Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Movie Review - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (PG-13) - By Daniel Kilgallon


Run Time: 142 min        
 
 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a superhero-action film directed by the perfectly-named Mark Webb. It is a sequel to the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man; a reboot of Sam Raimi’s blockbuster trilogy starring Tobey Maguire. I am not a huge fan of the original Spider-Man trilogy and I actually thought that The Amazing Spider-Man was superior to all three of those popular movies. I was a bit skeptical about this 2014 sequel once I heard that the film would feature three villains. Remember that 2007’s Spider-Man 3 had three villains as well and that movie was an absolute disaster. Luckily, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was not nearly that bad and it actually surpassed its own predecessor, making it my favorite Spider-Man movie to date.

Andrew Garfield reprises his role as Peter Parker/Spiderman in this thrilling installment and I must say that he turned in an outstanding performance. In my opinion, Andrew Garfield is the definitive Spiderman and far superior to Tobey Maguire’s portrayal. Garfield brings a very natural, comedic element to the role and is just very relatable as a character. Furthermore, he shares outstanding chemistry with his love interest in the movie, Gwen Stacey, portrayed once again by Emma Stone. For me, that has been the driving point and heart of these new Spider-Man films.

In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker faces his greatest challenges yet, both in his personal life and his duty as Spider-Man. In this film, Peter delves deeper into the untold story of his parent’s death and its mysterious relationship to OSCORP, the industrial technology company that his father worked for. Peter also reconnects with his childhood friend, Harry Osborn, portrayed magnificently by Dane DeHaan. Furthermore, he must protect New York City from a whole new group of threatening super villains. Amongst these villains is Spider-Man’s primary threat, Electro (Jamie Foxx), a human electric generator capable of destroying the city.

Overall, I had a great time with this movie as it was action-packed, visually stunning and well-acted. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Dane DeHaan are an outstanding trio of rising stars and they were all incredible in their roles. My one complaint is that there was so much going on in the story, that it was sometimes choppy, rushed and a little hard to follow. However, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was still an extremely entertaining movie that gets me really excited for future installments.

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