Friday, December 24, 2021

The Amazing Spider-Man II (2014)

The film opens with Richard Parker - Peter Parker's father - fleeing the country with his wife.  It goes badly and his private jet is plummeting toward the sea as he finishes sending a file called Roosevelt to an undisclosed server.  Switch to Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) plummeting between New York skyscrapers and joining a police chase of Russian Gangsters, most notably Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti).  During this harrowing action scene, he takes a call from girlfriend, Gwen (Emma Stone), who warns that he is going to miss graduation.  As an aside, he saves goofy nerd Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) from being run over.

Sometime later, Norman Osborn - CEO and founder of Oscorp - dies of a rare disease but not before telling his son, Harry Osborne (Dane Dehaan), that it is genetic and Harry is doomed to a similar fate.  Thanks, dad.  Max, who is a brilliant engineer but a social basket case, is treated very poorly by Oscorp.  Sent to fix an electrical failure in the building, he gets electrocuted and falls into a conveniently placed tank of electric eels.  Though apparently dead, he revives in the morgue as a human taser.  Though he is worshipful of Spider-Man from his earlier rescue, he turns against him when Spider-Man joins the police to stop his rampage.

Peter Parker is also a basket case.  He is wracked with guilt over dating Gwen.  Gwen's father (Dennis Leary) died in the previous movie and asked that Peter leave Gwen out of his superhero antics.  Peter regularly sees him scowling, a disapproving ghost.  Nonetheless, he can't help himself.  Then there is the issue of his father, who by all accounts was a criminal.  His efforts to unravel the Roosevelt mystery are thwarted until he gives up hope.  Whenever Andrew Garfield is playing Peter Parker, he's this pathetic oaf who is lost without Gwen.  By contrast, he's this happy-go-lucky, unflappable go-getter when he's in his Spider-Man suit.  Rather than being funny in his Peter Parker awkwardness, it was more often cringy.

All the villains were shallow.  Electro goes from meek introverted nerd to extroverted lightning bolt with little explanation beyond feeling betrayed by Spider-Man.  The bond between Harry and Peter is poorly done.  Unlike in the previous trilogy where they had been friends through high school, this Harry was sent to Europe at age 10 and the pair haven't seen each other since.  Now, they are best buddies.  Weak.  Also, Harry is in a panic to 'cure' his genetic ailment.  Dude, your father died in his 50s or so and you're just 20.  Hey, how about I take this experimental drug and see if that works.  Sigh.  Weak.  Then there is the return of Aleksei at the end of the movie.  Hey, he's an over-the-top Russian gangster and now he's got an armored suit that looks like a rhino.

I am unsurprised that the Andrew Garfield series of Spider-Man films were canceled in favor of the Marvel reboot with Tom Holland.  I had seen all of the Toby Maguire Spider-Man films in the theater but only just now saw Garfield's second outing, 7 years after the film's release.  However, as Garfield appears in the latest Spider-Man, it seemed like required viewing to understand his return.

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