The Amazing Spider-Man (The Movies)

[Carbo]

Plus an early review of the movie itself, which he somehow managed to grab a screening of despite it not being out in the US yet.

 

Summary: He thinks it is marginally better than the first film, but still a terrible film that feels more like a movie-length trailer for investors rather than an actual story. He basically ends the whole video by saying "I really wish this movie would bomb so Sony would just stop making these terrible movies, because as a fan of Spider-Man, it tears me up inside that garbage like this is still being made."

I was wondering whether or not he would do one much like his early review of the previous movie. Most of his criticisms are pretty legitimate and reflect well on how I see the movie - it is a better movie, but it is a pretty major mess, mostly on account of a load of variables that were flawed from the outset and that have to be in there for the sake of the movie's marketing. It's insanely hard to overlook the corporate approach in these movies and it's good to see him dispel the notion that the license has to be with Marvel for the franchise to go anywhere.

For me I mostly just diverge on the whole aspect that I already felt like the first movie was where I hit rock bottom, so I had a hard time getting worked up about the bad parts in the sequel. I got to enjoy some of the movie's stupidity a bit more, but with the American critics seeing it now and the RT plummeting pretty badly it doesn't look like anyone is thinking much about this even when compared to it's predecessor, so I guess in the long run the incredible skepticism was vindicated.

[Dr. Homem]

I saw The Amazing Spider-Man 2 last night. Here's my review:
 

Before this movie came out, you could see people all around who wouldn't give it a chance. "It's going to be horrible". "It's going to be another Spider-Man 3". "It looks like a mess". I always though judging a movie like that based on trailers was ridiculous - you should always watch a movie with an open mind, for better or worse. In the end, while it wasn't 100% what it could be, it was top notch in terms of quality and overall fun.

 
The first thing you notice right from the start is that they finally captured Spider-Man as a character. He isn't an awkward hero, but finally the hero that realizes what he means to the people. The fact that he could be fighting someone and cracking jokes, and then jump off to the side to talk to some random civilian and make them feel important. That's Peter Parker as he should be.
 
Electro's character development was as literal as it gets ("Nobody notices me!") but it's an interesting idea. What if you get a mentally unstable person and put them in a position of power? Jamie Foxx helped convey both extremes that would happen; he went from confused and helpless, to admiration, to feeling betrayed. Peter and Harry's relationship was handled well, establishing their backstory in a few lines, in a fast and effective way. Dane DeHaan once again gives a great performance, but we knew he would, as he is one of the best actors of his generation already. Unfortunately, the Green Goblin motivation felt rather weak.
 
(It's worth noting that the multiple villains were paced correctly. The movie didn't try to resolve the stories of all three, but only the main antagonist, Electro. Goblin and Rhino are merely established for latter movies to expand upon, now that Oscorp has been established as a villain. This is a good approach, which hopefully should end the claims that "all movies with multiple villains will be like Spider-Man 3". It's all about how you pace them.)
 
Speaking of pacing, it was way off, despite the good handling of antagonists. Scenes felt disconnected at times, and the flow between them was unfavorable. The storyline about Peter's parents might have been necessary for some points of the story (finding out Norman was selling his projects for weaponry, explaining why the spider venom worked on Peter, giving Aunt May some depth and vulnerability) it had no need to be a whole "mystery plot", and an opening set piece. The whole "what is Roosevelt?", secret coins in the calculator, and then a secret lab popping up from the ground. It was out of tone with the rest of the film, and needlessly distracting. Evidently the script's greatest weakness is the plot structure. Spider-Man doesn't have a real goal here, instead he is just dealing with the problems thrown at him, and we watch him react.
 
Still, the plot itself isn't all that matters in the script, especially in character stories like this. The character development was phenomenal. The relationship feels real, partly due to the chemistry between the two leads and partly because of the flawlessly executed emotional scenes along the movie. This buildup is what really makes Gwen's death so impactating. Nobody cares if a random love interest dies. But when the character is built in a natural way with real stakes, then the audience is going to care if something happens to her. I already knew from the comics Gwen would die at some point, so I didn't think it would hurt so much when it happened, but it did. When the scene goes into slow motion you have that slight hope... but then the web connects and you hear that brutal thump. It breaks your heart, and Webb and Garfield did a great job of making you feel vulnerable in that scene. Beautifully devastating scene.
 
