The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The witty web-slinging masked vigilante returns in a sequel that will have fan-boys trembling with excitement.

Life hasn’t exactly been easy for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield); first his parents are murdered (which is delved into much more), and then his uncle Ben is gunned down in the street by a criminal. Thankfully though he has the amazing abilities of a spider that help him to get through the day as he saves civilians in New York City. Although things appear to be looking up for the wall-crawler, Peter is still trying to deal with the death of Captain Stacy (his girlfriend’s father), and the promise that he made him in the first film. But pondering over the question of whether he should cut all ties to Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) is not the only thing on Spidey’s mind, as a whole host of super-villains are emerging into his world. In an unfortunate twist of fate, Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) – a nobody who just wants people to notice him – is turned into Electro; an unstable monster that can control electricity and has found a new hatred for Spider-Man. Figuring out his love life and fighting crime might only be part of the threats that Peter is going to face, as his old friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) comes into the picture, and is on a mission to prove that his father’s last words about him being a failure were wrong.

Although I was weary going into a new Spider-Man franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, it is definitely clear with the sequel that director Marc Webb is the man for the job. He has cranked everything up a notch from the first film, and not even things that needed to be done, but make the film so much better because they have been. As well as the picture quality, the effects and visuals are just on another level from the previous Spider-Man films; they make the entire movie seem more realistic and it pulls you into the film a lot further.

Along with this, the film improves on Spidey’s costume a little bit further, by adding the classic wide eye pieces to his mask, rather than the thin ones which have been used in every film to date. There was just something about this film that gripped you from start to finish, and made the almost 3 hour running time fly by. From the scenes that depict Peter’s everyday life, to the incredible action sequences, it all slotted together so well and will have you thinking ‘this is a great super-hero movie’.

Of course with the new editions to the villain side of things – which includes Paul Giamatti as Rhino – there has to be the actors to play them, and the portrayals were dead on. Jamie Foxx’s depiction of the pissed-off-at-society Electro really makes you feel the rage, hatred and electricity that is flowing through his veins. The character of Electro has been re-imagined for the film; instead of a high school student who parades around in his green and yellow spandex when turned into a villain, he is now a grown man who works for Oscorp and his persona as Electro is now a blue-glowing horror that will have your nerves going wild. As both the shy Max Dillon and the enraged Electro he pulls off a stunning performance. This time round the character of Harry Osborn is given to us by the talented young Dane DeHaan, an actor who has been rising on the Hollywood radar ever since his breakthrough role in 2012’s Chronicle. His talents continue to shine as he plays the distraught son who needs to make his father (Chris Cooper) eat his final words and find a cure for a hereditary disease which they suffer from. Unfortunately in doing so he becomes the Green Goblin, once again a very scary one I might add. DeHaan’s role as both Harry and the Goblin are memorable, especially the latter, that chilling evil face will stick in your mind for weeks after viewing the film.

For all of you comic book fans out there, you will have noticed many little Easter eggs throughout the film. But for those of you unfamiliar with the Marvel universe, here are a few things you might have missed. First of all it seems quite possible that, in my opinion, one of the greatest team-ups may actually happen. I’m referring to Spider-Man and Black Cat, as we’re introduced to the character of Felicia Hardy (Felictiy Jones) in the form of Harry Osborn’s assistant. However that is not the only future characters we may have been introduced to. Max Dillon’s boss – Alistair Smythe – (B. J. Novak), if the writers decide to go down this route, is the son of Spencer Smythe, who is the inventor of the Spider-Slayers which are out to catch Spider Man. Probably the biggest hint at what is to come next though is the shady character seen in the end credits scene of the first film, and throughout a lot of this one. He is thought to be The Gentleman, a villain who assembles the super-villain team The Sinister Six; and as we have already heard that this is a route that the films will be going down, it is quite likely that he is him. Plus the fact that we see Doctor Octopus’ arms and Vulture’s wings at Oscorp, and part of the film being set in the Ravencroft institute where many of the villains may already be, is making this theory a reality.

Where Sam Raimi failed in adding too many villains to the story line (Green Goblin, Venom, Sandman), in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man Marc Webb has succeeded and made it work so well.

The future for the Spider-Man franchise is looking bright.

The Amazing Spiderman

Spiderman film franchise gets a healthy reboot.

When first hearing that Marvel were deciding to reinvent the character of Spiderman on to the screen, I was slightly outraged as he is my favourite character in the Marvel universe, and I assumed that we were getting another Batman fiasco, were every 10 years the character is reinvented by another director. However with ‘The Amazing Spiderman’, a title taken from one of the many Spiderman comic books, the film attempts to stick to the original storyline more than in director, Sam Raimi’s Spiderman, rather than using Mary Jane Watson as the damsel, it is Gwen Stacey who has the female role, such as was in the original comic book storyline.

The story, once again, focuses on quiet nerd Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield, who is accidentally bitten by a genetically enhanced spider and gains the powers of spidey-sense, durability, god-like strength and the ability to climb walls. However in this film once again we are taken back to the comic book to him actually creating web shooters rather than having webs himself. Parker becomes Spiderman and also gains his high school crush, Gwen Stacey, played by Emma Stone. However this is a superhero film, and where would a film like this be without a super villain, Rhys Ifans takes on the role of Doctor Curt Conners, a classic Spiderman character, who is assigned the task of regrowing creatures limbs by using reptilian DNA, but when threatened to be fired he tests it on himself and becomes ‘The Lizard’.

The fight sequences are great and quite amusing at times, as Parker’s teenage humour is added in, although they do seem to have more CGI added into them. Now I know that it is impossible to film a fight between Spiderman and The Lizard without using CGI, but I think that Sam Raimi’s films did it so much better because it looked more realistic.

Andrew Garfield does do a great job when taking on the role, as the audience are given a different version of Parker than when Tobey Maguire played him, in the original three films he seemed to be more nerdy and not confident at all such as in the original comic books and many others which followed, but in The Amazing Spiderman Garfield plays him like (and I’m sure only the people who have read this comic book will know what I’m talking about) Peter Parker from the ‘Ultimate Spiderman’ comic books, where he is more confident and had a wittier attitude.

The chemistry between Garfield and Stone is great because they play the characters so well, saying that there may be too many scenes through out the film which show them falling in love, it was sort of the the same in Spiderman 3 with all the scenes showing Parker becoming a different person, but they brought that film back with him taking on Venom, Sandman and Green Goblin 2. There are many children who love Spiderman and will be going to see this film and I think I speak for all of them when I say that we want to see Spiderman kicking some ass, not mushy love scenes.

Some of the camera angles and backgrounds in this film are great, especially in the last scene. What I found to be really well done though was the variation between the camera being a point of view shot to when the camera is following him whilst he is swinging, I was hoping they would follow him with the camera as that was one of my favourite aspects of the original films.

The Amazing Spiderman was directed by Marc Webb who is also famous for directing the 2009 film, 500 Days Of Summer and ‘Waiting’, which was a music video for Green day. It was written by James Vanderbilt who also wrote the screenplays for films; Zodiac and Welcome To The Jungle.

I could attempt to pick faults out of the film all day such as; why have they changed the suit so much, why does is his identity given away to basically everyone and where is J. Jonah. Jameson the editor of ‘The Daily Bugle’, one of the greatest characters in the Spiderman universe, but I only pick these faults because I loved the original films and thought that Tobey Maguire did an amazing job as Spiderman. At the end of the day the storyline was gripping and does hopefully hold out for a sequel, which I hope includes the villains Rhino or Carnage.

If you are a Spiderman fan, go see this film.