Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-man 2

We are super behind on movies that are in the theater thanks to how much time finding a new house is taking.  But this weekend, we were able to get out and see The Amazing Spider-man 2 finally!

I thought this movie was pretty good.  I was really worried that there were going to be 3 villains in it – the last time the Spider-man franchise took that on, the movie was terrible (think Toby Maguire’s Spider-man 3). So I was pretty apprehensive at their decision to do this.  But they actually handled it pretty well.  There was really one main bad guy, the development into a bad guy, and then the third one just kind of popped in.  The third one could have been cut completely in my opinion, but I suppose it served a purpose at the very end, which I’m not sure they could have achieved without it.  But perhaps they could have started out the third movie with that scene instead?  By the time you hit the third bad guy, the movie feels long.  That’s the problem with having multiple villains.  You have to set up a plot, and then you have a conclusion of beating that guy…but JUST KIDDING, the hero has to defeat someone else now. And when you add a third, people get tired of it – and no matter how long the movie really is, it makes it feel long and dragged out.
I had been expecting Mary Jane to make an appearance the entire time.  I had seen her billed on the cast on IMDB.  However, the movie ended and I never saw her.  So I had to do a little research and found out that they cut her from the script due to the “already sizable cast and variety of themes” (refer to this website for a lot more info on this movie http://screenrant.com/watch-amazing-spider-man-2-post-credits-scene/).  This actually made a lot of sense to me, because honestly, if they had thrown ANOTHER new character in to the mix, I would have gotten very overwhelmed.  I think it was a good decision to cut her for now.  I expect her to make her appearance in the next movie.
What I liked about this movie was that it really focused on Spiderman and Peter Parker.  A lot of time was spent on his relationship with Gwen.  It also focused on his relationship with Harry – who we didn’t even know existed until this movie.  They did a pretty good job of explaining where Harry has been and setting up that they had been really good friends before Harry was shipped off to boarding school.  Okay – a big contention for me was the actor they chose to play Harry Osborn, Dane DeHaan!  He was a totally girly, emo version of Harry.  Seriously??  It was weird.  The guy was actually a pretty good actor, and once his personality started changing, he actually made a believable bad guy.  I thought his story was pretty good. I liked that it was different than the Toby Maguire version.  In that version, Harry thinks that Spiderman let his dad die – but you as the audience know that Spiderman didn’t murder him – it was an accident and his dad had tried to kill him.  I liked what happened in this version better.   It was more emotionally and morally difficult – you could see both sides and you really watched Harry’s transformation.
Gwen. What can I say about Gwen’s story.  I don’t want to say too much and spoil the ending, but I’m sure there are plenty of people who predicted the ending – especially with the focus at the beginning of the movie.  I really like Gwen’s character and I love Emma Stone. I like that she’s smart and not willing to be bossed around by Peter.  I really liked watching what developed emotionally for she and Peter in this movie.  I’ll have to stop here so that I don’t ruin the ending – but while I expected it, I was very upset that they did it – but it might make the third movie easier on everyone.
I’m not a comic book reader, so I wasn’t sure who Electro was going to be going in to this movie.  I had no idea how Jaime Foxx would do as this villain.  I thought it was actually a unique bad guy. I like watching people who are really not bad people inside turn evil.  Although you have to dispend belief for some of these comic book heroes and villains, it was still entertaining.  I have never seen Jaime Foxx in a role like that before, so I enjoyed it.
Has anyone been to Universal Studios in Florida and ridden the Spiderman 3D ride there?  I was just there in October of last year and LOVED that ride.  This movie actually reminded me a lot of the ride. The action scenes really just immersed you and every time you turned around, there was another bad guy.  I think whenever they are ready, Universal will be able to update that ride to coincide with this movie.  It was great.
Last note: there is a scene about midway through the credits.  But be warned: it is not Spiderman related!  It’s a scene advertising X-men. You might think I’m crazy or that they showed us the wrong credits…but nope. They had an X-men scene at the end of Spiderman. Very strange. To me, it wasn’t worth staying for…and once you see it, you can leave; there are no other scenes.  Again, I had to do some research.  Apparently, the Spiderman related credit scene was cut.  If you go to this website, it explains what the deleted scene was and has some commentary and speculation about why it was deleted: http://screenrant.com/watch-amazing-spider-man-2-post-credits-scene/ .  I feel like they should have just left the scene in. Even if what was being hinted at might be a few movies away, at least it was Spiderman related. To add a scene that is not even related to the Spiderman universe was way worse. I would have even preferred to just NOT have a credit scene!  That was just silly.  Or if they really are not planning that character for a few more movies, why not film a different scene to hint at what is planned for the next installment of Spiderman?  What is everyone else’s views on this?
In conclusion, I enjoyed this very much.  They did a really good job with the relationships, action, and pace.  My only complaint is that perhaps they should have left the third bad guy out of this film and moved that part to the beginning of the next film – and not had an X-men scene in the credits of a Spiderman movie!  Otherwise it’s a great movie that I highly recommend!

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