The Amazing Spiderman 2 Thread. (Spoilers.)

To me, this movie suffered from a terrible case of Spider-man 3 syndrome...too many subplots with not enough time developing them, and too many characters. I think it would be easiest to describe my opinions of this movie with a pros and cons list.

Pros:

-Mostly fantastic special effects (some occasional shoddy CGI on Electro, especially towards the end).
-Garfield and Stone are both fantastic
-DeHaan definitely made a better Harry Osborn and Green Goblin than James Franco, but sadly that's about the only positive thing I can say about the character. I'll get into it more below.
-Great performance from Sally Field.
-Finally got some closure to the story of Peter's parents.
-The action scenes were entertaining, even if some weren't executed that well.

Cons:
-Way too many new characters introduced here, and not enough time devoted to most of them. Felicia, Norman Osborne, Rhino, Green Goblin, etc. I get a lot of them will be coming into play later on, but it just seemed like a waste of time shoehorning some of them into an already overcrowded movie.
-Electro. One of the most disappointing portrayals of all time, and one of the weakest villains in the 5 current Spiderman films. His backstory was pathetic, and he was just a wimp the entire movie, even after he got his powers. Plus, much like Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith, his motivation to suddenly become evil and slaughter everyone was rushed and unconvincing.
-Rhino. I'm not sure which villain was worse, him or Electro. At least we weren't subjected to much Rhino. Look, I get it, the over-the-top cartoonish portrayal and over-acting galore. I get that it is supposed to be campy. The problem is, that is not the tone the rest of the movie used, and it felt horribly out of place. Plus, you don't even get to see them fight once he gets the suit. Also, maybe it was just me, but I couldn't understand hardly any of what he said. It wasn't just because his accent was so thick, it's because every time he spoke there was loud background noise. Just way too goofy for me, in a movie that was otherwise pretty dark.
-Green Goblin. The movie's sole good villain. It's just a shame that, like Venom in Spiderman 3, he doesn't become a bad guy until the last 20 minutes of the movie. Which led into another problem...
-The final fight. As weak as Electro was, the movie was all about him villain-wise until Harry finally goes Goblin, and then when he does, Electro's story is abruptly cut short with a unsatisfying short fight, and the movie jarringly switches focus to Goblin. I'm not complaining about seeing Goblin, he was an infinitely better character. It just made all the Max/Electro stuff feel like even more of a complete waste of time when we spent all this time dwelling on him and then abruptly switch focus without even a proper payoff or satisfying conclusion.
-Harry Osborn. As I said, this was by far one of the strongest new characters of the movie, and the best villain, but his story was badly handled. The disease thing was stupid and made no sense (Norman said it started at Harry's age, yet Norman made it into, what, his 50s or 60s? Why did Harry become symptomatic and immediately arrive at death's door?). Unlike Franco, he didn't get the three movies worth of buildup and his story felt rushed. I didn't buy him and Peter as lifelong friends, considering we'd never seen him before. He should have been introduced in the first film. Likewise (and like Electro) his sudden decision to turn on Peter and go all homicidal made no sense. I get that he was pissed at Peter, but Peter gave him a good reason for his decision and Harry ended up getting the venom anyway. Plus, unlike in the original Spiderman film, this movie made no mention of the serum making him go mad, which provided no explanation for Harry's sudden delirium in this one. And don't even get me started on the magical Green Goblin suit that instantly cured him and was conveniently right within reach when he was dying.
-Norman Osborn and Oscorp. At least in the original trilogy, Norman Osborn was not really a bad guy at first. Sure he was neglectful of his son and power hungry, but he was over all an ok guy who got screwed over by his company, which caused rage that was compounded by the Goblin serum. Here, Norman Osborn and Oscorp are just evil for no reason.
-The soundtrack. It was ok, but in both of these new Spiderman movies there are no instantly identifiable themes like there were in the Raimi films. This second movie had some cool stuff whenever Electro was on screen, but overall the music in the Webb films is just kind of weak. Within the movies, anyway...I haven't listened to the raw soundtracks, nor do I have any desire to from watching the movies.



I could keep going on, but the list is becoming heavily weighted in favor of the Cons, and I think I've made my point, plus it's making me dislike this movie even more the more I think about it.

They nailed Spider Man himself, his movements, his wit and humor, and how much he just enjoyed being Spidey, but everything else in the film was lacking.

5/10

I can dig Ribisi and Hardy. Honestly, Hardy hadn't even come to mind, for some reason, and he's one of my favorite performers. I have no idea who O'Quinn is. Gotta hit up IMDb.

Yeah, I looked him up. He could work too. Wasn't a Lost fan, though.

Just saw this tonight. Andrew Garfield shines incredibly bright as Spidey and his chemistry with Emma Stone is amazing. I loved their scenes in the movie. However, I definitely think there was just way too much going on in the film and a lot of it could have been dialled back for the better. Jamie Foxx made for a cool Electro, although I found his motivation for becoming evil to be pretty weak. I really dug the final fight between them as well. Dane DeHaan is a fantastic Harry Osbourne, I just wish we saw more of him as Green Goblin.

I found my biggest gripes coming from the lack of development between Peter and Harry's relationship. I think it would have better suited the movie to have had it completely dedicated to Green Goblin as the villain. There were also some parts of the movie that had me just scratching my head, not out of confusion but out of thinking the writers could have come up with something better (i.e., Harry taking out two armed guards at Ravencroft).

This was still an enjoyable Spider-Man film nonetheless, with top notch visual effects (much better than the first!) and Andrew's Spider-Man really is an amazing portrayal. I'm hoping that the next movie has a more even pace and direction. I'd give it a solid 7/10.

I loved it ! I thought that they did the death of Gwen Stacy too soon though and I was bummed they didn't end it by introducing Mary Jane like in ASM 121

That would have been really cool to see. I wish we got that instead of that Jarring Days of Futures Past snippet.

The "shadowy character" from the ASM post credit scene and ASM2 talking to Harry is Gustav Fiers.

He isn't a comic book character but a character from the Spider Man Novels.