The Amazing Spiderman Series Review

Again, this will be a joined review. However, for a different company and medium.

I present to you [cue drum-roll]

The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2!

[obviously we'll start with the first movie]



The Amazing Spider-Man-

First I would like to point out that I know this movie got mixed reviews. Some people loved it, some people hated it, and some people [and I can't believe someone would actually say this...] thought it was a rip-off of the Sam Raimi movies.
[Seriously? They're based on the same damn source material...]


Now for the actual review.

First thing's first. The actors.

Andrew Garfield IS Peter Parker in my personal opinion. He's got the awkward thing down to a science as well as the look I wanted Peter to have since childhood. I mean lets face it, a hero like Spider-Man can't work the way he does if he's a beefed up 6'5" monster of a man. This was a breath of fresh air to the hardcore Spidey fans. His mannerisms, and his snappy come-backs and quips made this the Spider-Man we all wanted to begin with.
[Sorry Toby fans]

I have to admit, even though I would have preferred her as Mary Jane Watson, Emma Stone did a phenomenal job portraying Gwen Stacy. Her no-bull attitude and overall confidence was a break away from the "damsel in distress" we all expect from a superhero movie and was absolutely impressive. Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better Gwen.


Then there's Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Both done well, and much more well developed that the previous films. We actually had a chance to get to know Martin Sheen Uncle Ben before he died, and Sally Field actually helps give Aunt May a chance to develop and grow along with Peter throughout the film.

Now for the actual movie.

After Spider-Man 3 I was skeptical about a new Spidey film. But considering this was a reboot I gave it a shot to prove itself.

From the start I was pleased to see that the comic book feel to the movies was gone. Instead we get a more realistic feeling of what it would be like for a kid in new york to suddenly develop superhuman abilities. But not just a kid, a relatable character.

Unlike the development of Peter in the Raimi franchise, this new Peter is just a kid trying to get through high school. He rides a skateboard to get around, is smart but not a walking encyclopedia, has his trouble with bullies [that aren't your cookie cutter bullies, and actually take opportunities to be nice sometimes, you know, like real people?], has a crush on a girl with similar interests rather than a busty redhead, and has a healthy relationship with his aunt and uncle. He's a real guy.


One of the big things for me is the way they did his transformation. It wasn't the "oh my, I've been bitten by a spider and I'm faint" but rather a series of confusing happenings that catch Peter off guard. He didn't suddenly wake up at home and find himself oddly muscular. Rather, he woke up the same, but noticed something was wrong when he got stuck to the ceiling and well... Everything else.

In fact, his strength didn't really manifest until the next day, giving a strong indication that it was a steady going process rather than an instant transformation. [And even possibly paving the way for the Man-Spider story line later on]



 My favorite part of this movie actually has to be the mechanical web shooters. While the organic shooters were convenient in the previous movies, they were TOO convenient. Nothing could happen to stop the organic shooters to disable them. They were always there. Now we have the problems of "what if Peter runs out of fluid?" or "what if they get smashed?" and it creates more possible issues to overcome later on.

[I'll clarify that this is only such a big deal to me since i've always been a fan of the mechanical shooters and the development of them]

Now, things escalate from Peter having fun with his new abilities to needing to do something with them rather quickly after the death of his Uncle. They really tap into how he should feel in this situation instead of Peter just becoming Spider-Man and fighting for the people of the city, but rather blaming himself for letting the thief go and not going home or answering Ben's calls.

Taking this information we get a chance to see that in this situation, any normal person would take the selfish revenge route rather than the superhero route. The "with great power comes great responsibility" bit doesn't quite sink in at first, but does come later.

The Lizard, I have to say, seemed a bit under-developed. There was no humanity to him while in the monstrous form and led to a feeling that he just had to be stopped rather than saved. He had too much of a singular goal in mind and that just lacked something to me. The distinction between Connors and the Lizard was too extreme. I didn't like that Connors was happy about his discovery and then suddenly angry at the guy who was going to start his product in human trials in a split second leading him on a rampage across the Brooklyn Bridge.




[SPOILER ALERT] We finally see the rest of Peters development at the end of the movie after the Lizard goes on a city wide rampage and the death of Cpt. Stacy, Gwens father. He finally realizes that there are always consequences to his actions and he has to be careful. But it also finally clicks that he has the ability to help this city and not just pursue his own selfish goals.

