"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" (2014) REVIEW

I'm a huge Spider-Man fanboy, but I'll do my best to review this movie as a movie itself. (Spoiler alert: It does the franchise justice.)

Now graduated from high school, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is ready to move on in life and his relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). However, still haunted by the death of Gwen's father, Peter can't bring himself to stick to the relationship, fearing that Gwen Stacy may face the same fate as her father if she were to get too close. As for his life as Spider-Man, it couldn't be better. The city loves him despite of what the press say and he continues to help whenever he can, including (but not limited to) stopping a Russian mob (Paul Giammati), a fan turned supervillain (Jamie Foxx), and a long lost friend fueled by desperation and rage (Dane DeHaan).

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is just about as good as its predecessor, but slightly better. The villains are more developed to where you understand how the characters think and what drives them to insanity. The action is absolutely amazing, but feels slightly anti-climatic at times (Little nitpick). The web-swinging scenes were fantastically executed and well worth the IMAX 3D ticket price or just watching it in 3D in general. Andrew Garfield's performance as Spider-Man felt like the character was ripped from the comics and put on screen with all the witty comebacks and problem solving.

The only real complaints about this film I have to say is that some of the plot lines seemed to have ended too soon. I would've liked to see more of Peter and Harry's friendship to develop or just Harry Osborn's story itself. His screen time as the Green Goblin was great but ended too soon. Also, some parts of the movie felt a bit childish or cheesy. However, the movie more than makes up for its mistakes with its high octane action sequences and touching moments between Peter and Gwen.

This is not quite the definitive Spider-Man film, but the series is certainly moving in the right direction. There are lots of easter eggs sprinkled throughout the movie to satisfy webheads like myself, showing us this is still only the beginning.

4/5 Stars

You can purchase your copy here!

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