The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has a lot going for it. It may be the most faithful adaptation of Spider-Man to film as far as aesthetic identity. It looks fantastic, even today, at perfectly captures the webslinging, wall-crawling, spider-sensing action of Marvel’s premier hero.

Unfortunately, the narrative underpinnings of this visual delight are rotten to the core.

The Story

There are several plot lines running throughout this film, each with different emotional weight and context. They don’t sync up particularly well on a thematic basis, although they do mesh properly on a structural basis. I’m going to talk about them separately by content rather than chronology.

Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy

So you’ve made a movie where the most praised elements was the chemistry between the two leads. How do you capitalize on that? By utterly botching the relationship between them, of course.

In an obnoxious twist, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 rolls back and rehashes the final scenes from the first movie. Peter and Gwen break up over his promise to not put her in danger, though this time she’s nominally the instigator. And then they stay broken up FOR ALMOST THE ENTIRE FILM. Oh, also he stalks her, and that’s treated like a goofy, charming thing.

Then, at the very end, they kill Gwen Stacy. It’s not exactly a surprise, given what happens to her in the source material. I still dislike how they did it, but I’ll talk about that later.

Harry Osborn and Oscorp

I hate the chosen one angle on Spider-Man’s origin. Like the first film, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hinges on the secrets Peter’s dad was hiding that led to the Parkers’ untimely demise. Making Peter Parker any kind of chosen one misses the point of the character, and I hate that this film leans on it even harder than the first. Seriously, it dominates the middle of the film. That said, I’m not going to rehash my concerns with this choice directly. If you want a refresher, refer back to my piece on The Amazing Spider-Man.

I’m also not a fan of Harry Osborn. I find it ludicrous that Harry Osborn is the only villain to get a second attempt in Sony’s various Spider-Man films. The only Goblin anybody really cared about was the original Norman Osborn Green Goblin. Harry just wasn’t worth revisiting as an antagonist. I’ll go into more detail in my character section.

Electro

And then you have Electro. He’s just kinda…there. No deeper connection to the lore, no deeper emotional resonance on a character level. I’ll just talk about him in my character section.

Gonna be honest though; the musical piece that just straight up walks through Electro’s sense of persecution is super dumb.

Characters

Spider-Man

Andrew Garfield finds his footing this time around. He still has a good grasp of Spidey, but he now matches it with a much better (thought still deeply flawed) Peter Parker.

Peter starts The Amazing Spider-Man 2 haunted by his failures in the first film. He hallucinates the late Captain Stacy telling him to leave Gwen alone. Having moved past his raw anger and pain from Uncle Ben’s death, this is a Peter more plagued by sadness and regret. This allows Garfield to better explore the more human and tragic side of our hero.

Unfortunately, they’re still determined to play up Peter’s bad boy side. This Peter has too much confidence. There’s not enough self-doubt.

Gwen Stacy

This is the film where they decided to kill off Gwen Stacy. From the very beginning with the cringeworthy, over-the-top graduation speech, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is obsessed with Gwen’s mortality.

They shouldn’t have been. I don’t care if it’s a classic story.

Women in Refrigerators

Gwen Stacy is the ur-example of fridging, arguably even more so than the titular woman who got stuffed into a refrigerator, Alex DeWitt. Gwen’s death launched the trend. Before, it was unthinkable to kill off a major character like that.

I’ve made my feelings on this trope very, very clear. And yet, I wouldn’t have complained just because they killed her off. Really, I wouldn’t. If they had killed her off in a story that was built to give her character an adequate amount of respect, I wouldn’t have complained.

But I am complaining, because they didn’t do that.

The Night Gwen Stacy Died

Here’s the thing about killing characters off; you need a good justification. Maybe it’s because that’s where the plot leads, or maybe it’s where the character arc leads. But you should never, ever kill off a character because that’s what a different adaptation of the story did, especially when your version does not have remotely similar background or context. But that’s exactly what this movie does.

The movie contrives a reason the Gwen MUST put herself into danger to make her death scene happen. Apparently, high school graduate Gwen Stacy knows the electrical grid of New York City well enough that she can single-handedly bring it back online, even though this capability has never been mentioned before. Oh, and also nobody else was on hand to do it despite the power coming back being necessary to prevent massive loss of life. Gwen steps up because she’s the only one who can, even though thst makes no sense at all. And when she does, her fate is sealed. This aspect of the plot doesn’t hold up to even cursory scrutiny. Gwen’s death doesn’t arise from a natural progression of the plot. The plot is unnaturally twisted to make it happen.