There's a lot in this movie that could have went wrong, but it managed to surpass all my expectations. It hasn't quite fulfilled the potential of the Amazing Spider-Man series. But it's the most genuine deciption of Spider-Man in a movie yet.

[Sami]

Just left the theater. Excellent movie, just as I'd hoped it'd be.

I can sort of see what people are talking about in terms of tonal dissonance jerking you around, but the only instance were that really bothered me was the ending. They should have just ended with a shot if him grabbing the mask. Other than that I thought it was fine. I took Electro a lot more seriously than I thought I would, and Harry was really great.

Hilarious that people thought had this would be the next Spider-Man 3 - it's not even remotely close. I hope it does great in the box office. I'd hate for Marvel to get the license.

[Carbo]

I don't think there's a lot of merit in writing off Spider-Man 3 comparisons as misplaced if the structure is what's being argued. Truth be told I think the very reasons this movie's most glaring issues come into play is precisely why the fears of it being another "Spider-Man 3" come into fruition from, because the movie not having any payoffs in regards to it's multiple villains doesn't change the fact that they're rushed into the mix for arbitrary reasons to create a plot that doesn't make much sense, having a bunch of plotholes in the process (why does Harry's hereditary disease matter so much for him right now if Norman could live with it for his entire life for one thing and what even turns Harry evil in the first place considering his armor accounts for his health). If anything, having no payoffs is pretty detrimental to this movie's ability to stand on it's own and at the same time it's interest in having it's crowded narrative seems to downplay things that feel skimmed passed when put side-to-side with the comparatively simpler TASM, which worked better as a sum of it's parts in a lot of aspects. Plot-wise there's a rather large lack of things to really hold onto when it feels more like it's saying "we're having a more interesting movie than this coming out", which in a way reminds me of Iron Man 2.

As an aside, something I couldn't help but notice, I find it pretty shameless of Kurtzman and Orci to write a character in the movie named Kafka who is literally the worst kind of German stereotype imaginable. That character had no reason to be in there and imagining someone actually writing him in without shame was cringe inducing.

That all said I still enjoy the movie's bits and bobs in terms of design, aesthetic and audio, but I find it perplexing that I feel like the first movie was probably a much better movie as a whole despite liking it less, and it's kind of made me start questioning just how much lip service towards fans have to matter outside of movies as a whole. Green Goblin, in particular, wouldn't exist in this movie if he wasn't there to either perform or not perform what is expected of him in a worrying circumstance, and outside of that his role is incredibly diminished and unnecessary. Is TASM2 a better movie just cause Spider-Man acts more like Spider-Man? I dunno. I suppose it is an appeal in that regard but I think I need to give TASM1 another spin in the near future just to compare the two, because upon recollection I feel like my opinion on TASM2 may have been rose-tinted on account of it better portraying what I hoped it would do rather than what it accomplished as a piece of media.

[turbojet]

That list isn't accurate.

 

Jamie hinted that Electro will be returning by saying that "you can't kill electricity."

Plus Kraven? Kraven isn't really the team guy

The hell are you talking about? Kraven has been on the Sinister Six several times in both universes of comics and several series.

[Agie]

I want to see this film, but I want to see Godzilla first.

 

I just got the first one on a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack. I've yet to use it, but I saw the first one in theaters. I might have said this already, but I thought it was an enjoyable film, thus why I want to see this one.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

so the general consenus I'm getting from you guys on TAS2 is that its a fun adventure, has decent villain setup, and that This Spidey is The Spidey, but it feels like the beginning of an arc in a comic, rather than a standalone

[Chaos Warp]

Watched the movie tonight. While I'm not going to claim it's perfect (I think it has quite a few flaws in fact), what it nailed it really nailed and on a personal level I loved it. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone had amazing chemistry as they did in the first movie (not to mention Peter and Gwen's relationship was really well done), and the action scenes and swinging scenes were amazing. They really, really nailed how Spider-Man moves about, even more so then the first one. In terms of the story and stuff I pretty much agree with what Homem said (I especially appreciate them finally getting Spidey perfectly right because I love him as a character), and the soundtrack was pretty cool as well. Special shout out to Spidey actually whistling the 60's Spider-Man theme song at one point, and it also being his phone ringtone. That made me laugh, lol. Specific spoiler thoughts under the cut.

