The Amazing Spider-Man 2 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - User Review Thread! - SPOILERS! - Part 5

[UltimateWebhead]

I think there's a tendency these days to make films out to be "greatest film eva!!!!11!" or "worst piece of crap eva!!!11!"The truth is this is a good film.Very flawed,but a good film.

In my review I likened it in many ways to Batman Forever,Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man 3.But the fact is I really liked those movies.I'd say they are favorites,despite them having one thing in common: They are all flawed. So it seems a common theme that, if a movie isn't an outright masterpiece,it usually gets put in the "Disappointments" category.

I really liked Eggyman's final comment from his review of ASM2..."this isn't a perfect movie, but within it, lies perfection." It may have been worded slightly different, but I totally agree with that sentiment.

 

[SpideyK]

The response has been a bit of a letdown. Especially since it seems to be forming so many peoples opinions of the movie, with those people not even watching it! I've said before the internet breeds negativity, and all it takes is one reviewer to say "Oh my god, this is like Batman & Robin status!" for a bunch of folks fall in line and say, "yeah, it is!"

Granted, if you saw the movie for yourself and didn't like it, that's cool.

I for one, can't wait until Spider-Man has a movie that reminds everyone he really is the greatest superhero we have, reclaim his #1 spot on the total gross charts, and puts all the other heroes back in their place.

(I'm a big Spider-Man fan, in case you couldn't notice)

Oh, man. Yes.

I remember the Raimi days when Spidey was THE superhero, bar-****ing-none among my friends.

Nowadays, I'm almost afraid to speak my mind about Spidey.

 

[Frodo]

I think there's a tendency these days to make films out to be "greatest film eva!!!!11!" or "worst piece of crap eva!!!11!"The truth is this is a good film.Very flawed,but a good film.

In my review I likened it in many ways to Batman Forever,Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man 3.But the fact is I really liked those movies.I'd say they are favorites,despite them having one thing in common: They are all flawed. So it seems a common theme that, if a movie isn't an outright masterpiece,it usually gets put in the "Disappointments" category.

I can agree with that to the extent that the expectations and standards for these films is much higher than they were 20 years ago when BF came out .

 

[The Joker]

Oh, man. Yes.

I remember the Raimi days when Spidey was THE superhero, bar-****ing-none among my friends.

Nowadays, I'm almost afraid to speak my mind about Spidey.

It was like that for Batman fans between 1997 and 2005. Batman's name was in the poo because themovie franchise was dead, and the last two Batman movies were awful. Not to mention that horrid Catwoman spin off in 2004. Then there was the video game franchise. Batman had a horrible track record there.

Nolan and the Arkham games were like the saviors of Batman's good name.

 

[The Dark Hero]

Just gonna say it this movie was horrible I actually liked spider-man 3 more.

 

[hitmanyr2k]

Couldn't agree more, great post, dude.

People shat on ASM for being too dark, and now people are ****ting on ASM2 for being too light, essentially. Ridiculous is what it is.

A movie can be light and humorous without being batsh** stupid with actors hamming it up in a badly written script. Spider-man can be humorous with his quips but not while blatantly disregarding the safety of NY citizens caught in the crossfire of a demolition derby while he's joking and playing around. The execution of this film was incompetence at its finest and the fact that some people aren't just glossing over it because it's a Spider-man movie isn't ridiculous at all. It's all about finding a balance and TASM2 never got that balance right. It was all over the place.

 

[SpideyK]

It was like that for Batman fans between 1997 and 2005. Batman's name was in the poo because themovie franchise was dead, and the last two Batman movies were awful. Not to mention that horrid Catwoman spin off in 2004. Then there was the video game franchise. Batman had a horrible track record there.

Nolan and the Arkham games were like the saviors of Batman's good name.

I never saw Catwoman. Can't say I'm planning on doing it any time soon, either.

And yes, pre-Nolan days were indeed different.

 

[SpideyK]

A movie can be light and humorous without being batsh** stupid with actors hamming it up in a badly written script. Spider-man can be humorous with his quips but not while blatantly disregarding the safety of NY citizens caught in the crossfire of a demolition derby while he's joking and playing around. The execution of this film was incompetence at its finest and the fact that some people aren't just glossing over it because it's a Spider-man movie isn't ridiculous at all. It's all about finding a balance and TASM2 never got that balance right. It was all over the place.

You sound mad. Are you mad?

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

The overall story squanders a ton of potential overall (on paper, this story is a 1/5), but this movie still hits some extremely high highs throughout, and for me this movie still manages to feel...special. It's hard to describe.

