cap’s return last month would be considered Spring, one supposes). And it’s an old familiar masked face who got a major overhaul (re-boot, re-imagining, etc.) just two Summers ago. 2012’s THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN proved to click with audiences, so the director and principal actors are back for number two (no bathroom jokes, please!). They’ve gotten the revamped origin story out-of-the-way, so it’s on to new challenges, and a new super villain. Well, things need to be ramped-up, so it’s three, count em’, three super villains from the classic comic book rogues’ gallery: Electro, the Rhino, and, returning to the big screen from the original Sam Raimi-directed trilogy, the Green Goblin. Will they triple the excitement factor from the first flick, or will they cancel out the charm factor, mainly being the romance of Peter and Gwen? The multiple baddies sent SPIDER-MAN 3 (with Venom and Sandman) off the rails, and spurred a reboot of that other masked movie hero after BATMAN AND ROBIN (with Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, AND Bane!). Perhaps as Peter did with his web formula in the last outing, the film makers have made mixed all the elements together for the right block buster. Can Spidey still spin a web any size and catch movie goers, and thieves, just like flies?

Much as with the previous film, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2’s opening scenes flashes back to the doomed parents of Peter Parker, Richard and Mary (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz). We see more of them dropping lil’ Pete off before they meet their fate via the shadowy Oscorp corporation. Quick cut to a bright Spring day as that amazing hero Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) is in pursuit (along with the NYPD who now welcome the wall-crawler as an ally, not adversary) of a Oscorp truck (full of dangerous chemicals, natch’) hijacked by violent Russian mobster Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti) and his gang. During the chase, Spidey saves the life of Oscorp electrician Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), making quite an impression on guy (gee, they have a long chat considering all the havoc going on!). Luckily everything is wrapped (or webbed) up in time for Peter Parker to pick up his high school diploma along with his lady-love, and class valedictorian, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). But Peter is still haunted by visions of Gwen’s deceased father (Dennis Leary) and the two, once more, end their romance. Back at Osccorp, prodigal son Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) returns home to the death-bed of his father Norman (Chris Cooper) who, before expiring, informs his son that they share the same fatal disease. Harry’s only chance for life is the research done by Richard Parker. Elsewhere in the monolithic building, Max, now an obsessed Spider-Man fan, while tending to a wiring problem, falls into a vat of vicious electric eels. His thought-to-be-dead body is whisked away, but before the company scientists slice him open, Max rises from the slab, no longer a nebbishy nobody. He absorbs and controls electric current and dubs himself “Electro”.  Later Peter stops by Oscorp to offer his condolences to Harry (turns out they were grade schools pals, um, okay). at another visit Harry pleads with Peter to contact Spidey (Pete’s been selling pix of the hero to the Daily Bugle newspaper), because he believes that only Spidey’s blood will cure him. Between Harry, Max (who swears vengeance after a Time Square dust-up), and Gwen (they can’t stay apart), Spider-Man’s one mighty busy bug!

The good news from many comics fans is that Peter Parker has matured in the last couple years and has reeled in some of the bad behavior seen in the last film. Andrew Garfield does a terrific job conveying this new maturity. He’s not zealously still bent on revenge for Uncle Ben’s murder, but feels that he should be focusing his talents on helping humanity (but he still may be keeping an eye out for that neck tattoo). Garfield has less of the weepy seriousness of Tobey Maguire in the Raimi flicks and is more of the wise guy of the classic comics (not all the jokes fly, but we get that he’s aggravating his adversaries in order to distract them). He does his best work with the two main women in Pete’s life. Emma Stone and Garfield still have the same sparkle from the last outing although we’re not getting that first bloom of romance now. The early break-up scene still has bite, even though we know that they must mend their love down the line. No number of ghosts can keep these two apart. This adds an extra spice to their funny banter as they must team up (particularly good when they hide in a storage closet from Oscorp goons). As they demonstrated two years ago, Stone and Garfield’s duets are just as entertaining as the big action throw-downs. That other lady in Peter’s life is his adoring Aunt May played once again by the luminous Sally Field (I know she’s got two Oscars, but she’ll always be my TV “Gidget”). In several scenes she’s a wonderful straight man (oops, woman) to Garfield as he makes up wacky excuses to keep his crime-fighting activity hidden from her. Fortunately, later in the film, Field flexes her dramatic muscles when she discovers the wall chart Peter’s taped to his bedroom wall in order to unlock the mystery of his parents. May’s frustrated and hurt by the boy she’s grown to love even more after the loss of her much missed Ben. It’s the film’s emotional heart and Field knocks the scene out of the park (or multiplex).

