I watched the film again yesterday, for the 3rd time (and for the first time in 3D too which was pretty nice!).
The first act/third of the film is easily the best of any Spidey film so far and (with the exception of the parents introduction) it feels perfect. Seeing THE SPIDER-MAN come to life in a film adaptation is unbeatable, especially for someone who's had Spider-Man as their favourite superhero since they were very young. It felt so perfect that, as silly as it sounds, I was actually tearing up, mainly during Gwen's speech and cutting to the Aleksei chase and Spider-Man saving the group of civilians inside the bus. It was during these moments that I'd become absorbed into the film and emotionally invested in the characters; Peter, Gwen, Aunt May etc.
I remember watching the opening chase sequence in the cinema for the first time and the experience is one I'll never forget; being instantly filled with excitement as soon as I heard the *DONG*, saw Spidey free-falling (recognising it so easily from the trailers) and having the most stupidest, widest grin on my face by just seeing Spider-Man being as Spider-Man as Spider-Man can get, swinging around the city, being quippy; it was everything you could ask for.
After that, however, everything seemed to have just fallen flat on its face. We see the birth of a villain that you usually see in your standard Spider-Man movie, we have Harry introduced and the parents sub-plot still going, the pacing feels weird and everything just gets a little boring; this films crams too much in and ends up not having the room to really move forward anywhere. The only parts of the film worth watching are the Spider-Man parts and the Peter & Gwen scenes.
I gave TASM2 a high rating the first time I watched it (8/10) but the film’s flaws have become more apparent to me now. While I was really impressed with Dane DeHaan’s performance as Harry (especially with it being the first time I’d seen him in a film), I felt as if it wasn’t really enough and that he could have given us more, particularly with the Green Goblin; he only really nailed the Goblin cackle, his speaking voice wasn’t that intimidating, the tongue thing just seemed to be ripped off what Heath Ledger did with the Joker and the make-up and suit could have been done better. If Norman WAS meant to come back as the true Green Goblin, whether it be the Ultimate version or not, then maybe they didn’t want DeHaan to steal the show and have too much time as the Goblin in TASM2.
I have to say that Gwen’s death was very powerful, it still gets me very upset and Andrew’s reaction was absolutely heartbreaking. It gets so tense as Gwen is holding onto the web and Peter is doing every possible thing he can to keep Gwen hanging on, having to hold Harry still, keeping the cogs from snapping the web and going to the extreme of quickly wrapping a web line around Harry’s neck, strangling him and refraining him from moving any further. It was saddening to see that in the close-up of Gwen, just before she hits the ground, she closes her eyes, ready to accept that her time was up and that Peter had done everything in his power to save her. There was a moment when I watched this for the first time when I thought that Gwen would actually be okay, when Peter was reassuring her that she was fine and the music in the background almost begins to lift, just before her nose began to bleed and Peter realised that there was nothing he could do and when we all come to realise that Gwen is indeed dead.
The film had the potential to top every Spider-Man film we’ve had so far and while it really got some stuff right (Spider-Man, Peter & Gwen, a strong cast and believable performances, great score by Zimmer and stunning special effects), it failed to leave an overall lasting impression and failed to convince Spidey fans and the general audience that the TASM series is really going to go somewhere promisingly exciting.
I’ve updated my score for TASM2 to 7/10. It only just manages to do more right than wrong, hence it getting a “good” score but nothing more or less than that.
