2014 Movie Preview: #10 - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Release date: May 2

Plot summary: We've always known that Spider-Man's most important battle has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that a greater conflict lies ahead. It's great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there's no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp.

My take: For as much as I like Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, I was not impressed with the Spiderman reboot that came out two years ago. While I still have reservations, my initial glimpse at this sequel gives me hope. From the look of the film, it appears that Marc Webb is more confident and comfortable shooting this type of movie and is trying to create more of a comic book look. What makes me both interested and nervous for this sequel is the number of villains that seem to be featured in this film. That can either make for something really awesome or a jumbled mess that causes people to begin using phrases like "too many cooks in the kitchen". Given the bar that the Avengers franchise has set, this has some big shoes to fill in order to stand toe to toe with those movies.

Game of foes

From EW.com

Sony is expanding its Spider-Man franchise with spinoffs devoted to the web-slinger’s greatest arch-enemies. The studio stealthily announced plans for a Venom movie, as well as one about the Sinister Six, the Marvel Comics team of rouges that included, at one time, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, Vulture, Hobgoblin, and Mysterio.
The movies, combined with The Amazing Spider-Man 3, which will open June 10, 2016, will be continuous collaborative creations from a “franchise brain trust” that includes producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, director Marc Webb, and writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Ed Solomon, and Drew Goddard.

“This collaboration was born out of the great experience we and Marc had working with Alex, Bob, and Jeff on The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” Arad and Tolmach jointly said, in a statement. “With more than 50 years’ wealth of stories in the comic books to draw upon for inspiration, the Spider-Man universe is truly boundless; in addition, the Spider-Man comics have the greatest rogues gallery of any series, and to have the chance to explore that on film is truly thrilling. Until now, we have approached each film as a separate, self-contained entity, but with this move, we have the opportunity to grow the franchise by looking to the future as we develop a continuous arc for the story. That is what Alex, Bob, Jeff, Ed, and Drew will do in this unprecedented collaboration, and we’re excited about the directions they are taking the character and the world.”

Kurtzman, Orci, and Pinkner, who together co-wrote the script for next year’s Spider-Man sequel, are also writing the screenplay for The Amazing Spider-Man 3, which Sony is optimistic that Webb will direct. Kurtzman and Orci, writing partners who’ve penned Star Trek and Transformers movies, will also pair with Solomon (Men in Black) on a script for Venom, with plans for Kurtzman to direct. (Kurtzman directed the 2012 drama, People Like Us, with Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks.) Meanwhile, Cabin in the Woods director Goddard will write and likely direct The Sinister Six. (Goddard is also attached to Marvel’s planned Daredevil series for Netflix, so stay tuned on how that unfolds…)

“The Spider-Man film franchise is one of our studio’s greatest assets,” said Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, in a statement. “We are thrilled with the creative team we have assembled to delve more deeply into the world that Marc, Avi and Matt have begun to explore in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. We believe that Marc, Alex, and Drew have uniquely exciting visions for how to expand the Spider-Man universe in each of these upcoming films.”

Not mentioned in the release is Andrew Garfield’s long-range involvement in the spinoffs. He recently confirmed he’s under contract through Spider-Man 3 — a fourth Spidey film and presumable the spinoffs were “all news” to him.

Web of guys

The first trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is here. Most will most likely notice the large number of villains seen or hinted at in the trailer (Electro! Rhino! Goblin!). What I noticed is that it seems like someone finally turned the lights on. I wasn't overwhelmed with the 2012 reboot largely in part because it felt so dark. Here's hoping this sequel uses its winning cast more effectively.

RBR: The Amazing Spider-Man

The fact that I waited until home video to watch this movie shows you the lack of urgency I had in seeing a reboot of this franchise. Despite having the story told to us a mere 10 years earlier, we once again sit through the origins of young Peter Parker getting bit by a spider and losing his uncle leading to his transformation into Spider-Man. This time around he's played by Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) who gives us a more rebellious than nerdy take on the character. One deviation from the previous origin story is that this one focuses on Peter's romance with Gwen Stacy. She's played by the always charming Emma Stone. Both she and Garfield give good performances although I don't necessary buy them as high schoolers. The biggest problem for me is that my familiarity with the story left me focusing on smaller details that irked me. For instance, the film takes place in New York, yet you would think that this is some post-apocalyptic version of the city considering how few people we actually see in the city outside of the primary characters. I also noticed the financial cheats the movie takes by having so much of it filmed in the shadows. You don't need a whole lot of CGI detail when everything is pitch black. Apparently all of the money was spent on the cast and it was not money well spent. You get distinguished actors like Sally Field and Martin Sheen to star as Peter's aunt and uncle and then waste them. Sheen unsurprisingly is killed off early on and Field more surprisingly disappears halfway through the film only to make a token appearance near the end. Director Marc Webb attempts to bring some gravitas to the franchise with his indie filmmaking style, but frankly it just wasn't needed. Flaws aside, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films actually felt like a comic book come to life. For all the realism that this adaptation offers, it equally saps the fun out of the story. This is a wholly unnecessary film (except for the people at Sony who needed to make it in order to prevent the rights from going over to Disney/Marvel) that doesn't need to be seem. It's harmless enough as a rental, but not a film that you need to go out of your way to see. Rating: ** 1/2

Garfield and friends

Check out the latest trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield as our friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

Amazing replace

With Comic-con this week, expect to see a lot of trailers/previews for stuff coming out next week. This time, it's our first look at Marvel's attempt to reboot the Spiderman franchise with Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) taking over as Peter Parker.