It’s often noted that a hero’s tale hinges on the strength of the villainous character and that’s the film’s big stumbling block. Part two’s big selling point is the casting of Foxx as the (literaly) shocking baddie, but the talented actor has made some unfortunate choices, thanks in no part to the clichéd script. Prior to his accident, Max Dillon is a nerd caricature owing much to Jim Carrey in BATMAN FOREVER, TV’s “Steve Urkle”, and THE TOXIC AVENGER. He shuffles about with his shirt pockets packed with pens, nattering to himself as his stringy hair tries to droop over his eyes. I imagine that the producers of TV’s “In Living Color” would have wanted Foxx to tone Max down considerably. After the big accident, and an  inner-thought excruciating rap number, Max’s “Electro” spends the rest of the film glowering and issuing threats in a Batman-like gutteral growl. Rising star DeHaan doesn’t fare much better as young Osborn. With his hesitant delivery and preppy meets Peter Lorre fashion style, we wonder why Peter ever hung with him. Every casual conversation comes off as a veiled threat. After he’s assumed the Goblin persona, DeHann is saddled with spiked Bart Simpson-hair, jagged green teeth, and eyebrows that make him resemble a silent movie boogie man. That and his screeching cackle almost makes one nostalgic for Willem Dafoe’s gleaming helmet in the first Raimi SPIDER-MAN. Giamatti comes off a bit better in more of a cameo as the bald (with a wrap around-the-head barbed wire tatt), bombastic thug. Unlike the other two fellas, he leaves us wanting a bit more, and we know Mr. G can deliver.

Director Marc Webb was able to keep the story flowing in his first Spidey stint, but here the juggling act seems strained. Just as things start to heat up with Peter and Gwen, we’ve got to check in with Electro as he’s abused by a crazy, bespectacled German scientist (Dr. Kafka…really?!). Many of the action sequences lose their momentum as things are slowed down ala’ THE MATRIX to try to help us keep track of what’s happening. The mayhem has been inflated almost to the point of parody with the opening chase piling up police cars almost as a tribute to THE BLUES BROTHERS. The city destruction isn’t quite on a par with MAN OF STEEL, but it gets ponderously close. And without spoiling things, a character direction at the finale’ sucks the life out of the whole film franchise. Lousy script choice, really, one of several from the team behind the first two Transformers flicks and the last two Star Treks, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci with many bits veering dangerously close to the camp and kitsch of the 1960’s Batman TV show and the Joel Schumacher  bat-flicks. The action scenes have a nice depth, but seeing this in 3D isn’t necessary. Oh, and we didn’t see any credit bonus scenes, but there’s a big set-up for a rumored spin-off flick. The film’s main detriment may be the fact that it arrives within weeks of the vastly superior CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER. But then that movie was actually produced by Marvel. Although we see their logo at the start of Spidey 2, it’s not from Marvel Studios. Sony Pictures fought long and hard in the courtroom for the screen rights to the ‘web-head’ several years ago, so he’ll be toiling there for quite a while. The fact that the wizards that brought us Cap and his Avengers pals can’t give us their take on Spidey may be a bigger tragedy than anything in number two’s screenplay. Sure he can do whatever a spider can, but he can’t restore our sense of wonder mired in this clutter.  It’s a shame our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is stuck in this loud, uninspired noisy block of cinema city.

2.5 Out of 5