The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a film that contains one great scene and a great deal of everything else. Marc Webb's sequel is more ambitious than its predecessor, more emotionally daring, and considerably more chaotic, a film that is simultaneously trying to develop its central romance, introduce three villains, set up a shared universe, and deliver a blockbuster action spectacle, and that succeeds at none of these things as well as it succeeds at the one thing it was not required to do: break your heart. The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most affecting moments in superhero cinema, handled with a restraint and emotional honesty that the film around it does not deserve. It is a scene that demonstrates exactly what this franchise could have been, and its power only makes the film's many failures more frustrating.
At a Glance
Director: Marc Webb
Runtime: 142 minutes
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field
Release: 2014
Critics Rating: ★★ (2/5 stars, a significant disappointment)
Audience Rating: ★★½ (2.5/5 stars, divisive)
Review Breakdown
Plot
Peter Parker is struggling to balance his relationship with Gwen Stacy with his responsibilities as Spider-Man, haunted by a promise he made to her dying father to keep her out of danger. When Max Dillon, a socially isolated Oscorp employee, is transformed into the electrically powered Electro after an accident, he becomes Spider-Man's most powerful adversary. Simultaneously, Harry Osborn returns to New York following his father's death and discovers that he is dying of the same genetic disease, leading him to seek a cure using Spider-Man's blood. The plot is the film's most fundamental problem. Three villain storylines, a romance, a mystery about Peter's parents, and the setup for a Sinister Six film are all competing for attention in a 142-minute runtime, and none of them receives the development it requires. The parents' mystery, which the first film established as a central concern, is resolved here with a haste and convenience that makes it feel like an afterthought. The Sinister Six setup is so nakedly a franchise obligation that it barely pretends to be a story element.
Characters
Garfield and Stone remain the film's greatest assets, and their chemistry is as exceptional as ever. The scenes between Peter and Gwen have a warmth, a wit, and emotional complexity that the film's more spectacular elements cannot match, and it is a testament to both performers that their relationship feels entirely real even when everything around it is falling apart. Their final scenes together are among the most powerful in the franchise's history, and the Gwen Stacy sequence is directed with a care and seriousness that makes it the film's defining moment. Jamie Foxx's Electro is the film's most significant villain miscalculation, a character whose origin is so broadly drawn that it is impossible to take him seriously as a dramatic presence. Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn is more interesting, bringing a brittle intensity to the character that makes his desperation feel real, but the film does not give him sufficient screen time to develop before his transformation into the Green Goblin, which arrives with a haste that prevents it from having any dramatic impact. Paul Giamatti appears briefly as the Rhino in a prologue and epilogue that feel entirely disconnected from the film's central concerns, a cameo that exists solely to set up a sequel that was never made.
Tone
The film's tonal inconsistency is its most persistent problem. Webb is clearly most comfortable in the intimate scenes between Peter and Gwen, and these sequences have a naturalism and emotional intelligence that the more spectacular elements cannot match. The Electro sequences, by contrast, are visually garish and dramatically hollow, with a Times Square confrontation that prioritises spectacle over coherence. The film oscillates between these registers without ever finding a way to make them coexist, and the result is a film that feels like two or three different productions assembled into a single release.
Meaning / Themes
The film's most interesting thematic concern is the impossibility of keeping the people you love safe when your life is defined by danger, and this theme is handled with intelligence in the scenes between Peter and Gwen. The death of Gwen Stacy is the film's most honest moment, a consequence that the story has been building toward and that the film does not flinch from. It is a brave narrative choice in a genre that rarely allows its heroes to fail in ways that cannot be undone, and it gives the film a weight and seriousness that its more conventional elements do not earn.
Direction
Webb's direction is at its best in the film's intimate scenes and at its most uncertain in its action sequences, which are visually busy but spatially incoherent. The Electro sequences in particular suffer from a visual style that prioritises spectacle over clarity, and the Times Square confrontation is one of the more incoherent action sequences in recent superhero cinema. The film's climax, however, is handled with a restraint and emotional precision that is entirely at odds with everything that precedes it. Hans Zimmer and the Magnificent Six's score is one of the more distinctive in the genre, with Electro's dubstep-inflected theme a genuinely unusual creative choice.
Cultural Reception
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 received poor reviews on its release and underperformed commercially relative to its predecessor, grossing over $708 million worldwide but falling short of Sony's expectations. Critics were near-unanimous in identifying the overcrowded plot, the weak villain, and the tonal inconsistency as the film's primary failures, while acknowledging Garfield and Stone's performances and the Gwen Stacy sequence as real achievements. The film's commercial disappointment led Sony to abandon the planned Sinister Six spin-off and the broader Amazing Spider-Man universe, and the subsequent deal with Marvel Studios to incorporate Spider-Man into the MCU is widely regarded as a direct consequence of this film's failure. It is now regarded as one of the more instructive cautionary tales in the history of franchise filmmaking, a film that prioritised universe-building over storytelling with consequences that ended an entire creative era.
Who Should Watch
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is worth watching for Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone's performances and for the Gwen Stacy sequence, which is one of the most affecting moments in superhero cinema. Those who approach it knowing that the film around these elements is significantly weaker will find the experience less frustrating. Those who loved the first film should approach with tempered expectations.
Final Verdict: A significant disappointment that contains one great scene and a great deal of franchise obligation. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are exceptional, the Gwen Stacy sequence is one of the most emotionally honest moments in superhero cinema, and Dane DeHaan brings real intensity to an underwritten role. But Electro is a catastrophically weak villain, the plot is overcrowded with setup for sequels that were never made, and the film's tonal inconsistency prevents it from ever cohering into something worthy of its central performances. The best scene in the worst film of the Garfield era.
0 comments