Max is a nerdy stalker obsessed with Spider-Man and depressed by the tiniest perceived slight. It’s also an unsafe work environment, it seems, as evidenced by the fate of Jamie Foxx’s character, engineer Max Dillon. The massive Manhattan skyscraper that houses Oscorp Headquarters represents all that is untrustworthy and duplicitous about corporate culture. Peter and Harry’s past and future are as intrinsically tied as their fathers’ were Harry’s dad is, of course, the scheming industrial titan Norman Osborn, head of Oscorp (played in Raimi’s films by Willem Dafoe, played here with a last few gasps by Chris Cooper), where Peter's father was a top researcher. Once again, Peter reconnects with childhood friend Harry Osborn (played in Raimi’s films by James Franco, played here by a snaky Dane DeHaan) with dire consequences. Once again, Peter is working through his daddy issues, searching for clues as to why his mysterious scientist father ( Campbell Scott) and mother ( Embeth Davidtz) left him to be raised by his aunt and uncle in blue-collar Queens when he was just a young boy. Yet the tag line on the movie’s posters and billboards says: "His greatest battle begins." How many times can he have his first, greatest battle? Haven’t we already covered much of this territory? He has become Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Here, Garfield is the cheeky, wisecracking superhero of Marvel Comic lore. Garfield’s Peter already had a restless, restless streak in him-a chip on his shoulder for his outsider status-which made his choice to become a vigilante crime fighter make more sense. What made his performance in the original "Amazing Spider-Man" work so well, and what made it such a pleasing difference from the way Tobey Maguire played Peter Parker in Sam Raimi’s " Spider-Man" trilogy, was his innate rebelliousness. Garfield gets to be a bit lighter and more playful this time around, but his inner struggle over the use of his arachnotastic powers-and the larger consequences of them-remain palpable. These are the real 3-D effects, the ones created by the flirty sparks between these two actors. And every scene between Garfield and Emma Stone as Peter’s sharp and assured girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, leaps off the screen. One revelatory exchange between Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker and Sally Field as Peter’s Aunt May is so poignant, it made me want to cry. There’s a lot going on here but very little that’s truly compelling.Ĭonversely, though, "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is strongest when it’s at its quietest and most intimate.
The whole endeavor just drags on and on, and any momentary thrills you may have experienced have long since passed. Just when you think it’s over, there’s another fight and another villain, another climax and another conclusion. It’s sufficiently giddy at first but eventually grows repetitive and wearying, especially as more and more stuff gets blown up real good. Spidey swings and swoops through the sky, gliding between tall buildings and around steep towers.
Instead, working with veteran screenwriters Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (" Star Trek," " Transformers") and Jeff Pinkner (TV’s "Alias," "Lost"), Webb gives us a film that’s densely plotted-sometimes confusingly so-with set pieces so big and glossy, they’re depleted almost entirely of any connecting sensation. I want Webb’s " (500) Days of Summer" version of teenage superhero angst-and it exists here, but only in glimmers. The sporadic moments of recognizable human contact and emotion are the only ones in this latest episode of the soaring web slinger that truly take flight.
Director Marc Webb’s follow-up to his entirely adequate " The Amazing Spider-Man" from 2012 feels even more like it’s just been unloaded from the assembly line.
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