Somewhere in between an action-packed superhero flick and an angsty teen melodrama is “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” the latest addition to the Marvel movie franchise.
Spidey, aka Peter Parker (the gorgeous Andrew Garfield), is going through a rough time. He’s still struggling with his parents abandoning him when he was a child, he feels guilty about being with his girlfriend Gwen Stacy (the equally gorgeous Emma Stone) after the death of her father, and he’s wearing himself out by protecting New York from criminals on the reg.
In other words, he just has a lot of feelings.
Enter Electro (Jamie Foxx). He’s big, he’s blue, he has a quick temper and the power to do some serious damage — like destroy Times Square in an instant. Having to deal with Electro, on top of his on-and-off relationship with Gwen and the resurfacing of his sick childhood friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), is enough to unravel Spider-Man’s webs of sanity. But ultimately, Electro is just a minor annoyance before the much bigger threat that arises.
Throughout the film, Peter comes across as very broody. He’s just graduated high school and is trying to make ends meet as a photojournalist to help out his dear Aunt May (Sally Field) with the bills. He unwillingly ends things with Gwen mere minutes into the movie, which would have been a lot more distressing if it wasn’t obvious that they were going to rekindle their flame a few scenes later (spoiler alert: not even Gwen Stacy can resist Spidey’s charms for long).
Garfield’s Spider-Man has a big ego. Behind the mask is a never-ending stream of snark and witticisms, some of which fall flat (“I do some web design.” Very punny, Peter. Very punny). The gags that do produce laughs manifest as low chuckles throughout the audience.
The strength of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” lies in the action. The high-flying acrobatics of Spider-Man flitting through the New York City skyline, the explosions and sparks of destruction Electro unleashes onto the city and the transformation of Harry into the Green Goblin are all fantastic CGI-filled scenes the audience can’t help but eat up.
But as stellar as the fight scenes are, it’s the relationship of Peter and Gwen that is the focus of the film. Peter is paranoid about losing yet another person — after all, his parents and uncle have already died, it’s understandable why he would be a bit concerned about the well-being of his remaining loved ones. His main ambition is to protect Gwen.
Despite being a couple off the screen, Garfield and Stone share a remarkable lack of chemistry onscreen. They throw clichés at each other (“You have to lose me to save me!”) and squabble as Gwen tries to help and Peter tries to keep her out of danger. It’s hard to become emotionally invested in their relationship, even for a hopeless romantic like myself.
Everything in the movie is built around what I will refer to as “The Incident” — aka the super-awful climactic spoiler that almost everyone seems to already know about but, for the sake of ruining the movie for someone who somehow doesn’t know, I won’t divulge here.
Buildup to “The Incident” is blatantly thrown in the audience’s face again and again. While watching, I felt an uncontrollable need to stand up and scream, “You’re making it so obvious what’s going to happen! You could at least try to be a bit more inconspicuous about it!”
In the end, the hype was too grandiose, and when “The Incident” finally did happen, it was one big anticlimactic letdown.
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” isn’t exactly “amazing.” “The A-Little-Better-Than-Average Spider-Man” might be a more accurate title, or “The Super-Cute-But-Irritatingly-Angsty Spider-Man.” It’s an awkward middle movie, which does little more than set up the impending sequel.