 

-I thought that the way it ended was kind of underwhelming. It should have either ended sooner or later: as in it either should have gone on an extra 5 minutes to show Spidey kicking Rhino's ass to really run in that Spider-Man is back, or just ended with him looking at the mask. It felt underwhelming to end on his charging Rhino.

 

- Gwen's death scene was handled quite well. I like how it went into slow-mo and Spider-Man was shooting the web which gave you hope that she would survive but then she died anyway. Peter almost saved her but just came up a tiny bit short, and that tiny bi cost her her life. Really good stuff. 

 

-The movie had several one-liners that made me chuckle.

Despite it's flaws, the movie had me gripped to the screen and gave me chills at certain points, and had me super happy as we left the cinema. It's like the reminder that I didn't know I needed of how much I love Spidey. So yeah, flawed yet enjoyable movie and I personally loved it. 

[DarkLight]

Just got back from watching it with my folks. It was alright, but then again, I wasn't really coming in with high expectations, so forgive my rather "eh" thoughts about it.

 

Action was awesome. Though that was kind of given. The chemistry between Peter and Gwen was a bit sappy for me, but still nicely performed.

 

But the plot definitely felt a bit cluttered and rushed with how it handled Electro and his demise just so we could get to Harry's big reveal as the Green Goblin.

 

Couple things that kind of irked me was:

 

-The fact that they're reinforcing that Oscorp is the source of every bad thing that happens in  the city with The Lizard from the last movie, Electro and Harry in this one, and eventually the Sinister Six sequel bait that they tossed oh-so heavy-handily near the end.

 

-The ending. Not the entirety mind you, but the moment that's supposed to lead up to Spidey's grand return. Okay, there's a crazy guy in a rhino-mech tearing shit up engaged with police. Sounds scary, right? Not to the pedestrians just standing around like it's some great spectacle. Either the citizens of New York are used to seeing all sorts of chaos in the city, or are just that stupid and think they're safe from harm. But what made even more facepalm worthy for me was seeing this little kid, dressed up as Spiderman (since he met Spidey earlier in the film), manages to sneak away, stand across from Rhino, only for the people to now freak out and say "OH SHIT! MAYBE BEING AROUND THIS SCENE WAS A BAD IDEA!" until Spidey obviously comes around and gets the kid to safety.

 

Okay, I get it. Peter wasn't Spidey for 5 months because of Gwen's death and his heroics towards this kid makes said kid inspired to symbolically fill in for him. I get that, I seriously do. But I just goddamn hated how it was handled and made whatever sentiment I was supposed to have for this scene was completely botched by how it happened and how pretentiously set-up it was.

  

 

I don't mean to sound like I hated this film, because I didn't. It was alright. Again, I wasn't expecting too much from it aside from being a decent action flick, so maybe that's the problem. But for what it's worth, I can at least recommend it for anyone else who liked the first one or likes Spidey in general.

[Candescence]

And now, since he doesn't have anything else to make this weekend, Moviebob decides to outline why Spider-Man 3 isn't nearly as bad as people say it is. It's still not a good film, but he says its better than stuff like The Dark Knight Rises.

 

And, amazingly... Remember that incredibly awkward, cringeworthy sequence involving "emo-Peter"? He has a credible defense for it - it's intentionally awkward, cringeworthy and hard to watch, because Peter and the symbiote don't have any proper frame of 'reference' for what is 'cool'. Its a mockery of heroic characters going 'dark' or 'evil' for the sake of being 'cool', so the end result is what you see in the film. The intention was likely to make people want Peter to ditch the symbiote as soon as soon as possible. Of course, people also completely forget that the "forced laugh" sequence from Final Fantasy X was also blatantly and deliberately forced (seriously, in-context, you'd be extremely hard-pressed not to realize that the forced laughing was intentional, even the other characters wonder what the hell is going on), so...

 

It's certainly an interesting critique.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Of course, people also completely forget that the "forced laugh" sequence from Final Fantasy X was also blatantly and deliberately forced

 

And people forget that any script that requires the sentence "Tidus laughs like a deranged seagull" is not necessarily good. Just making an annoying thing intentionally does not excuse the thing from being annoying, though how much that applies to SM3 I'll leave to you.

[Burning Finger]

Saw the film twice, I didn't love it but I didn't hate either. I enjoyed it more after a second viewing.

I loved Electro, if he only was handled a little better. Green Goblin still looks awful to me, Harry really should have only been introduced in this movie saving the Goblin for another film though.

