THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 REVIEW (NO SPOILERS)

Does whatever a spider can!

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is swinging back into theaters for another round of thrills and webs for The Amazing Spider-Man 2!

Peter Parker (played by Andrew Garfield) is living a hero's life.  He's got his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), by his side, throwing bad guys around, and graduating high school.  Life is good for Spidey.

But while the web-slinger is slinging webs, danger is lurking.  Harry Osborn (played by the super talented Dane DeHaan) has returned to be with his father, Norman (portrayed by the underrated Chris Cooper), in his final moments.  When Harry learns a dark secret about his family, he does everything he can to keep his life from falling apart using all the resources available to him in OsCorp, which was inherited from Norman.

Parker, in the meantime, begins to discover that having a relationship isn't easy when being a superhero.....especially when the relationship itself breaches a promise made to Stacy's fallen father (Denis Leary).  As Peter deals with the guilt of breaking his promise, he begins to question what happened to his own parents and why they have not kept their parental promise of always being there for him.  He digs into his parents' mysterious past and discovers that the Parkers have a few family secrets as well.

Peter soon finds that his decisions as both Spider-Man and Peter Parker affect everyone he comes into contact with, and he must deal with the consequences of his choices.

Friends and foes collide as everyone is looking for the answer to their collective question: "Why me?"

While this movie is much darker than the first (MUCH darker), don't look for it to be as serious as the likes of the Dark Knight trilogy or Man of Steel.....this is still a comic book movie made more in the line of comics than real life.

Humor, action, high flying and amazing 3D effects make this movie one you MUST see in theaters!

My Rating:

4.113538 out of 5 stars

I must apologize to all my friends and anyone who has read any posts I've written here or on my Facebook page regarding my disapproval for this movie before.  I was wrong.  There, I said it.

After the abysmal Spider-Man 3 starring Tobey Maguire, I was more than worried about how this film would turn out with yet another trio of super villains.  Venom, Sandman and "New" Goblin, while on paper seemed to be an unbeatable force, were ridiculous alongside a dancing goth Peter Parker.

This movie brings back so many bad memories.

But this new trio of villains worked together flawlessly!

Firstly, the new Green Goblin looked great!  He did not look, as my nephew so eloquently put it, like a Power Rangers villain like the first Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe).  Secondly, Jamie Foxx, although a little over the top as a "normal" guy in the movie, was terrific as Electro!  The special effects were great and he was ruthless.  What really made me enjoy his character was the music that played whenever he was onscreen.  Foxx was definitely a scene-stealer and definitely could have used more screen time, but I understand that the story was not about him so it's forgivable.

Glad Jamie didn't go with the green and yellow suit!

Now, let's talk about the rhinoceros in the room....Rhino.  Many, including myself, were EXTREMELY skeptical of seeing this movie because we felt Rhino (played by Paul Giamatti) was simply thrown into the mix just for the sake of it.  Well, maybe he was, but he was still a great addition!  Let me put your minds at ease folks: Rhino's contribution to the movie was minimal but memorable, and, if anything, was just a setup for him to have a bigger role in the next Spidey movie.  Also, his mechanized suit was so awesome, I'm glad they didn't use the leather suit I was used to seeing in the comics and cartoons.

Can't see Paul Giamatti like this....

.....but this looks good on him!

I won't divulge anymore info, but I'll just say that these villains were necessary to the movie and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg with them.

I did not like the first Amazing Spider-Man movie, but this one I will see more than once in theaters!  If it's on IMAX, I HIGHLY recommend it!  Just go see it!!!


**Warning and semi-spoiler**
There IS a scene after the credits!  But don't get your hopes up like I did when I first saw it....the scene is just a promotion for the upcoming X-Men movie and NOT a crossover between Spider-Man and X-Men.  This scene was a once shot deal between the studios the rights to each superhero franchise.  You can read about that deal here.


Thank you for reading and making this the success it is!  If there are any movies you'd like to see reviewed, feel free to email me at jayreviewsfilms@gmail.com.  

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Jay