I have to appreciate the humor throughout the film. Spideys taunts and jokes, the humorous situations he catches himself in, and then the jab at the Raimi Spider-Man game.
[the cranes that led to OsCorp at the climax referencing the convenient crane that follows Spider-Man around New York in the game, which I can't find a picture of to save my life, but I promise, it's there]

The movie paces itself well, develops the characters and their relationships well, and makes sure the viewer can relate to everything. You feel Peters loss as if it were your own, and get a real feeling for what it would be like to gain strange abilities.

I even love the new costume design. It looks like something that would get put together by a high school student using pieces of other bits of clothing. [granted as long as they knew how to sew or print images on fabric] It was also a great way to change up the design without it looking like something drastically different from the Spider-Man we know and love.

Overall I give The Amazing Spider-Man an 8/10. I only docked points for not developing the Lizard more than they should have. Other than that it was an amazing film.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2-

To say that this was an amazing sequel is an understatement, BUT it's sadly not perfect.




We start with a flashback sequence, just not to the first movie like you would expect. No, instead we're given a look back at the night Richard and Mary Parker dropped Peter off with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, followed by the details of what happened to them afterward.

In this scene we learn that there was more to Richard Parker's research than we previously believed, and apparently it was worth his life, his wife, and the lives of the pilots of the plane they were on.

Finally back to the Spider-Man side of the story we meet up with an older [albeit not very much older] Peter who's had a little while to be the superhero version of Spidey that we didn't get to see in the previous film. He's helping the police, stopping criminals, the whole nine. We even get to see the makings of a new villain, the Rhino.

Tell me he's not Calendar Man

[Let's be honest for a moment about the Rhino. Paul Giamatti, while I love his work, was the wrong choice. I did not like his portrayal of the Rhino. He was basically the stereotypical angry Russian. I didn't mind the mech suit that they made, but it seemed like they just wanted to force a villain into the movie that didn't need to be there. It made for a good opening and ending scene, but other than that it just seemed unnecessary.]

Moving on, we find out some things that have been going on since we last saw Peter and Gwen. For instance, they've had a rocky relationship [cus you know, being a superhero probably cuts into your social life A BIT], Peter and Gwen are graduating, and Spidey has helped lower the overall crime rate in New York, albeit not by that much, but enough to be significant for one person.

Hell, Spider-Man has even developed a fan following amongst the citizens of the city, most notably being Max Dillon, a strange and awkward man who feels like he finally has a friend after an encounter with Spider-Man in the streets and Spidey tells Max that he needs him.


Finally breaking into the story we also have Harry Osborn, [played by the insanely talented Dane Deehan known for the film Chronicle] an old friend of Peters who was sent away by his father years ago. Now he comes back at the request of his father, Norman, to take over the company after his death. A request that Harry is reluctant to fulfill.

We get a chance to get to know Harry rather well through his interactions with Peter and his board members at OsCorp, and even get a taste of his internal struggle as he deals with the effects of the genetic disease he inherited from his father.

Back to Max Dillon, the obsessive fan of Spider-Man. We find that he works on the electrical grid at OsCorp, and ends up being forced to fix an issue and stay after work by himself, even on his birthday. Sad right? I agree. Because this poor guy, who just wants a damn friend in his life, just gets stepped on by others. So when he has his accident that inevitably turns him into the pure energy being known as Electro, we actually feel sadness for him. It's a nice change from the usual "normal thug gains superhuman abilities and becomes a super-villain for monetary gain" formula. We get a misunderstood guy that doesn't want to hurt anyone [in fact, he wanted to be a hero and fight alongside Spider-Man] who gets pushed into hurting others.

The standoff in Times Square with Electro actually gave a chance to see how torn Peter is between his love life and his life as a superhero, when on a date with Gwen he notices the sirens and power surges coming from across the city. Now, this is where things get interesting because he gets a chance to interact with this man he saved, but barely remembers. Stumbling around his words to save the people on the street, he barely manages to calm Max down enough to subdue him, before the police around the scene slip up and shoot Max. Now convinced that Spider-Man tricked him so they could take him out, Max feels betrayed, and takes this chance to exact his revenge on the police and the Spider for humiliating him in front of everyone in the city.

