# The Amazing Spider-Man 2



## groverj3 (May 3, 2014)

Just got back from this movie. I was a huge Spider-Man fan as a kid and enjoyed the first one much more than the Raimi movies, so I was pretty interested to see how this turned out.

I thought it was a pretty solid super hero movie. I imagine there will be plenty that won't like it for whatever reason (55% on Rottentomatoes currently, but audiences seem to be enjoying it). The Rhino was cheesy, but he wasn't a large part thankfully. Really, there are only two villains in the movie that matter, which didn't seem overdone to me. Electro was sweet, as was the new look Goblin.

Nothing really negative to say about it!

(Apologies if there was already a thread, I searched)

Spoilers:


Spoiler



I was very surprised they stuck to Gwen's death from the comics. I thought it was a ballsy move and it really hit me in the feels.


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## soliloquy (May 4, 2014)

i have to say, electro is a total cinematic and visual treat to see. jaimie fox's roll was good but his character was annoying. electro i thought was just awesome and bad ass.


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## DC23 (May 4, 2014)

Saw it last night. It was a lot better than I expected. Some good funny moments. I actually didn't like the new Goblin look for some reason, and also thought Rhino was cheesy. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed it!


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## Sicarius (May 4, 2014)

I saw it on Friday, and while I liked it, there were times where it felt too long.


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## Captain Butterscotch (May 4, 2014)

It was too long. 

1. There was too much focus on the little scenes between Gwen and Peter because they wanted to really make what happens later hit home and, while the chemistry between the two is awesome, they really got old. 

2. Jamie Foxx is and never will be a convincing nerd/geek character and Electro's characterization really made me tune him out when he spoke. I don't know if he was aiming for such a camp portrayal, but that's what he achieved.

3.And movies really need to stop adding last minute baddies like the rushed appearance of the Green Goblin. And the look was terrible; you could tell that the actor could barely get his lines out from behind those horrid teeth. 

The VFX was excellent. Really top notch stuff throughout the whole movie. I feel like it would have been tighter with 30-40 minutes cut off, though. I enjoyed the music. The crazy heavy sawtooth stabs to give an electric vibe really went well. This is one of Hans Zimmer's more recent work that isn't just BWWAOAOAOAAAAAAAAA and effects. It actually contains music alongside his experimentation.


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## groverj3 (May 4, 2014)

I agree that I guess it was a little longer than it needed to be, but it that didn't bother me.

Looking back on it, the relationship between Peter and Harry didn't seem well developed... however, I don't think it detracted from the movie that much.

I for one, loved the Goblin's design. I hated it in Raimi's movies. The power rangerish costume that Dafoe had was ridiculous. The genetic mutation thing was a much better fit for the theme of the series. Electro was slightly campy, but I expect a certain amount of camp in Spider-Man.

Anyway, I've seen that some critics hated it but honestly... it's a Spider-Man movie, just try to let your inner 12 year old enjoy things sometimes.


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## Sicarius (May 5, 2014)

Yeah, I didn't mind either Electro or Goblin. Jamie Foxx as Max, yea it was a bit much, but it wasn't terrible.


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## Explorer (May 5, 2014)

You know why I really liked the Joker in "The Dark Knight?"

Because he came out of nowhere. No connection to the hero, his family, his origins, nothing.



Spoiler



Why did they need to connect Peter's mother and father with Oscorp? The only reason to add this to the story, in my opinion, is because it is a cheap and easy shortcut to actually writing something, without having to be creative. 

I also like that Harry is smarter than his dad, and figured out that a combination of the spider venom and the suit would cure him (as seen in his being much recovered in the facility). Oops, I actually blame this on yet more laziness on the part of the writer(s).

They spent so much time in Oscorp set up for future movies IMO that they had one minute to get JJJ in, albeit only with a text message. 

Yes, Spiderman 3 previously suffered from unnecessary "oooh, Sandman was involved in uncle Ben's death!" but ultimately there was a much larger payoff in the movie itself for an emotional connection with and sympathy for Sandman.



Lastly, I'm most annoyed at being reminded by a trailer of Michael Bay being involved with TMNT. *laugh* I remember that he talked about the turtles being aliens. WTF?


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## Explorer (May 6, 2014)

BTW, biggest shock was when I saw the end credits.







I had no idea....


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## setsuna7 (May 6, 2014)

I love Paul Giamatti!! He was awesome even for few minutes!!


Spoiler



Gwen's death was awesome;from a nerd point of view


 Harry/Peter relationship was poorly executed.


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## OrsusMetal (May 6, 2014)

Saw the midnight premiere. It was so disappointing. The first one was way better.