Andrew Garfield IS Spider-Man! How anybody can prefer Tobey Maguire and still won't him in the role is beyond me. The relationship between Andrew's Peter and Emma's Gwen is always a joy to watch, it really is unfortunate what happens but it was inevitable.

Web-slinging has never looked better, it really is a rush to watch Spidey swing around and do his thing.

I didn't like how Dr. Kafka is presented here. First off Kafka is a woman not a man. The Dr. Kafka I know generally cares about her patients at Ravencroft and does not perform experiments on them. Of course I only Dr. Kafka from the 90's series and The Spectacular Spider-Man, but I'm fairly certain the Kafka in the movie is nothing like the one in the comics.

I definitely could have done without The Spectacular Spider-Kid. I knew I was gonna hate that scene when I saw Spider-Kid in the trailers and pics. Its just cheesy and something you would see happen in the Raimi films.

Overall I liked the film, I feel there are definitely somethings that happen in the film that would've been done in an MCU film and fans would eat it up no problem. But since this isn't a Marvel Studios film it gets a lot of hate for that reason alone. But, It's a fun film, if you love Spider-Man you will like this movie. I just wish there was less focus on setting up the Sinister Six movie, hopefully TASM3 has a better script.

[turbojet]

I saw it tonight and holy fucking shit, this movie is unfocused. There is too much shit going on and for once, it had nothing to do with amount of villains. It had everything to do with the amount of fucking storylines.There is just too much going on. Harry has his own thing. Electro had his own thing. The Mystery of his parents. Oh my God. Why? This cast is so good, The acting is soooo good. Everybody played their roles. But I am sitting there in the movie theater just wondering every so often...why is that scene there? Why does Peter all of sudden care about this when that just happened? It had nothing to do with the romance as that was great. It was everything else trying to cram in the fucking movie. MAN!. Damn. What the fuck? And I stayed after the credits and...

 

X-Men!? I was genuinely shocked. So in an effort to keep the properties, they are using the X-Men and Spider-man in the same universe? That is sad and easily seen as a pathetic attempt to market of the Avengers craze. And I fucking hate the X-Men.  I can't even think of any story of Spider-man that was good and it involved the X-Men.

 

And they already crammed enough shit in this movie to last three movies. There was hints of Felicia Hardy. This movie is just a mess. Stop it, Sony. Just stop. I love Andrew Garfield as Spider-man. I love Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey. Aunt May actress killed it, but there is just too much. Damn! 

[Boomer]

X-Men!? I was genuinely shocked. So in an effort to keep the properties, they are using the X-Men and Spider-man in the same universe? That is sad and easily seen as a pathetic attempt to market of the Avengers craze. And I fucking hate the X-Men.  I can't even think of any story of Spider-man that was good and it involved the X-Men.

There's not going to be a crossover. Marc Webb was meant to direct a sequel to 500 Days of Summer for Fox however he decided to direct more Spider-Man films instead. As a compromise he's advertising X-Men: Days of Future Past for them.

[turbojet]

There's not going to be a crossover. Marc Webb was meant to direct a sequel to 500 Days of Summer for Fox however he decided to direct more Spider-Man films instead. As a compromise he's advertising X-Men: Days of Future Past for them.

Well that is lame and breath of fresh air at the same time. But still, unfocused movie is still unfocused.

[Mania Pipe]

Andrew Garfield IS Spider-Man! How anybody can prefer Tobey Maguire and still won't him in the role is beyond me.

 

I don't know, maybe it's because there are people that like Tobey more than Andrew? Maybe they're people that would actually rather prefer both than one or the other, which is where you can put me in the crowd that enjoys both Tobey AND Andrew as Spider-Man.

[Milo]

The RT score is now at a 54 "rotten" percent. Consensus: "While the cast is outstanding and the special effects are top-notch, the latest installment of the Spidey saga suffers from an unfocused narrative and an overabundance of characters." Audience reception is at 75% though.

 

I got to enjoy some of the movie's stupidity a bit more, but with the American critics seeing it now and the RT plummeting pretty badly it doesn't look like anyone is thinking much about this even when compared to it's predecessor, so I guess in the long run the incredible skepticism was vindicated.

 

If Carbo had a dollar for every prediction he made that was spot on the money...

 

I think now it's just a matter of time to see how hard word-of-mouth impacts the movie's box office intake.

