Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Spidey (Garfield) is back... again!

Directed by Marc Webb
Produced by Avi Arad & Matthew Tolmach

Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner & James Vanderbilt

Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti & Sally Field

***

The latest installment in the new Spider-Man series tackles more familiar territory (from Sam Raimi's previous trilogy), while finding its own place in the Spidey canon. Peter Parker (Garfield) is struggling to commit to Gwen Stacy (Stone), after promising her father he would leave her out of his dangerous double life. Meanwhile, Harry Osborn (DeHaan) returns home and reconnects with Peter, as Electro (Foxx), an electrified villain, is created and unleashed. The challenges Peter will encounter might be most difficult he will ever face.

After a very disappointing reboot in 2012, this film manages to take the best parts of the first film - Peter Parker's demons and his relationship with Gwen Stacy - and shift most of the focus towards them. Yes, there are overblown fight sequences, car chases, explosions, multiple villains, and the occasional clichéd line. However, there are many interesting dramatic scenes, such as those between Peter and Gwen (what chemistry Garfield and Stone have!) and those depicting the moral dilemmas Peter faces being Spider-Man. They are quite special, and arguably better than many of the scenes in Spider-Man 2 - the best Spidey film to date. The cast does a fantastic job, and the story feels new enough so that it does not distract nor underwhelm. While the film's visual effects, score and sound design are worthy of note, the grounded performances and the bloated, but bold, script are even more important. A lot of the movie is overdone, but some of it is just a beautiful direction for a superhero film to take.

Oscar Potential: Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects