Hello & Welcome to a surprise entry to my blog! No baby yet equals lots of nervous energy for your humble blogger. In the interest of brevity I'm going to keep this review to three distinct classifications: the good, the bad, & the ugly.
The Good: The lead acting in "ASM 2" is spectacular (beware there are puns a plenty coming). While I had my qualms with Garfield's "Spidey Humor" in the first go round, I found him to be more of an asshole than charming, he absolutely nails it in this go round with the character. His delivery is top notch & shows some comedic flair. His chemistry with Emma Stone is one of the more endearing facets of the movie, but it unfortunately is not something to look forward to in future installments.
I also quite enjoyed the overall tone of the movie which shed some of the darkness from the original, & some of last summer's entries into the superhero movie genre. It was light, hopeful, & has the humor and color that seems to be lost by some Hollywood studios.
The Bad: You should know this already but the "dumb Aunt May" routine was a distraction and undermined everything they tried to accomplish with Sally Field's take on the maternal figure. I also never really "bought in" to the whole Parker's parents mystery. I know it was taken from the comics, but the dead parent angle has been done to, well, death in superhero movies. I'm hoping this is the last we see of the Parker parents. The final bad for me is that Gwen's death would've been more powerful, poignant, & tragic if it had occurred like the comic from the bridge. In this instance with the added twist of having the "I love you" webbing still in play. I didn't not care for a central figure like Gwen being killed by a hailstorm of CGI sprockets & clock parts.
The Ugly: The worst parts of the film for me were the ham-fisted portrayals of Electro & Rhino by Jaime Foxx & Paul Giamatti respectively. Foxx's "Max" was a spot on copy of Michelle Pfeifer's Selina Kyle & Jim Carrey's Edward Nigma. Excessively cliched characters who may as well have had no dialogue & just walked around with a "loser" sandwich board hanging around their necks. Then they have their inciting event & they are all the sudden cool yet crazy. It's mind numbingly predictable, & really just a waste of everyone's time. Foxx's Electro was not much better, but it was not bad enough to stick out. I put Giamatti here because his "Russian accent" is less discernible than asthmatic despot Bane's mechanical voice. The final "ugly" has to be the marketing of this film. Wanna see the Rhino in "ASM 2" just watch the commercials, wanna see Chris Cooper watch the trailer, wanna see major plot points watch the commercials, & so on. It is embarrassing Sony had such little faith in this movie that they gave away much of the $7,$8,$9,$10 ticket price for free on television. The box office may end up being the final "ugly" for the underrated web slinging affair.
I can't rate Dane DeHaan or Chris Cooper for this. I'm not crazy about the choices they've made with the Osborn crew, but I'm willing to give them another chance.
That's all for now! I hit over 1,000 page views this week so I'd like to thank everyone that's come to see what I have to say! Thank you all! See you next time at The Comic Shop!
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