[Carbo]

The movie opened in the American Box Office at $92 million the last weekend. It's one of the better domestic debuts of this year, but it's the worst performing weekend opening for a Spider-Man movie by a pretty sizable margin, even with the inflated ticket prices and 3D taxes. Despite the extreme marketing there seems to be some franchise fatigue, and surprisingly enough despite initial predictions to the contrary, it didn't outperform The Winter Soldier, which opened at $95 million during the much harsher April month and set a new record for a weekend opening in that month.

It's doing reasonably better overseas though and Sony seem pleased with the results so far. Despite breaking even on the budget though, the movie allegedly has to make more than it's predecessor to make any successful returns which puts the target at around $800-900 million. Overall, doing good enough but not that particularly impressive at the moment.

[Sami]

Well that's a bummer. :/

Sigh. Maybe they'll try harder next time to get people back. I dunno. At least the new Captain America is supposedly good so I can't be too upset about it getting the edge.

[turbojet]

So if you haven't heard, Andrew Garfield has been trying his damnest to get Miles Morales to be the next Spider-man series. He has been on it since before the first movie launched. Of course, this is just his wish, but of course, the producers of the franchise flat out rejected the idea.

Are Miles Morales (“Ultimate Spider-Man”), Ben Reilly (clone Spider-Man) or Miguel O’Hara (“Spider-Man 2099″) on the table? If you want a Spider-Man movie every year why not bring in some of the other variations?

 

Tolmach: No.

 

Arad: No. The one thing you cannot do, when you have a phenomena that has stood the test of time, you have to be true to the real character inside – who is Peter Parker? What are the biggest effects on his life? Then you can draw in time, and you can consider today’s world in many ways. But to have multiple ones… I don’t know if you remember, but Marvel tried it. And it was almost the end of Spider-Man.

 

So Spider-Man in the cinematic realm will always be Peter Parker?

 

Arad: Absolutely

 

Tolmach: As far as we’re concerned. The guys who take it over after us… Who knows…

 

 

Well there goes any money I have in this franchise produced by Sony. As much as I hate what Marvel is doing with 616 Peter, Disney needs to cough up the cash and buy this franchise off these chumps. You don't mind changing a villain's ethnicity and race, but when it comes to the actual protagonist or a protagonist with a well-received story, nope! And asshole, people did not like the Clone Sage because it was overly convoluted and was fucking confusing. No one knew which Peter Parker clone was the actual clone and which was the real deal. Not to mention that it lasted several years. Ben Reilly was not the problem. And that problem does not extend to Miguel O'Hara or Miles Morales as the latter is a fucking success and Miguel is more of a spin-off. 

[Toby]

I would pay so many moneys if they brought in Tobey Maguire to play Ben Riley lol

[Burning Finger]

So if you haven't heard, Andrew Garfield has been trying his damnest to get Miles Morales to be the next Spider-man series. He has been on it since before the first movie launched. Of course, this is just his wish, but of course, the producers of the franchise flat out rejected the idea.

 

Well there goes any money I have in this franchise produced by Sony. As much as I hate what Marvel is doing with 616 Peter, Disney needs to cough up the cash and buy this franchise off these chumps. You don't mind changing a villain's ethnicity and race, but when it comes to the actual protagonist or a protagonist with a well-received story, nope! And asshole, people did not like the Clone Sage because it was overly convoluted and was fucking confusing. No one knew which Peter Parker clone was the actual clone and which was the real deal. Not to mention that it lasted several years. Ben Reilly was not the problem. And that problem does not extend to Miguel O'Hara or Miles Morales as the latter is a fucking success and Miguel is more of a spin-off. 

 

Eh, I don't wanna see anybody else under the mask. If its not Peter Parker then it's simply not Spider-Man to me, everyone is else is a faker. Same goes for Batman, Iron Man, and whatever other superheroes that had someone else put on the mask. We haven't even scratched the surface of Pete's rogues gallery in the films, so whats the hurry in replacing him?

 

I'd rather see a Spider-Man 2099 film before they make one about Miles Morales, it's got nothing to do with racism as I'm Hispanic much like Miguel and Miles. Neither will happen though simply because the general audience has no idea who the hell Miguel O'Hara or Miles Morales are. You're mistaken if you think Marvel will develop a Miles Spidey film when the rights inevitably revert, as they no doubt will wanna take a spin with Peter in their universe. If Miles happens it'll be much much later.

