“The Amazing Spiderman 2”: the film that is not even good for memes, but could be redeemed in “Spiderman: No Way Home”

Countdown: El Comercio presents a series of special articles about the upcoming premiere of “Spiderman: No Way Home” (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”), the most anticipated superhero movie of 2021, starring Tom Holland, zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Benedict Cumberbatch; etc. From Monday, December 6 to Wednesday, December 15, we publish reviews of every movie that the arachnid has starred in at the cinema. On this occasion, it’s time to see the second and (happily) last film directed by Marc Webb for this universe.

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (“The Amazing Spiderman 2”) surprises for the wrong reasons. I saw her years ago, but couldn’t remember how abject she was. It maintains the charisma of the protagonists, but that is not enough to save a story that was born dead.

On this occasion, Spiderman (Andrew Garfield) is already a consecrated hero in New York, but while his public life is successful, his personal life causes him problems, since the memory of the death of Captain Stacy, father of his girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone ) torments him. Meanwhile, the villain Electro (Jamie Foxx) appears, as well as a figure from Peter’s past, his friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan).

Of the good stuff, a little…

The way they express themselves, their dynamics save certain scenes (in part because when they recorded it they were a couple in real life).

More good stuff? The photograph. Bella, on par with “Spiderman 2” even. And Sally Field’s work as Aunt May, who at times knows that Peter is Spiderman and plays a solid role as emotional support. It has good fights, with the typical problem of action movies, where the fights lack emotional depth, that they are there only to fill the footage. Some encounters are saved where Electro (Jamie Foxx) participates, who sustains the conflict, since Peter has no link with him except a casual one. As this conflict is so mild at its bases, the story requires another villain: Harry Osborn, who becomes the Green Goblin.

… And of the bad, a lot

The dialogues are not bad, they are funny, but the story has been forced to reach a specific ending, in a similar way to what happened with “Spiderman 3”, with the only difference that. As for characters, DeHaan’s Green Goblin / Harry Osborn is troublesome. If the film presents you as someone from Spider-Man’s past, how do you capture this friendship in an organic way? Garfield tries his best to represent complicity, and the other actor does, but this relationship takes so little time to build that it causes nothing in the viewer except heaviness. But if this character is so bland, why is he in the movie?

Harry becomes annoyed with Peter, kidnaps Gwen, throws her from above and it seems that she will die; later Peter rescues her, but loses her after a while and, finally, she falls in slow motion and the spider web that must stop her fall arrives too late. She dies. With that the drama of the opening film returns, where Captain Stacy is the victim on duty and Spider-Man understands, once again, that when one is a hero, loved ones can die. The same trick in two consecutive films, without enough nuance to differentiate them.

. In the comic, many of the Spiderman environment die, but … Is everything that comes out in the comic good? If what is in the comic makes sense there, does it mean that the same thing will happen on the screen? The job of an adaptation is not to do a copy and paste. Being before different media, changes are necessary. This film was able to handle its plots better, for example I am saddened by the story of Gwen, built with determination to be the first student of her class, accepted by Oxford University, but with the bad luck of being Spider-Man’s girlfriend. The movie makes it clear that if Gwen dies, it is by her own decisions, but the script is whimsical to get to that point.

The final scene where Rhino (Paul Giamatti) attacks New York is a good standalone sequence, another anecdotal moment like those seen in the previous tape. This movie wants to be dramatic, but it’s boring. I fell asleep watching her, something that had not happened to me with any story about this character.

Fans are expecting Andrew Garfield to appear in “Spiderman: No Way Home,” but there is no official information on this at the moment. I insist that I would like to see him again in the suit. He built a good character (just like Stone), but was not helped by a number of circumstances that are now out of the question. This is the perfect opportunity to redeem a hero who was not fortunate enough to have Kevin Feige on his side.

Qualification

2 stars out of 5

Given

“The Amazing Spiderman 2” is available on Claro Video.

Look also

It may interest you