By J.R. Johnson
Spider-Man is one of the few comic book characters that is a fixture in pop-culture and a fictional icon. After a short hiatus during the Sam Raimi trilogies, a new Spider-Man helmed by Marc Webb, came to fill the void. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is the latest superhero flick that hopes to keep that space filled and improve upon the mistakes of its predecessors. But it doesn’t do too well either.We return to find good ole web-head back in New York City, swinging from the top of skyscrapers and catching bad guys, you know, doing his Spider-Man thing. Life outside of his hero gig has begun to invade in a more powerful way than Spidey thought. High school is over, now it’s time to move on to the next phase of life. However, being Spider-Man doesn’t allow for much of that. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is forced to take on a plethora of villains (Green Goblin, Electro and the Rhino) hoping to bring an end to him and the ones he loves.
The film spirals out like a comic book, a very mediocre one. The story transitions from one point to the next at a rapid pace, eventually it feels like the pace the film rides on will be an easy adjustment, but it never comes because there’s no consistency. It’s fast at one moment, unbearably slow at the next. It’s nothing like the first film “The Amazing Spider-Man” (’12).
In fact, it is much more like its silver screen forefather, “Spider-Man 3” (’07), there is just way too much going on. Every bit of development is smashed into a small block, and nothing ever feels fully formed. There is really nothing suitable enough to build on, but the movie proceeds to push the plot on anyway.
At the conclusion of the film, it feels like it was more of a segue way to the next movie than a sequel. With the next films in the growing Spider-Man franchise already in development, it looks like there was too much thinking ahead and they took their eyes off the ball on this one.
A character like Spider-Man deserves much better. Nowadays it seems pretty hard to mess up a comic book movie, there isn’t much you need to do to make it watchable, but somehow “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” found a way.
Source:
blackflix.com