 

I will say this though. I really can't stand the arrogant attitudes that come off in interviews with Arad and Tolmach. They act like they own the character outright and its annoying. You guys are merely renting the franchise from Marvel and are on borrowed time. Now I'm in no hurry for Spider-Man to revert back to Marvel Studios, simply because I don't think all of Marvel's movies are that great, and I'm pretty contempt with what Sony's doing with the franchise currently, it's not perfect but neither is the MCU. Still not sure how I feel about the Sinister Six movie though. Do I want to see Spidey join The Avengers? It would be cool, but I'd rather just have Spider-Man exist in the same Marvel Universe. Funny thing is this series was almost in continuity with the MCU, but for whatever the reason the Oscorp building never made it into the skyline in The Avengers due to the design not being finished in time. I think it is still is in spirit though, the technology seen in TASM films and the MCU is virtually the same. But reading interviews with these guys really makes me wish Marvel would just pull the rug out from underneath Sony sometimes.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Eh, I don't wanna see anybody else under the mask. If its not Peter Parker then it's simply not Spider-Man to me, everyone is else is a faker. Same goes for Batman, Iron Man, and whatever other superheroes that had someone else put on the mask. We haven't even scratched the surface of Pete's rogues gallery in the films, so whats the hurry in replacing him?

 

I'd rather see a Spider-Man 2099 film before they make one about Miles Morales, it's got nothing to do with racism as I'm Hispanic much like Miguel and Miles. Neither will happen though simply because the general audience has no idea who the hell Miguel O'Hara or Miles Morales are. You're mistaken if you think Marvel will develop a Miles Spidey film when the rights inevitably revert, as they no doubt will wanna take a spin with Peter in their universe. If Miles happens it'll be much much later.

 

As for the first point, I don't think anyone's in a hurry to kill of Peter, comrade. People genuinely like Miles; not because of his race, not because of the costume, but because he's a likable character. I'm hispanic myself, and I can tell you I wouldn't give a crap about Miles if he wasn't a good character first, and a good Spider-Man. I love the Parkers, and I love Pete, but I won't deny that what Miles brings to the table as a person could mean as much to me as Pete does. If you've come thinking that (though more kindly worded) all Miles was meant for was to bring a new demographic to the comic stand as some sort of hispanic Pete, then you've either massively misunderstood the connection people have made with this character or have otherwise not read his stories. 

 

As for the second, again, I'm not sure that anybody thought Marvel would try for it if they got the chance to. But you'll always have people hoping; it's hard to truly crush the appeal of a good character.

 

At least, this is as far as I go. I'm not sure I speak for everybody.

[Chaos Rush]

Saw the film yesterday. It was pretty good, but not totally outstanding. Here's my thoughts on it:

What I thought was good:

*The actors. Everyone did an excellent job working with the script they were given.

 

*Electro was freaking awesome

 

*Dane Dehaan as Green Goblin was also freaking awesome

 

*Emma Stone is too hot

 

*Soundtrack was awesome

 

*Marc Webb has the romance thing down. Not surprising coming from the guy who directed 500 Days of Summer.

 

The plot was kinda messy. It was a clusterfuck, but not in the way we thought it was going to be, since the Rhino is barely in the film. I felt like Green Goblin should have been saved for a later film (but still introduce Harry in this film), since his turn to Green Goblin would have been more impacting that way. Nonetheless, his transformation was still believable and his performance was incredible, as I totally bought into the emotions that he was experiencing.

 

I felt like they shouldn't have shoved Rhino in at the end. I understand that that's probably Sony to blame rather than Webb, but I felt like the plot should have focused entirely on Electro and his threat, and then have Harry discover his illness at the very end to setup the next film.

 

I also felt like the way the last third of the movie was setup is rather strange. Here we see Spidey and Electro having what feels like the big climactic battle, and I'm just sitting there like ok so the trailer showed Green Goblin and Rhino, where the fuck are they. And right after Electro's dealt with, Green Goblin literally just flies into the scene to extend the movie. Now, I don't have a problem with how Dane performed, as I think Dane Dehaan did an incredible job. I just have a problem with how the character was handled, since we barely see him showing off what he can do with his new power suit and glider.

 

The motivations for the villains were rather weak.

Electro's motivation: "You LIED to me!!!!"

Green Goblin's motivation: "You didn't give me hope!!!!"