 

[PacificBoy]

Saw it last evening and it gets a 6.5/10 from me.

In one word: patchy. Thought the first 40 minutes or so was good, then the pacing and poorly plotted story threads started to unravel badly. The movie's strength, the emotional core, was simultaneously its weakness. The portrayal of youthful love and all its whims and fancies was believable but it got in the way of the hero narrative. Marc Webb's Spidey wasn't very sympathetic for me. The movie basically became 500 Days of Spiderman -- for better or worse.

 

[Herolee10]

You know, for all the faults that this film has... one of the things that I REALLY liked was how they finally presented a real "Criminal Organization" element for the Spider-Man franchise, which is something that I feel all the previous films lacked and didn't have.

Up until now, all of our villainous characters were mainly just scientists or average citizens gone bad (namely suffered from a bad accident), with any criminal present in past films being just petty thugs.

Here we actually got to see an real organized crime like syndicate in the form of Oscorp.

I also enjoyed seeing what they placed at stakes during Spider-Man's fight with Electro. Unlike the Lizards's rather cartoonish plan in turning all of the residents in NYC into Lizards, we actually saw a City placed in Mayhem without any power while two planes were on the verge of colliding into each other. For me, it was the next best thing after the train sequence from Spider-Man 2.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I saw this again yesterday, and my feelings are still very mixed, the good parts were even better 2nd time around, but the bad parts were also worse i'm afraid, so my rating doesnt go up or down, its still between a 7.5-8/10 for me.

When this movie soars though, it really soars, after being disappointed with them 1st time around, I really liked Spidey's fights with Electro 2nd time around (though they still should have been longer) and DeHaan, Field, Stone and DeHaan were all still great in their roles, despite getting some poor material.

On the other hand, after loving the opening 1st time around, I didnt like it this time around, Spidey puts just as many people in danger as pre-Rhino does, at one point taking the stirring wheel and hitting other cars with the truck, didnt like that, and didnt like him taking so long dealing with the threat, and having to stop the bus and save Max were both his own doing as well. Just didnt seem like Spiderman to me. When people are in danger, Spiderman's 1st and only priority is getting people to safety, which he didnt do in this opening, but he later did against Electro.

Loved the score a lot more 2nd time around, but was disappointed with some of the CGI, in 3D it all looked damn good, but in 2D more than a few looked very cartoony. When you consider the CGI in the 1st movie was pretty much flawless, this was a disappointment.

Overall though these movies need an improvement, and fast. For me Webb is a big problem, as both movies from him have seemed very unfocused, and dropping story points in the middle of the production of both movies couldnt have helped. And yeah the parents thing? Could have and should been resolved in the 1st movie, it just wasnt needed here.

 

[Red Mask]

The review from the Huffington Post doesn't give a lot of explanation for its low score. So what if the guy used to work at Sony, across from Raimi's production - which he hated? He didn't give any details about what he likes about the hero in the first place.

There must be some kind of gap involved but what is it?

 

[Voices]

Ok. Where do I begin? I'm truly baffled by the hate that The Amazing Spider-Man movies get. It just blows my mind that critics and a chunk of Spider-Man "fans" can watch these movies and call them bad in any way. I respect that everyone has the right to their own opinions but it feels like I'm missing the punch line to a big joke. The most ridiculous reason I see people hating on these movies is because it's "too soon for a reboot". Get the **** over it. When I see a critic's tag line for their review of TASM2 and it says "does this movie really need to exist" I feel like vomiting. I mean I don't expect much from movie critics. Probably the most vapid and useless people on the planet only worried about trying to come up with "clever" ways to say they don't like a movie. I digress. No movie NEEDS to exist. This is the most trivial critique ever.

But then there are people that seem to genuinely hate these movies. I completely understand that everyone has different tastes but it just seems... well... entirely false... to say that the original Spider-Man movies were a better representations of Spider-Man. I loved them as a kid but when I watch them now they are the most vanilla, dull, and soulless movies possible for the character of Spider-Man. I LOVE Spider-Man. He's my favorite hero and he always has been. So when I see Andrew Garfield KILLING it as Spider-Man it breaks my heart to see people saying that Tobey portrayed the character "so much better". Because it's just wrong. I'm sorry but this issue specifically isn't a matter of opinion. Marc Webb has simply translated the character of Spider-Man to the big screen much more accurately than Raimi did. He's witty, acrobatic, strong, etc. He isn't moping around for 90% of the movie. His best comeback isn't "it's you who's out Gobby... out of your mind!".

