Jean-Paul’s Review: 3/5 stars
Bottom Line: More of your standard super-hero fare. Special effects are better than average and make good use of slow motion. Suffers from super-villan overload which is a good sign that they’re out of ideas.
But first, another rant against 3D. I try to avoid watching movies in 3D because it tends to not add to the enjoyment of the movie and it costs a few extra bucks more besides. Sometimes time constraints force you into it as it did with my viewing of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”. The use of 3D was actually distracting in this movie. Imagine your normal movie shot. Your primary attention goes straight to the people/actions that are in focus, but there is a whole other world of softly out of focus background existing peacefully in your field of view. Not so with this movie. All the background was not only out of focus, but in 3D and out of focus. It draws your attention away from the primary focus so your brain can take the time to identify what the heck these floating pixies of light are doing in the background. It was so annoying. Why won’t 3D die the death it so richly deserves? Oh yeah, because it makes money.
Now on to our regularly scheduled review. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is enjoyable for what it is and that’s about it. The movie takes a bit of time to get going but when it does, it sails along prettily from action sequence to action sequence and super-villan to super-villan.
Speaking of super-villans, Jamie Foxx is completely wasted in this movie as Electro/Max Dillon. The crappy 3D in this movie had more depth than the Max Dillon character. Electro is a super-villan for three year olds. Spider-Man good, notice me!, now Spider-Man bad. The movie would have been so much better if they could have given Max Dillon a compelling back story. It’s movies like this that make me hope that Disney’s upcoming movie, “Malificent”, will do gangbusters so people will realize that evil’s where the story’s at. One can only hope.
The other main super-villan was, once again, Green Goblin/Harry Osborne. The good news is the story is a bit different from the first series, though the broad brush strokes are still the same. The better news is that Dane DeHaan, who plays Harry, was very well cast if just for his looks. He just screams evil even well before he turns into Green Goblin.
As per usual with super-hero movies, there’s very little female acting to report besides your standard Hollywood approved female roles. There’s love interest Gwen, and sage matron Aunt May. The angsty teenage romance between Peter and Gwen got a bit annoying, but I suppose that’s what angsty teenage romances are all about. The Aunt May stuff is a bit better, but is mostly rushed.
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is not necessary super-hero watching material. It’s fun and light and you won’t hate yourself for watching it and there’s not really much showing at the moment to compete with it so you might as well go see it if you’re in the mood for a movie. How’s that for a ringing endorsement?