I don't know why Jamie Foxx took this role. They made Electro such a lame character. He was portrayed as a lame-o that was in love with the hero, feels betrayed by him for the stupidest reason, then decides he needs to rid the world of him because he is butt-hurt. Basically, Amazing Spiderman 2 was a worse version of Iron Man 3 story line.

The music was probably the worst thing in the whole movie. I understand all the dubstep crap when I'm watching a trailer. But, I shouldn't feel like I'm watching a trailer when I'm ACTUALLY watching the movie. Every battle scene felt like the Battleship trailer. Also, dubstep shouldn't replace dialogue. 

I also feel there should be a limit to how many montages a movie has. This one had 3.

The amount of foreshadowing in the movie was unbearable.


The best parts of the movie were the Peter/Gwen scenes. They didn't feel super fake. Most likely because I'm pretty sure they are an actual couple, so their chemistry was great. Which made ALL the scenes with Emma very spot on.

I really wish that the rights for Spiderman and Xmen would go to Disney. The Marvel films that aren't owned by Disney have been giant let downs.

Edit: The original trilogy wasn't perfect, but Spiderman 2 > Amazing Spiderman 2.


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## MFB (May 6, 2014)

OrsusMetal said:


> I really wish that the rights for Spiderman and Xmen would go to Disney. The Marvel films that aren't owned by Disney have been giant let downs.



For real? X-Men first class is the best of all the X-Men movies out there and Days of Future Past is going to be great as well, so I don't see how you can say that about the franchise. ASM #1 was awesome and I read the Wiki for #2 because I know I won't get around to seeing it until DVD at the earliest and it's definitely disappointing compared to the bar that they previously set.


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## OrsusMetal (May 6, 2014)

MFB said:


> For real? X-Men first class is the best of all the X-Men movies out there and Days of Future Past is going to be great as well, so I don't see how you can say that about the franchise. ASM #1 was awesome and I read the Wiki for #2 because I know I won't get around to seeing it until DVD at the earliest and it's definitely disappointing compared to the bar that they previously set.



First Class was the best out of the franchise, I agree with you there. However, that doesn't mean it wasn't bad. The new one looks like it will be on par with First Class, which really does nothing for me. 

The X-men movies follow the idea of "Bring in unnecessary mutants/characters and the audience will love it!" They add characters for no reason at all and completely .... up time lines and story lines because of it. The HellFire club was done so poorly. The only reason Azazel was in the movie was just so they could have another teleporter. I could go on for ages about how many terrible choices have been made in that franchise.


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## OrsusMetal (May 6, 2014)

In a time where super hero movies are at their prime, and most of the new ones are actually defining the characters the way that we are used to in comics...it's sad to see half assed things like X-men. A watered down version of almost every mutant, a lot of bad casting, bad makeup and costuming, and crappy writing. It hurts. I grew up on this stuff. I watched bad versions of things when I was younger. There should be no excuses anymore. Stop hiring the people that THINK they know what we want to see and hire actual writers of comics like Disney has been doing.


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## groverj3 (May 6, 2014)

Maybe I had different expectations for this 

Spider-Man comics have always been kind of campy in a very "comic booky" kind of way. I'm not talking 60s Batman TV show campy, but the kind of campy where Electro's motivation for hating Spider-Man is right in line with a storyline that would make it into the comics (obsessed mentally unstable dude gets super powers and ....s shit up ).

I do think Raimi's movies nailed exactly ONE thing. That was the Harry/Peter relationship. Other than that, I hated Maguire's acting. Far too whiney. It wasn't as well developed this time around, but the Goblin's look was much better IMHO. I already said my peace about the ending satisfying me. I also took it as the spider venom worked in keeping Harry alive, but caused all those nasty side effects. The suit just stabilized the condition and he may or may not have survived without it, but it sped things up.

I'll be interested to see what happens in #3 now. I hope for a film version of Venom that actually does the character justice after Raimi's awful third movie in his trilogy.


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## MFB (May 6, 2014)

OrsusMetal said:


> bad makeup and costuming



OK, this is where I draw the line. I can understand not agreeing with actors who portray them, but the costumes in the movies lately have been knocking it out of the park; and I'd say the only comic movie that didn't do an accurate representation is Green Lantern. But ANY comic movie in the past say ...5 years, has knocked it out of the park in the costume department.


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## OrsusMetal (May 6, 2014)

MFB said:


> OK, this is where I draw the line. I can understand not agreeing with actors who portray them, but the costumes in the movies lately have been knocking it out of the park; and I'd say the only comic movie that didn't do an accurate representation is Green Lantern. But ANY comic movie in the past say ...5 years, has knocked it out of the park in the costume department.