I understand if you don't like the way they adapted the Spider-Man universe. The changes they made to characters. The visual style... whatever. But I don't agree and I don't know what your thought process is. I'm the kind of person that is willing to give everything a chance. I'm not going to condemn a movie before it's out just because it's a reboot. And I don't expect every character to be exactly as they are in the source material. I'd rather have an original take on the characters. We already have the source material. But I get it if you're not that way. I just feel bad for Marc and Andrew and Emma and Dane and Jamie because I feel like they did an amazing job.

And it feels like the critics and a lot of fans just don't see what I see. It felt like I was watching an entirely different movie from the one described by critics. Overstuffed? Electro and Harry had plenty of development time. Boring action? You're nuts. Inconsistent tone? Peter isn't happily swinging along as Spider-Man after he breaks up with Gwen. It feels like critics, especially older critics, just don't "get it". I know that's pretty general and a weak argument. But that's just how I felt. They don't "get it". The conversations in this movie are so much more human and believable than practically any other superhero movie by comparison. These relationships seem genuine and it isn't just one liners after one liners like *cough* The Avengers *cough*.

Maybe Marc Webb is only making these movies to appeal directly to my sentiments and my tastes... I don't know. But it sure feels like it. I just wish I could meet these wonderful actors and crew members and tell them... "Look... I get exactly what you were going for... I get it... I appreciate it... and I hope you don't let these hipster and contrarian opinions from people jumping on the hate train for this series... get to you".

Whatever. I'm just blowing off steam. I know no one is actually going to read this ridiculous block of text. I want to make it clear... I'm not saying that you can't dislike these movies. I'm not saying that no one has a valid reason to hate these movies. Everyone is different and not everyone is just jumping on a bandwagon. I just don't personally get the hate. And I wanted to vent that feeling. Because I had a ****ing blast watching TASM2 today. I was literally shaking the entire time from the moment Goblin picked up Gwen. I was ****ing mortified by her death scene in the best possible way. Pulled on the heartstrings. Well done to all involved. Ok... I'm finished.

I wrote this after seeing the movie for the first time. It's a little over the top and crass but I still stand by it. Utterly baffled by the hate this movie gets. I watched the movie with my cousin, who isn't even a big Spider-Man fan, and he said it was by far his favorite of the Spider-Man movies. He said he enjoyed it as much as he enjoyed The Dark Knight and let me be clear. He is a huge Batman fan. We must have seen TDK seven times when it came out. I was almost as stunned by his positive response as I was by the critic's negativity.

 

[spiderral]

I wrote this after seeing the movie for the first time. It's a little over the top and crass but I still stand by it. Utterly baffled by the hate this movie gets. I watched the movie with my cousin, who isn't even a big Spider-Man fan, and he said it was by far his favorite of the Spider-Man movies. He said he enjoyed it as much as he enjoyed The Dark Knight and let me be clear. He is a huge Batman fan. We must have seen TDK seven times when it came out. I was almost as stunned by his positive response as I was by the critic's negativity.

Just read your review and it is exactly how I feel towards the film too! It truly did feel like Spider-Man come to life and though TASM1 wasn't as good as I thought it would be, TASM2 blew me away and Andrew Garfield did a superb job giving us the best portrayal of Spidey/Peter Parker yet, making me very easily prefer this version of Spider-Man over Tobey's. I never got the chance to read the comics as I was growing up but got to experience the 90's TAS, other animated series and video games and when it came to viewing TASM2, I just thought "yes, this is it! They have nailed Spider-Man; this is the Spider-Man that I know!". It definitely was a huge improvement over Spidey in TASM1 who came across as a little cocky at times.
I get the feeling that anyone strongly against the reboot, and TASM2 in particular, never got to fully understand and experience Spider-Man outside of the Raimi trilogy which is a shame because TASM2, out of the 4 previous releases, felt like the most "Spider-Man" film I'd ever seen.
I understand that this film has its flaws but I still give it 8/10 because I was so impressed after leaving the cinema and I can't wait to see if TASM3 will top its predecessor.

 

[Maboroshi]

I thought that ASM2 was a massive downgrade from the first.

In ASM1 the characters still felt like real people. If felt like the comic book had come to life. In ASM2 the characters are hammy caricatures and stereotypes on par with bad comics. The life is gone. Real people have been replaced with cardboard cutouts.