Spider-Man still manages to stop Electro from hurting anyone, but he has to reflect on the impact he has on the city and the people who live there.

Sadly, there are some issues I would like to address...

Now, what makes this movie less AMAZING than the previous film is the feeling of being overcrowded. Not like Spider-Man 3 was, with multiple villains, but rather with too many story arcs.

There's the "Harry Osborn and his daddys company" side of the story that actually manages to set up for Felicia Hardy to come into the story later on. [somehow] in which we get to see more revelations about Peters parents, one of which being that the reason Peter has the reaction to the spider venom after being bitten is because his father, during his time at OsCorp, treated them to only react properly to his blood, and thus Peters.
[great, right? makes sense. After all, OsCorp = Bad]
Also that this comes into play when Harry contacts Spider-Man hoping that his blood would help synthesize a cure for his fatal disease [which by the way, he has no way of knowing that his blood would help], which Spidey says no to for fear of creating an army of Spider-Men
[I GUESS that makes sense?], which actually leads to Harry basically... Hiring Electro to get him into the OsCorp labs [after being locked out of the company by the board of directors for being an annoying brat] so he can find the leftover venom from the spiders [seen in the previous film] after they were incinerated, hoping for a cure.

We also get the Peter and Gwen love issues of "will they, won't they" and that takes up entirely too much time in the overall film.

On top of all of that, we get the fact that [as I said previously] Rhino is basically cut out of this film.
Sure he got some screen time and it was a great "oh wow, Rhino!" moment, but kind of disappointing for the most part.

Then, even though it's actually a big point in this movie, the Goblin

gets almost no screen time either. He basically swoops in and causes trouble for Spider-Man in the last twenty minutes of the movie, and his damage only really lasts for fifteen of those twenty.

"A God named Sparkles?"

[But I have to say, the scientific way they attempt to destroy Electro actually made me remember just how much of a science nerd Peter was, and even happier when he succeeded]

[SPOILER ALERT]

Seriously, what is this place?

Now, although his role is shorter than expected, the Goblin has a lasting effect on Spider-Man himself. Not only realizing that Peter is Spider-Man, he takes it upon himself to hurt Peter the way he feels he deserves, by trying to get rid of Gwen. We see an admittedly epic struggle in the clock tower [or whatever the hell that place was. I have no idea. I just know there were giant gears and shit] that could be the end of Peter, Gwen, or Harry.

Sadly though, we see it as the end of Gwen, as the chaos destroys the tower, sending Gwen plummeting to her death at the base of the tower, with Peter just barely able to catch her... But not before her body hits the ground below.

I have to say, I normally don't get overly emotional at movies [with the exception of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows], but I found myself choking up as my fiancee bawled next to me.

At the next few scenes, I'm reminded of something Peter said to Gwen previously in the film.

"I'll follow you forever."


This comes into play as we see a montage of Peter standing at her grave over the months following her death.

Once again though, Aunt May comes to the rescue with her words of wisdom. She tells Peter that eventually, no matter how much we love someone, they would want us to move on, and that if we don't, we'll never be ourselves again.

"There really is no place like home"

As a sign of him coming back into his own, Peter responds to a police call that a man in a mechanized suit is terrorizing the city in Spider-Man's absence. As a small child in a Spider-Man costume steps up to face Rhino, Peter swoops in and pulls him aside before launching the attack.

Now sadly I have to give this movie a lower rating than the first.
Due to the issues I had with it I'm giving The Amazing Spider-man 2 a 7/10, for being overly crowded with story.
It was a fun ride and full of emotions and laughter, but honestly it lacked something that the first movie had, and that was a clear and singular storyline.

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Now, as I said in my Arkham reviews, I'm still getting the hang of this so hold on and don't lose faith, because I still have a lot of room to improve.
I feel as though most of what I'm doing is just explaining the movie to you guys and I need to stop doing that. So give me some time and I promise you'll have some proper reviews and I can really take off with this whole thing.

Comments, questions, concerns? Use the comments section below or contact me on Facebook if you're a friend, or twitter if you're not [@JeffSanchezVA]

Thanks for reading and supporting me on this, and we'll continue to see where this goes.