Rating of
2.5/4
"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/18/16
Peter deals with his break up with Gwen Stacy by throwing himself into the role of crime-fighting superhero which sees him facing off against both a childhood friend and new CEO of Oscorp and an obsessive fan who is transformed into a being of pure electricity. Marvel's latest exercise in deja vu includes the familiar caharcter of The Green Goblin who featured heavily in the original Spider-Man trilogy as well as new face, Electro. Jamie Foxx's character is a welcome new addition from a franchise that seems to be solely inclined to replicate already existing stories, and his first appearance as an unwilling "villain" held hostage by unwanted powers that he cannot control actually works quite well. Unfortunately the script soon has him reverting to a vengeance obsessed stereotype-cum-living firework display which destroys any emotional complexity or pathos in the role. In the addition of The Green Goblin, the film makes exactly the same mistake as Spider-Man 3 in that it adds on an unnecessary character and sub plot for no discernible reason other than as an excuse to tack on another action sequence. In fact Harry's hatred of Peter seems even more contrived and implausible than the originals and making every one of Peter's potential enemies nothing but doohickey's from Oscorp's basement seems remarkably unimaginative and cheap. It's not all bad news however; the action sequences are once again well handled - despite looking a little too much like a WWF smackdown in places - and this is probably the best and most faithful visual screen representation of the Spider-Man character yet. But despite some early potential in the Electro and Harry Osborne characters, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 prefers special effects and bad pop music to any emotional depth or characterisation making it, once again, little more than a rather immature but enthusiastic cartoon.