The writing was a mess and the script badly in need of a few more revisions, probably by another writer. And the "goblin" is the new SM3 Venom. Bastardized and only around in the last 15 minutes. Actually, I like SM3 Venom more than I like ASM2 Goblin. ASM2 Goblin is just plain embarrassing to watch. I cringe just seeing a picture.

However I can say that Andrew and Emma had solid performances, as expected. And there were definitely moments that I loved, like Spidey with the kid's science project. They definitely have the superior Peter in this new series and for that reason alone I have to like it better than Raimi's.

First half hour felt amazing. Things start going downhill when Electro gets his powers. When Harry shows up it starts to nosedive and by the time the Goblin shows up, it's a fiery wreck.

Everyone in my circle of friends who has seen it has told me that they were disappointed. There's a good reason that Rotten Tomatoes has ASM1 as fresh and ASM2 as rotten.

 

[Frodo]

I think disappointed is the better term to use for a lot of the attitudes toward this film than hate. Sure there are some who may hate this film but the overall attitude and vibe toward this film is more of a disappointed tone than hate. In that sense the reaction to this film is very similar to the initial reaction to Spiderman 3 . If you go back and look at the reactions to it at the time opinion was actually a bit split. Overtime the consensus changed to everyone pretty much agreeing that it wasn't that good. When B&R came out everyone instantaneously said this sucks. I have a feeling ASM2 will probably get a second vetting by another generation of fans who may praise it for the Gwen Peter stuff .

 

[Spider-knight]

welivefilm is trashing garfield and the new films:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlR-dgJsYMI

it's liovestream guys. you've got anything to say?

 

[Red Mask]

Scriptwriting notes on real people

The protagonist decides to take action when faced with a conflict. It's part of the hero's journey.




Fact: real people seldomly take action. They either pass the buck or take a very long time deciding to do something about it.


*That is why governments formed law enforcement groups, emergency services, and armed forces. They needed a formal institution of people trained to take action.

 

[chaseter]

I think disappointed is the better term to use for a lot of the attitudes toward this film than hate. Sure there are some who may hate this film but the overall attitude and vibe toward this film is more of a disappointed tone than hate. In that sense the reaction to this film is very similar to the initial reaction to Spiderman 3 . If you go back and look at the reactions to it at the time opinion was actually a bit split. Overtime the consensus changed to everyone pretty much agreeing that it wasn't that good. When B&R came out everyone instantaneously said this sucks. I have a feeling ASM2 will probably get a second vetting by another generation of fans who may praise it for the Gwen Peter stuff .

This is not an underrated cult movie or a classic so no, in 20 years this will not be loved by a new generation. They will have their own version to love or hate. Right now, SM2 is about the only truly classic SM film. It will stay that way until a new film raises the bar...and that's not happening anytime soon.

 

[ThePowerCosmic]

This movie gets better for me with rewatches. This really is the definitive Spidey. Just a perfect portrayal by Garfield.

 

[Spider-knight]

they bring up alot of good points and hopefully sony loses monewy so spidey can go back to marvel but i want to hear from you guys what are your thoughts on andrew garfield and tobey maguire?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlR-dgJsYMI

 

[kbrooksgohan]

This is not an underrated cult movie or a classic so no, in 20 years this will not be loved by a new generation. They will have their own version to love or hate. Right now, SM2 is about the only truly classic SM film. It will stay that way until a new film raises the bar...and that's not happening anytime soon.

Where did you get your crystal ball?

 

[Just one more]

Where did you get your crystal ball?

It does sound like an arrogant comment, but I feel he is right on the money. The fact of the matter is that SM3, ASM1 and ASM2 all had negative things to say about them right off the bat. Sure they have their fans, however there were many valid criticisms levelled at all 3 films. SM2 just seems to have that iconic status among SM films where it s very difficult to find fault with it, a truly rare trait amongst comic book films.

SM2 just feels like a truly special movie whereas these latest ones just don't have that.

 

[Visualiza]

Where did you get your crystal ball?

Presumably from the same place that some apologists for this movie got theirs, because their far-fetched claims that this will become some beloved cult classic has about as much veracity (I'd say less, all things considered).

Scott Pilgrim is a good example of a recent cult film. TASM 2 is not. The issues are far too numerous and glaring for that to be a likely possibility.

I have to ask though, is this gonna become the prevailing tactic for these hyped movies that miss the mark?

"Oh, everyone will love and appreciate it in ten years, just you wait and see!"

This certainly isn't the first time I've seen it. Seems rooted in some sort of odd form of insecurity to me, as if certain fans just can't come to grips with the fact that their movie generally wasn't well received. So much for "Screw the haters/critics."