SPOILER AHEAD BIG TIME! Stop if you don't wish to ruin your own movie-watching experience by knowing what happened!
Emma Stone was pictured wearing that outfits on set, fans refused to believe it. Questions were thrown at her blatantly during interviews but she avoided and answered coyly, people found ways around it to hold on to hope. With release date moving near rumors were swirling that it actually happens, we dismissed it and said it was not true. All the denial in the world couldn't change the fact that it did happen, and all hopes were crushed and hearts were broken. We were prepared but it never made us any less shattered to see it for real on the big screen.
But I am getting ahead of myself here, many other things happened in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 too. For one, this is a handsomely-looking film filled with lots of beautiful shots and nicely done visual effects. Right from the first moment when Spidey's logo morphs into the back of his suit while he swings around the city shooting webs out of his wrists, we are frequently served with long continuous shots of Spidey swinging between buildings. These scenes are, in my opinion, an enhanced from all the previous Spider-Man movies. At times it may seem unreal and even illogical for Spider-Man to be able to fly like Superman, but this is a Marvel superhero movie, realness and logic are not something you look for. I'm fine as long as it looks cool. Besides, we are also fed with multiple beautiful bird view shots of New York City. I am not quite sure how many of those were shot with real camera by the cinematographer and how many were made in front of a computer by the CGI engineers, but what does it matter anyway?
The movie starts with Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man chasing after the villain Aleksei Sytsevich (which will later become Rhino) right before his high school graduation. Like, literally right before it that he barely makes it to the ceremony. Later that day, he breaks up with his high school sweetheart Gwen Stacy out of fear that he will put her in harm by involving her in his dangerous lifestyle. That was his promise to her late father: to leave Gwen out of this. Of course, we know they can never truly stay away from each other, and they sort of enter this on-again-off-again phase of their relationship. When Spidey's not out there chasing baddies, he follows Gwen around the city like a creep, except he is a super cute and gorgeous creep that everyone is willing to forgive (hey, that's the perks of being a superhero).
And speaking of baddies, Spider-Man has to confront his once-biggest-fan Max Dillon (played by Jamie Foxx) who, after a freaky accident becomes a human electric generator that calls himself Electro. You know how people complained about Oz the Powerful and Great wastes and hides Mila Kunis's talent behind a green make-up most of the time? Taking a leave out of Oz's book, Jamie Foxx is hiding behind a heavy CGI look that renders him glowing with electrical circuits all over his body. This proves to be hard for us too. When Electro says he's angry we can't tell if he is really angry through the heavily twisted face. All of his best moments happen before the accident when he was an electrician that nobody noticed and he spoke to himself pretending Spider-Man was his bestie. After he turns freaky, he becomes a typical comic super-villain that few can relate to.
Which makes him the less interesting villain among the two. Dane DeHaan plays Harry Osborn, Peter's best friend from childhood. He will later become Green Goblin through a mutation caused by a blood transfusion goes horribly wrong. This role was played by James Franco in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, but since I have very vague memory of that series I can't make comparison between the two. Let's just say the two actors create two different versions of the character. Dane DeHaan is a wonderful young actor (please go watch his previous films Chronicle, The Place Beyond the Pines and especially the most recent one Kill Your Darlings), and he brings the right amount of charm and the right amount of evil to Harry. Every smirk of his and every glance he shoots makes us believe he is this desperate dude who is in the brink of turning to the dark side in order to save his own life.
Of course, in the lead are Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. Now we all know they are also an item in real life, so chemistry is never the issue. Andrew Garfield continues to bring his boyish charm to the role that when Aunt May proclaims "you are my boy" I think she speaks for all of us. He might not have as much of an "outcast" quality as Tobey Maguire has (come on, a face like that can never be a true outcast, right?), but it's no denying he's getting more comfortable inside Spidey's suit in this second outing. All the snarky and silly one-liners are more belivable coming out from his mouth than Tobey's, silliness is something he does better. As for Emma Stone, she is ever so beautiful and charming, though she has very limited role this time beyond bringing a degree of Hermoine into her role. But their mutual love for each other is strong, so strong that it makes the aforementioned horror even more devastating when it actually happens.
With great power comes great responsibility. This phrase is never uttered in the movie, so we are saved from any possible cliche that might be (don't tell me you are not sick of this phrase yet, because honestly I am). But the thing is, this movie never really jumps out of the typical structure of a summer blockbuster superhero movie either. The villains are predictable, the damsel-in-distress is gorgeous and screaming for help, the emotional climax is in place. Everything is done in proper order. Not that it's a bad thing or the result is disappointing, it's just that I kinda wish after the standard way of the first film (introducing the background and history, plus how the superhero came to be), the second film can jump out of box to give us some surprises. Alas, it does not. To me, it is more a Thor 2 than a Captain America 2, and with audience getting more and more picky nowadays it might be a risk if it does not up the ante in future installments. Judging by that ending, I'd say the third movie or the spin-off or whatever they planned should be interesting.
Rating: B+
By the way, people will tell you to stay through the credit as there is a preview of the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past. I'm not sure if it's just me, but I'm disappointed in what I saw. Now I am worried.