I'm not trying to fight or argue, man. I know that a lot of people enjoy the X-men films. There are parts of it that I still enjoy as well. Just not nearly as much as some of the other films that have been done. I never leave an X-men film going "Holy shit! I NEED to see that again!" like I have with others. A great example is the newest Captain America. It was crushing.

My wife does special effects makeup for a living so I've become pretty picky since meeting her. She has pointed out some things to me that I wouldn't have noticed before.


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## Xaios (May 6, 2014)

I actually like X-Men 2 the most out of all the X movies. I'd rank them as such:

X-Men 2 > First Class > X-Men > The Wolverine > X-Men 3 = X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Because both XM3 and XMO:W suck _enourmously_.)

I'm honestly not sure if I'm gonna bother to see this. I liked the first Amazing Spider-Man movie, and I think Andrew Garfield makes a great Spider-Man, but the trailers just look like _such_ an explosioneffectsgasm that it's turned me off. Judging by the reviews, the movie appears to be only fair to middling as well, so I might just pass. Even Spider-Man 3 got better reviews.


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## crg123 (May 6, 2014)

I'm really hoping for a good version of Venom in the next one (still can't believe they chose Eric from that 70's show to be ....ing Eddy Brock in the last iteration of spiderman :anger Also I'm hoping for Carnage to make an appearance.


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## Xaios (May 6, 2014)

Topher Grace is a good actor, but he was abso....inglutely the wrong choice to play Eddie Brock, no question. I remember when I heard about that casting decision... "Whaaaaaaa???...."


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## Ibanezsam4 (May 6, 2014)

OrsusMetal said:


> My wife does special effects makeup for a living so I've become pretty picky since meeting her. She has pointed out some things to me that I wouldn't have noticed before.



dude... your wife has the coolest job ever


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## Sicarius (May 7, 2014)

Xaios said:


> I actually like X-Men 2 the most out of all the X movies. I'd rank them as such:
> 
> X-Men 2 > First Class > X-Men > The Wolverine > X-Men 3 = X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Because both XM3 and XMO:W suck _enourmously_.)
> 
> I'm honestly not sure if I'm gonna bother to see this. I liked the first Amazing Spider-Man movie, and I think Andrew Garfield makes a great Spider-Man, but the trailers just look like _such_ an explosioneffectsgasm that it's turned me off. Judging by the reviews, the movie appears to be only fair to middling as well, so I might just pass. Even Spider-Man 3 got better reviews.



100% agree on the X-Men order.

It was only big time explosionfest a couple of times in the big fights. 

Give it a shot, you might like it.


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## wankerness (May 8, 2014)

AS1 was the most forgettable superhero movie this side of the incredible hulk. This was better in some respects and worse in others. The plot was a gigantic mess and the writing was HORRIBLE (that speech Gwen gives at the graduation at the beginning was the most obvious foreshadowing ever and gave away the ending instantly for me, the first scene with her and Peter breaking up was star wars prequel level). Emma Stone does what she can with awful material and at least they made an attempt to give her character a personality, but still, pretty bad overall. Jamie Foxx was completely wasted and the guy that played Harry was horrendous, it was like he was trying to do a Joseph Gordon Levitt impersonation, the growly voice he was trying to use was a joke. 

The last scene with Gwen worked really well and deserved to be in a better movie. The scene with the Rhino was completely awful, especially when the stupid kid walks out and then spiderman has a chat with him while Rhino just stands there, and they should have just cut out that last part of the movie entirely. What a mess.

Basically, it's fairly bad but has some good aspects which mean it's not totally incompetent. I only paid 5 dollars to see it, so I don't feel too ripped off. There's no way I'd ever watch it again.


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## Explorer (May 8, 2014)

wankerness said:


> deserved to be in a better movie.



I love the idea of the scene having a personality. "I took it because it was a job, but I really wish I had been in a better move!" *laugh*

In terms of recent bad superhero movies, I don't think I'd put AS2 dead last. For lack of character development, I'd have to point out the first Thor, where I felt they were trying to come up with some way to have Elizabethan-talking frat boy have at least *some* crisis, but it never really came across as believable. I'd even have to say that Man of Steel did better than Thor.

Unfortunately for MoS, it turned into a CGI fest which made me feel like I could have just played the videogame and not missed anything. Although some might think CGI has come so far that you can do entire stretches without an actual human being, it just looked bad, and the physics looked wrong as well. 

(BTW, in terms of character development, I think MoS got an unfair rap on this. If you're the monster from outer space, but you want to be seen as a hero, you can't just kill someone because people will automatically think of you that way. MoS dealt with Kal El having to hold back out of fear of ruining his status of appreciated guest.)

Okay, that was all pretty geeky....


