+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year
+ Worst Poster of the Year
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| The two male stars of Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 stand amazingly close in the rain before a giant phallus on a poster that promises to end a time of secrets - but please don't get your hopes up |
Peter Parker fights bad memories and a new Russian criminal in New York, when engineer Matt Dillon suffers a freak accident that turns him into super-villain Electro!
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). It is written by Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek Into Darkness 2013)), Roberto Orci (Star Trek Beyond (2016)) and Jeff Pinkner (The Beast (2001), TV-series), with James Vanderbilt (Zodiac (2007)) contributing story elements, and directed by returning great filmmaker Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer (2009)).
The film has some action sequences that look expensive (and truly were), but they most often make one think of computer games, and they made me want to play that game much more than watch the film.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 clearly wants to appeal to young teenagers, and Webb makes a puppy-eyed Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge (2016)) and Emma Stone (Gangster Squad (2013)) play well below their actual ages. The chemistry between them is slight, and it is in stern contrast to Garfield's scenes with Dane DeHaan (Two Lovers and a Bear (2016)), who plays Parker's childhood friend Harry Osborn here. They lend their scenes together an erotic magnetism, SPOILER until DeHaan becomes the ghastly-looking Green Goblin. Sally Field (Lincoln (2012)) is tiring as aunt May in several scenes in which the only thing on her mind seems to be Spidey's dirty underwear. Sexy Jamie Foxx (Ali (2001)) is made to look unattractive as the engineer, - an ambition that's hard for me to accept, - and the super-villain he turns into is a poor and incomprehensible heavy. Finally Paul Giamatti (Sideways (2004)) is slightly agonizing as the film's third bad guy, the screaming simpleton Rhino.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 suffers from a messy structure, incoherent plotting and being just plain boring.
Related posts:
Marc Webb: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
The Amazing Spiderman (2012) or, The New and Unimproved Spidey
(500) Days of Summer (2009) or, Cute & Cuter
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Estimated 200 mil. $ - possibly as high as 293 mil. $
Box office: 708.9 mil. $
= Some uncertainty, but likely a minor flop (and a big flop if also figuring in the colossal marketing budget)
[The Amazing Spider-Man 2 premiered 10 April (London) and runs 142 minutes. Filming took place from February - June 2013 in New York and California. Shailene Woodley shot scenes as Mary Jane Watson, but these were scrapped by Webb, who wanted to focus on Peter's relationship with Gwen Stacy. The Times Square action scene in the film was incredibly tedious to make, with computer designers working a full year to complete it. The film was shot on 35 mm film and converted to 3D in post production. The marketing budget was reportedly 180-190 mil. $, which would put the film's success point at around 1 bil. $, if the budget was indeed the enormous, reported 293 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 91.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, almost 30 mil. $ higher than the first film. It stayed in the top 5 for 3 more weeks (#2-#3-#5) and grossed 202.8 mil. $ (28.6 % of the total gross) domestically. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 94.4 mil. $ (13.3 %) and the UK with 40.4 mil. $ (5.7 %). The 2014 North-Korean hack on Sony Entertainment revealed in leaked e-mails that Sony had courted Sam Raimi to return for a new trilogy of Spider-Man films. Plans for a 3rd and 4th film were scrapped following the disappointing performance of the film, and the Spider-Man film rights befell Marvel exclusively after negotiations, with a new Spider-Man seeing the world in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is rotten at 52 % with a 5.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Amazing Spider-Man 2?
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