 

Regardless of how Harry/Goblin was handled, I did enjoy the sequence where he frees Electro and forces that Oscorp guy to show him where the spider venom was.

 

I don't have much else to say; basically everything about the film was great except the story itself. The whole last act of the movie was just anti-climactic because it's literally just:

*epic fight with Electro that is believable as the movie's big climax

*Green Goblin literally flies into the scene to extend the movie and a less-epic fight occurs

*some stuff happens

*Rhino is shoved in at the very very end

 

When it should have been:

*epic fight with Electro that IS the movie's big climax (Gwen still dies, Harry isn't the Green Goblin yet)

*Harry discovers his terminal illness, the end

 

Also the trailers are terrible and are very misleading. The lines "We have you on video surveillance", "NOTHING is what I thought it was", "We can change EVERYTHING", are NOT in the film AT ALL. The trailer makes it look like Electro, Green Goblin, and Rhino are there to fuck shit up, while in the actual film it was just Electro and Green Goblin, with Rhino not even in the story at all (but shoehorned in with no plot relevance).

[Burning Finger]

Saw the film yesterday. It was pretty good, but not totally outstanding. Here's my thoughts on it:

What I thought was good:

*The actors. Everyone did an excellent job working with the script they were given.

 

*Electro was freaking awesome

 

*Dane Dehaan as Green Goblin was also freaking awesome

 

*Emma Stone is too hot

 

*Soundtrack was awesome

 

*Marc Webb has the romance thing down. Not surprising coming from the guy who directed 500 Days of Summer.

 

The plot was kinda messy. It was a clusterfuck, but not in the way we thought it was going to be, since the Rhino is barely in the film. I felt like Green Goblin should have been saved for a later film (but still introduce Harry in this film), since his turn to Green Goblin would have been more impacting that way. Nonetheless, his transformation was still believable and his performance was incredible, as I totally bought into the emotions that he was experiencing.

 

I felt like they shouldn't have shoved Rhino in at the end. I understand that that's probably Sony to blame rather than Webb, but I felt like the plot should have focused entirely on Electro and his threat, and then have Harry discover his illness at the very end to setup the next film.

 

I also felt like the way the last third of the movie was setup is rather strange. Here we see Spidey and Electro having what feels like the big climactic battle, and I'm just sitting there like ok so the trailer showed Green Goblin and Rhino, where the fuck are they. And right after Electro's dealt with, Green Goblin literally just flies into the scene to extend the movie. Now, I don't have a problem with how Dane performed, as I think Dane Dehaan did an incredible job. I just have a problem with how the character was handled, since we barely see him showing off what he can do with his new power suit and glider.

 

The motivations for the villains were rather weak.

Electro's motivation: "You LIED to me!!!!"

Green Goblin's motivation: "You didn't give me hope!!!!"

 

Regardless of how Harry/Goblin was handled, I did enjoy the sequence where he frees Electro and forces that Oscorp guy to show him where the spider venom was.

 

I don't have much else to say; basically everything about the film was great except the story itself. The whole last act of the movie was just anti-climactic because it's literally just:

*epic fight with Electro that is believable as the movie's big climax

*Green Goblin literally flies into the scene to extend the movie and a less-epic fight occurs

*some stuff happens

*Rhino is shoved in at the very very end

 

When it should have been:

*epic fight with Electro that IS the movie's big climax (Gwen still dies, Harry isn't the Green Goblin yet)

*Harry discovers his terminal illness, the end

 

Also the trailers are terrible and are very misleading. The lines "We have you on video surveillance", "NOTHING is what I thought it was", "We can change EVERYTHING", are NOT in the film AT ALL. The trailer makes it look like Electro, Green Goblin, and Rhino are there to fuck shit up, while in the actual film it was just Electro and Green Goblin, with Rhino not even in the story at all (but shoehorned in with no plot relevance).

 

I don't know if it's fair to say Electro's motivation is weak when you put yourself in the mindset of a deranged individual.

 

Clearly Max isn't well, when we see him talking to himself in his home and answering himself back as Spider-Man. Electro not only thought Spider-Man lied to him when he said the police wouldn't shoot him. He also has a lot suppressed anger within him (which he first tells Spidey in Times Square) from being taken advantage of all his life, being experimented on in Ravencroft didn't help. Yeah those aren't really good reasons, but he isn't all there either.