By Thanks to the Spider-Man property’s massive popularity, talking about its movies are the most fun. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 already started out in a hole since it seemed like a cynical sequel to Sony’s original cynical property hogging (Sony can keep the Spider-Man license as long as it continues to make Spider-Man movies), but most folks were still holding out hope that this time it’d be different.
After the film’s release, more so than the first film, criticism seemed particularly divided amongst our community. Some absolutely loved it, and some absolutely loathed it. Because I wanted to get to the bottom of why the opinions varied so much, we now have Flixist Community Discusses, a series in which we’ll discover why a film may or may not be successful in what it set out to do.
Gathered from the comments (from both the opinions post and the review) and Twitter, here’s what the Flixist Community thinks of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Some spoilers ahead!
Here are a few comments from community members who really liked the film!
carg0:
Easily the best superhero movie to date, hands down.
Chad Almasy:
Surprisingly enjoyable. I’m glad I watched it.
Scissors (who wrote a much more compelling case than I could do justice, which you can read here):
I loved it. It’s my favorite superhero movie of all time, and I’ve seen pretty much all the ones made in the last 10 years. This movie has heart, yes it’s imperfect and I could dissect what’s wrong with it, but I don’t care. When it delivered, it delivered. I was unsatisfied with the previous trilogy, but the 2 ASM films are telling the Spider-Man story I want told. I always liked the Spidey stories that focused more on the kid behind the mask, and that’s why I’m loving these films. Haters be damned, I loved it and I don’t care if so many others hated it.
And now community members who believe Amazing Spider-Man 2 has too many underdeveloped villains and ideas, but is okay in some areas!
Fengor (who also linked to this video review):
Call me when Spider-Man inadvertently breaks Gwen Stacy’s neck and kills her. I mean let’s face it, the girl is all but marked for death.
On a less grim note. The problem I think stems from everyone now wanting to emulate the Avengers movie-universe, and from [the review’s] description it sounds like Sony is just checking off boxes as they copy the formula.
Jordan Mann:
In this movie’s defense, it handled multiple villains considerably better than Spider-Man 3 did [and on the scenes with Peter’s parents] Those scenes might have been ok if they went somewhere. But in the end they just added a small amount of exposition as to why Harry was going to turn crazy. Which didn’t really warrant all the time spent on them.
@VladZhao:
Electro was a different character after the accident and had no real reason to hate Spider-Man. DeHaan was really good.
@DaddyBoJangles:
Should have been Spider-Man vs. a more fleshed out Harry. Electro was unneeded, only provided some decent action scenes.
Nick Valdez (from our review):
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ultimately suffers from franchise syndrome. As it seems intent to focus on the future, we don’t get quite a fulfilling present. There’s kooky fun to be had, but we’re never given enough time to enjoy it before we’re given more information about future movies. In fact if you took all of those extra scenes out (and believe me, they are extra), we’d have the best Spider-Man film, hands down. I really loved everything else, so I wish someone would have reigned it in a bit.
Matthew Razak (Flixist Editor-in-Chief/Cool Guy):
I felt it really suffered with the too many villains aspect once again, despite Rhino being a complete one off. They lost a lot of traction by shoving Goblin into the background for the whole Electro thing and really were far too desperate to cram in the set up for the Sinister Six.
That being said I liked Garfield way more as Spider-Man this time around. His Peter Parker is still a bit too cool for me, and kind of a dick, but Spidey was way better. I wish they had delayed the Gwen Stacey conclusion a bit more as well. I think I enjoyed this one as a piece of action better than the first, but it definitely had its holes and the screenplay was a serious clunker. Webb’s action direction came a long way, though. Some really cool stuff.
Finally, here are community members who outright HATED it, but they all have compelling reasons as to why!
@wlatham92:
Garbage…A step above the emo Peter Parker dance scene from Spider-Man 3 but not much higher.
protoknuckles:
I didn’t like it because the plot jumped all over the place, the pacing was off, and the focus on Peter’s parents was boring
Anime Dad:
Amazing Spidermess 2 is an absolute mess of a film.
It’s not cohesive, it’s poorly scripted and the soundtrack is one of the most weirdly inappropriate things I’ve ever heard. I thought Electro was called that because he controlled electricity not because he controlled Electronic music.
Also, we have Paul Giamatti with a performance so phoned in he had to get a contract from AT&T.
Don’t get me started on Ghost Dad.
Also, what the hell was with Stan Lee’s cameo, it was dreadful!
So, where does that leave us? By reading all of your opinions, it seems that the more polarizing aspects of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 (the multiple villains, scenes of Peter’s parents, most of the extra stuff) seem to turn people off so much, they don’t enjoy anything at all. And that’s completely understandable.
You all point out some very poignant flaws. While I didn’t have a problem with Electro himself (since Jamie Foxx seemed to be the one person in the film who truly cared about what he was doing, let’s be real), it’s true that he completely stands out from the rest of the film. With the different focuses on Electro and Green Goblin, it’s like two movies were hastily put together. And that’s on top of all of the alluding to future films! That seems to be the root of everyone’s complaints. Amazing Spider-Man 2′s mismanagement of certain ideas completely ruined people’s view toward the film altogether.
It all just comes down to how much we’re willing to forgive for the sake of some goofball fun. I mean, it looks like we wouldn’t even have that fun if we’re thrown off by so much mess.
What did you think of The Amazing Spider-Man 2? Did you like our first Flixist Community Discusses? Comments or suggestions? Keep an eye out for future discussion opportunities (*cough* Godzilla or X-Men: Days of Future Past *cough*)!