Film 42 - Amazing Spider-Man 2

Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 26/04/2014

Hey, Sony, Marvel Studios needs their Web Crawler back!

I thought the first Amazing Spider-man was an unnecessary reboot even though the third Raimi installment really lost the plot, but it was still an OK film.   Clare and I watched it recently to get her up to speed with the Marc Webb versions, it still doesn't do anything "Amazing" though.

20 minutes into Amazing 2 I turned to Clare and said, "Well, that was an exciting start!" and I meant it.  Chase through NYC, a Blues Brothers style police car chase, plane crashes and Stan "The Man" Lee.  I listen to a few podcasts on films (Keeping it Reel - IGN being the main one) and the first 20 mins of the film had been shown to them to build up hype.  I can see why

What I can also see is why they only showed the first 20 mins, because the hour or so that follows is not very "Amazing".  Dale Dehaan's Harry Osbourne is really rushed, Max Dillon (Jamie Fox) goes from zero to anti-hero very quickly....and where did he get his suit from when one scene earlier he was just in his pants?  The relationship with Peter and Gwen is well played out, and Emma Stone got a worthy wolf whistle from one member of the cinema audience (not me Clare, I promise), but is all very samey.

The final battle ramped up the excitement levels, but again, it felt rushed and heavily edited

Amazing Spidey 2 is setting up for an expanded universe similar to the Marvel Studios franchise, and anti-hero films are already in production, Venom and Sinister Six films are on the card, but this film just feels like padding throughout.

As I mentioned in the Cap 2 review, I seemingly have turned Clare into a real Marvel Geek, but Spidey 2 failed to deliver for her as well.

I am not saying it is a bad film, it just lacks the "umph" of the Marvel Studios films.  After seeing Cap 2 (which in my opinion is the best Marvel Film so far), Sony didn't quite meet the mark.

Also, far too much is shown in the trailer, so there are fair few surprises to be had.  I basically knew 90% of the story line before I went in to see this solely from the trailer.