“The Amazing Spider-Man 2”, as directed by Marc Webb, is an entertaining marvel superhero film. Starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey, Jamie Foxx as Electro, and Dane Dehaan as Harry Osborn. How does the film stand? As a stand-alone film it has too many plots elements including the mystery with Peter Parker’s parents, his drama with Gwen, his dealings with Harry Osborn, and the story of Electro. The film also focuses too much on some story elements and not enough on others. The Peter and Gwen romance troubles had a little too much screen time while the mystery of Peter’s father had very little to do with the movie.
Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker very well and portrayed the character as a recently graduated teenager to the point that it was believable. As Spider-man it is a different story. Garfield pulls the comedian and the snappy comebacks of the character real well but the characters serious moments didn’t come across as well when Garfield was in the mask. Whenever Garfield was in the mask as Spider-man his dialogue felt more like a play for comedy, even in his more serious moments he would remove the mask to deal with it as Peter Parker rather than Spider-Man.
Emma Stone played the intelligent and strong-willed romantic Interest. She played her role well enough but it felt like there were too many scenes of the characters’ romance that would break the pacing of the film. Stone gives a emotional and in some moments a great performance, but some of those scenes did not feel like they were needed and took away from other plotlines. Jamie Foxx gives a great performance as the villain Electro but before his transformation, he gives a performance that makes his character very creepy and unlikeable. Once he becomes Electro his performance improves drastically and he is great on screen. He is intimidating and once he is a villain, he is an awesome villain.
Dane Dehaan was great as Harry Osborn, his scenes with Garfield are filled with entertaining laughs and they play well off each other. They come across as best friends. The film needed more scenes between Dehaan and Garfield to better explore the story of their friendship as it affects the story of the film. Dehaan portrays the struggle that Harry goes through very well and makes his character the most interesting by far in the film. The supporting cast did their jobs very well. The other two villains needed more screen-time, especially since they where heavily seen throughout the trailers. The other two villains being Green Goblin and Rhino had very little screen-time as the super villains.
The effects where very well done. The web swinging was beautiful and very fun to watch. The fight scenes were visually entertaining and very well paced so it didn’t drag on or go by too quickly. The music was very well done, including the addition of the original Spider-Man theme dropped in as a little mention. The Electro theme was very nice to hear and fit the fights in the film very nicely.
The movie as a whole needed to cut back on the romance storyline for more of the other storylines to take place. The editing needed to give the film some more structure. The characters were well done, and the visuals were entertaining. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is worth checking out.
