‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ puts ‘comic’ in ‘comic book movie’ … not in a good way
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Life+Style Editor
Most of the films in the Marvel franchise — Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers — are, legitimately, “superhero movies.” That’s not really the case with The Amazing Spider-Man 2: It’s a “comic book movie.”
A distinction without a difference? Hardly. Whereas the Avenger films are now all released via Disney and produced by Marvel Studios, S-M2 is a Sony franchise, not beholden to the tightly-controlled Marvel Universe. The result is a shocking change in tone, a movie that meanders between soapy angst and outright silliness.
Sometimes, Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels as if it’s been tasked with answering the question, “What if Paddy Chayefsky wrote a superhero screenplay?” At others, it feels like a retread of campy action comedies like Superman 3, complete with a bouncy score, a structure that strains credulity even for its genre and bang-whiz-pow moments that never coalesce. The result is a mess, as unwieldy as it is unsatisfying.
It’s not long after the events in Amazing 1; Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield, who plays him like a tortured stoner) is on-again-off-again with Gwen (Emma Stone, who glows like a moonstone — the best superhero girlfriend performance in the canon). When a sycophantic nerd (Jamie Foxx) becomes exposed to a weird electrical accident (improbably, it takes place in a tank filled with eels at the top of a skyscraper, as if high-end real estate can’t be given away in New York City), he becomes a pulsating being of pure energy — the villain Electro.
Electro was actually my favorite bad-buy from the old Spider-Man comics, and his reinvention here, while not in line with the mythology I grew up with, doesn’t bother me as much as how director Marc Webb muddies up his plot, turning what should be a formidable foe into a needy walking battery. There are so many interesting ideas at work here, like how Electro “sees” the world as pulses of energy, but those POV shots are quickly abandoned, and the scope of his abilities — when did he learn to travel as an electrical impulse through a wall plug, and how does his Neoprene costume know to come with him — never consistently explained.
Foxx overplays the role as well, making a nebbish that seems out of place in the big city. But Webb doesn’t do many of his actors any favors, encouraging them to go all Method in scenes that should play with lightness, and stopping the action too often for meaningful conversations.
The free-falling effects (especially in 3D) of the Webslinger rushing around the city have undeniable energy, but so much is being forced on the audience, sifting through it becomes taxing — a visual cacophony of overwrought CGI. By the time the closing credits roll, the film — like Electro — has suffered from a serious overload.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 2, 2014.