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## wankerness (May 8, 2014)

I haven't seen Thor 2, and when I watched Man of Steel I fell asleep in the first 45 minutes and didn't wake up till it was over, so I can't comment on those. I also haven't seen the first Hulk or Electra or the second Fantastic 4 movie. But I definitely would put this WAY behind Thor in terms of character development, the dialogue is so completely horrible and every "low-key" scene is torturous. Thor has a nice light, humorous touch which made the non-effects scenes after Thor comes to earth actually fun to watch. I am not sure if I'll ever watch Thor again, but I definitely thought it was far better than AS2 in all regards other than amount of Emma Stone.

Another thing I hated about AS2 is how much CGI there is and how they used it. I mean, most of these movies are heavily CGI, but if you compare this to The Winter Soldier it's just pathetic how crappy and low-stakes all the action scenes are in this. Like, the scene at the beginning where Spiderman is juggling nuclear isotopes or whatever is a good example. They show this super-cartoony boingy CGI spiderman in the back of a van "comically" juggling some metal things. It is incredibly distracting and just contributes to making the entire scene feel like something out of the 90s cartoon show. The integration of live action and effects is just miserable in that whole sequence, and some of the other big action scenes. It makes it hard to care about anything when all you have are some obviously cartoon representations of the actors that appear in the "talky" parts.

And electro is just such a joke character, you have Jamie Foxx acting like a nutty cartoon character with a comb-over at first, which is fine, but then in his big reveal in the city you're supposed to sorta feel for the guy since he's misunderstood, but then for the rest of the movie he's back to being a total cartoon. They should have either just embraced the cartoonishness of the proceedings entirely and cut out all the emo bullshit with Sally Field and the pointless flashbacks to his parents, or they should have made some attempt to give any of the action other than the 5 minutes of Green Goblin towards the end some dramatic heft. Comparing this to Spider-Man 2 where we had a truly charismatic, developed villain in Doc Ock is just sad. I could conceivably see part 3 being decent if they get some real writers (the idiots that wrote this are the same ones responsible for the Transformers series) and focus on his tortured persona a bit more, since Garfield is certainly a capable actor, he just had garbage to work with in this movie.


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## MFB (May 9, 2014)

Thor was great because the writer's looked at him (both comic and mythological version) and said, "OK, this guy's fatal flaw is that he's brash and thick-headed even though he has good intentions" and just totally wrote the character like that. They go to Nifelheim (Frost Giant world, not sure if it was the same in the movie) to avenge breaking in to Asgard but Thor ends up just having fun fighting all of them and wants to keep going. Starts with good intentions (Don't fvck with us) and ends on a bad note when they keep coming and Thor doesn't realize it's time to go.

Man of Steel was a good origins story, but a total sort of twist in the end when they end up fvcking DESTROYING Metropolis with all the fighting they do between him and Zod/Fiora/that other dude who's really big.

Can't say I'm surprised one bit that this was super CGI heavy - and poorly at that. Seeing Rhino in the trailers he looks pretty bad and not at all blended into the actual scenery of New York. Maybe it's the Spidey character and that because he's so nimble and flow-y that they over-do it and it breaks the suspension of disbelief. After hearing everything about this I'm worried about what will happen with the third movie since it's supposed to be building towards Sinister Six, and that means yes - SIX villains in one movie, when they can't even get three villains right in one movie.


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## mcsalty (May 9, 2014)

I think the Amazing Spiderman series is turning out to be a lot better than the "original" trilogy, maybe because it does a better job of staying true to the source material than Raimi's. I do agree though, the Peter/Harry relationship felt a bit rushed and the whole Green Goblin thing felt like it was shoehorned in at the last minute, like it could have been better left for the (inevitable) third movie. I can't agree with the people who are actually complaining about Rhino's last-minute appearance though. It's called a cliff-hanger ending and it's by no means a new concept; they're opening up for the next installment in the series. Why give everything closure when there's (at least) a third movie in the works?


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## wankerness (May 9, 2014)

mcsalty said:


> It's called a cliff-hanger ending and it's by no means a new concept; they're opening up for the next installment in the series. Why give everything closure when there's (at least) a third movie in the works?



It isn't bad because it's a cliff-hanger, it's bad because the movie is plotted and paced as if it should end before then, and then it just sputters back to a new start for 15 minutes, totally upending any dramatic weight that they'd managed to get with their whole graveyard montage. If the rhino character hadn't felt like a total tacked-on incident that was just meant as a last-second attempt to get people excited about part 3, then maybe it would have worked. But nope, he's in the first ten minutes and isn't mentioned again until the very end. 

I understand that the movie may be closer to the comic version of spiderman cause he's a sassy guy or whatever, and thus longtime fans might get more out of it than me, but from a movie standpoint, this was really a mess.


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## Explorer (May 11, 2014)

BTW, I thought I'd stick my favorite SM moment in here...


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