What may be most egregious is that they actually diminished Gwen’s importance to Peter with the way they handled her death in this film. Say what you will about the comics version of the story, but Gwen Stacy’s death had lasting ramifications. It affected Peter in a visceral way for a long-time, and it informs his actions. The Garfield version of Spidey moves past Gwen Stacy’s death in less than ten minutes of screen time. It’s a plot point that Aunt May tells Peter he has to just move on and stop thinking about Gwen, followed by Gwen’s valedictorian speech. And then he does just move on. It’s frankly disrespectful and I hate it.

Villains

Just like Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would have been better served by having fewer villains. Here they are by order of appearance.

The Rhino

Paul Giamatti plays the Rhino. Yeah, it’s a really weird pick. And he’s only in two scenes.

Electro

Jamie Foxx plays Electro. My impression is that most critics strongly disliked his portrayal and role in the film. But honestly, I kinda dig it. I think the issue is that I’m the portrayal may have come a little too early to be appreciated for what it is.

Max Dillon is an obsessive, extremely suggestible nerd who willingly becomes a lackey of the petulant rich when people don’t pander to his delusions. That’s a super relevant take today, as the current political climate has made people more aware of the thousands upon thousands of Max Dillons in the world. But this film may have come out too early to ride that zeitgeist.

The Green Goblin

I didn’t think it was possible to create a Harry Osborn I’d dislike more than the Franco version. But they managed it. Dane Dehaan accelerates up to peak Franco myopia and whininess in about ten minutes of screen time. But my hate doesn’t persist the whole time, because there’s one key difference between the two versions of Harry Osborn.

Dane Dehaan’s version COMMITS to the heel turn. He chews the scenery. The whining stops when this Harry goes off the deep end. At the very least, it makes him more fun to watch.

The Sequel Bait

And Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) is also in this film. He doesn’t do all that much. His presence is the single greatest indicator that they believed they were launching a whole franchise with this film, because he is pure sequel bait. He doesn’t even do anything directly adversarial to Spider-Man here, but you know they were planning something.

The Other Characters

There are a couple other characters of note.

Sally Field returns as Aunt May. She doesn’t get a ton of focus, but she gets one fantastic scene towards the middle of the film where she struggles with raising Peter alone after his parents and Uncle Ben passed.

Felicity Jones appears as Felicia, and was apparently supposed to be Felicia Hardy. I think she got maybe two scenes, total, and I’m not even sure she had a speaking line in both. BJ Novak got more than that as Alistair Smythe.

The Redeeming Qualities

This is a bad story. It’s truly, truly awful. There’s a reason I’ve pretty much just outlined my complaints thus far. They make so many terrible narrative choices. But there are two redeeming qualities.

First, the story is actually fairly well-paced, making the film fairly watchable.

Second, the overall quality of the production is great.

Production Quality

Costuming

I really like the new Spider-Suit in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It’s much more traditional than the suit in the previous film.

I also like the general attire of most of the characters. Once again, Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy is particularly on point. In particular, though I don’t love the narrative choice, I do like that they adapted her iconic comics look for the death scene.

Cinematography

The cinematography has dramatically improved since the first color palate is much more bright and dynamic. This gives the film a very different aesthetic than most of the other cinematic attempts with the character. As far as visual identity, this may be my favorite live action Spider-Man film (Homecoming is close but it unfortunately is too tied up in the MCU house style).

The camera work is also a lot stronger. We get a lot more close shots with long takes that invest the viewer in a specific character’s view of a scene. This allows the actors to carry a bit more of the narrative burden through the strength of their performances while also making the action-oriented sequences feel more visceral.

Visual Effects

The effects work well sometimes, and sometimes they don’t. Electro? Fantastic, albeit a pretty blatant ripoff of Doctor Manhattan. The Goblin? Less so. In general, in the more standard pieces of CGI, everything works well though.

Action

The stunts and fights in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 are top notch. Coupled with good camera work, this may be the best action we’ve ever gotten in a live action Spider-Man film. There are a handful of standout sequences I’d like to specifically identify.

The opening truck chase gives a great example of the mobility and agility of Spider-Man. The first showdown with Electro in Times Square gives the best cinematic exploration of what Spider-sense really looks like and how it can be applied. It’s also a good showcase of the raw destructive potential of Electro.

The big finale mixes both together. We get another go at the Electro fight on an even bigger stage, immediately followed by an encounter with the newly minted Goblin. Despite all my complaints about the story, it all looks SPECTACULAR.

Conclusion

I just can’t bring myself to rank The Amazing Spider-Man 2 above most of the other Spider-Man films. I just can’t do it. The narrative is just plain bad. It’s unfortunate, because I do think the film is beautiful. But I will always weigh story over aesthetic.

As a result, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 goes just above the bottom of the list on the Spider-Man Rankings. It’s not quite as bad as Spider-Man 3.

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