 |
| Spider-Man's either helping out with a certain villain or has been playing too much "Brave Firefighter" from Sega. |
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 picks up a year after the events of the first movie, where Peter Parker has gotten into his role as Spider-Man. Also, from the first film, we finally uncover what ended up happening with Parker’s parents, which, I have to say was a highly intense sequence, because of the stakes that led to them being found by one of Oscorp’s hired assassins to take out the two of them to prevent Oscorp from being compromised. From there, I was anticipating what I was in store for the rest of my viewing and little did I know, I was actually astonished at how strong much of the framework is with this movie.
Clearly, a lot of time was taken to develop
Peter into a character that is more multi-faceted than just his love life with
Gwen Stacy. Those moments are grand, don’t get me wrong, but the problem with
the past Spider-Man movies was they did go for the hackneyed routine once too
often either to force a couple of meaningless story elements (i.e. Paying rent,
Raimi’s adaptation of the Stacey family, so on). Here, they don’t tend to force
their love story like the other movies did and to add to that point, Andrew Garfield
and Emma Stone’s chemistry is damn good. Besides the chemistry between those
key leads, Garfield is a way better Peter Parker/Spider-Man than Tobey Maguire
ever was. While, I’m not knocking Maguire for his performances, but seeing his
movies in comparison to these films is light years compared to the many
compilations of “Maguire-face.” If there’s an actor who tried to act “too cool”
on-screen, it was Garfield’s predecessor (see: Spider-Man 3) and not him.
Andrew conveys believably and trust as the Web-Slinger and that’s all
without overplaying the role. Emma’s role is more exemplified, profound and
varied. And, she’s always there to help out her man, even in battle. But that
speaks to the level of depth that these actors are given here in a realistic
setting. Both actors understand the stakes that their individual character is given.
Jamie Foxx, Dane Dehaan and Sally
Field give strong performances as Max Dillon/Electro, Harry Osborn and Aunt
May. I haven’t gotten a chance to observe Dehaan much other than his
performance in Chronicle, but the guy has range. Same for Field, who seems to
have excellent rapport with Garfield; there was a scene where I nearly teared
up because her character was in a desperate place with her nephew. And, of
course, Foxx who seemed to be enjoying the hell out of his respective role as
the delusional Dillon who wants acceptance, even if it’s faint. Whenever
Sinister Six or Amazing 3 comes out, Give Paul Giamatti a raise, please? He
only has two scenes as Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino, yet, they’re so, so good. Did I mention that he has a
hammed up Russian accent, as well? Even better.
Even the way the film sounds with
its original composition by Hans Zimmer, Arturo Sandoval, Johnny Marr, Pharrell
(though, he’s the “voices in Electro’s head), Mike Einzinger (from Incubus),
& David A. Stewart (from the Eurythmics). A team so big, that they’re
called “The Magnificent Six,” a nod to the supervillain team “The Sinister Six”
of Rhino, Doctor Otto Octavius, Vulture, Mysterio, Kraven the Manhunter &
Sandman. Zimmer is a natural at producing thematic material and here, he shows
why he’s a master at his craft here. If you want to understand a thematic theme
for a character, I implore the reader to listen to “Electro Suite” and “My
Enemy” from the Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack for more background. The
craftsmanship from the entire crew of those two scores are delightful as they
are haunting. It doesn't surpass the Man of Steel composition from Zimmer last year; though, it’s its own thing.
As I close this review, I don’t
have a definitive problem with Amazing 2 except that it does harbor Raimi fan
boys who cling to the older films like people who hold on to outdated
technology, so, in that respect, that’s my only flaw with the production that
was directed by Marc Webb and crew. Otherwise, I’m struggling to figure which
comic book movie is my favorite, at this point: This one or Cap 2? It's a good time for comic book films.
Good: Superb storytelling, action, acting, direction, music.
Bad: Snobby people struggling with the fact that the "Amazing" franchise is better than the other Spider-Man films
***** out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment