The Amazing Spider-Man II

Saw Spiderman. Very complicated response. The movie was better than the first installment. It does some things well: web shooters, action scenes and the casting for Peter Parker, which I now like. The development of Parker's alter ego, a duty-driven wise-cracking personality, is done pretty well. I liked the way they did spider-man's jokes and ridicule. But the casting for Gwen Stacy remains abysmal. Aunt May is also not cast properly, and neither is Norman Osborne. And for the second straight movie we don't even see J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Flash Thompson, Robbie Robertson or even, dare say, Mary Jane. The dialogue is at times very corny and stupid. The movie tries to switch back and forth from action to sentiment like it is turn-taking. At times it does exactly that: you get an affection scene, usually with poor dialogue, followed by some pretty neat fighting or action.

Like the last movie, the villain is interesting because it is not the most obvious. The first movie gave us the Lizard; now we get Electro. But the movie does this really strange thing. It's like they made an Electro movie and Sony decided to change the ending. That's what it feels like. Because, out of nowhere, you get the Green Goblin and the dreaded Gwen Stacy ordeal. It almost looks like they had planned a fight with Electro, with Stacy leaving for London as the real ending. That's in the ballpark of what happened in the comic: Stacy fled to London after her father died tragically (with Spiderman accidentally causing it), shown here and here. That would have left the Stacy-Goblin ordeal for flick 3. But, like I say, it feels like the movie overlords didn't want to risk a slow train. So in comes the Goblin, like a rabbit out of a hat, and Stacy becomes the finale. The film is either looking to cover its flaws at this point or was simply misconceived from the beginning.

I also don't like what they did with Norman Osborn – his role in the story is all screwed up.

Interestingly, one could argue that the Stacy ending has some integrity. I mean, certain things are completely foolish: like only she could reactivate the grid, etc. But ignoring all of that, how the movie has her fate determined is honorable in light of the original comic, which is shown here. But then, the next few scenes have the whole matter rendered quite facile when a feel-good ending has Parker doing what Parker does, as if the whole ordeal was just a ride at a Disney park. I've said this before: the recent Batman trilogy was much better, because it took the subject matter of a lesser comic much more seriously, and therefore made a better movie. The subject matter for all of the spiderman movies has never been taken seriously. It's all just an amusement ride. I was entertained, but my expectations were low. Grade: B+