[KRX]

Alright, guys. This is the big one. The one you've all been waiting for. The hammer has fell and the chips are down. This is my latest post in the "What Are You Watching? (Movie Edition)" thread. And what movie have I seen recently?

This one:



It's held together pretty well. I think they could have spent a little more time developing a few elements, but it's a solid movie featuring my favorite Disney character.













... I suppose I should talk about last night's movie, though.

When I was a boy, my cousin (who may be my uncle, but that's besides the point) had wanted to go watch a movie. The year was 2002. We were leaving a drive-in, having just finished watching Lilo and Stitch, when my cousin stopped the car in front of another screen playing another movie. This movie was Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, starring Tobey Maguire in the titular role. A few months later, this movie was released on DVD, and I was able to watch it in full.

Up until this point, the closest approximation to a superhero that I had was Buzz Lightyear (my favorite Pixar character). Spider-Man was my first experience with the world of tights and justice. I wanted to be just like him (but without the entire "getting bitten by a spider" deal).

Two years later, in 2004, I went with my family to a theater. Whereas before we only saw bits and pieces on our way out, here we came to watch the entirety of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2. Needless to say, it was awesome.

Now, nearly 10 years later, there's a new Spider-Man swinging around the silverscreen. Andrew Garfield first took on the role in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man--a movie that I really enjoyed--and he reprises it once again in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Let's get this out of the way right now:



This costume is MAGNIFICENT, and this movie knows it. Every shot of Pete in this costume looks like it swung right out of a comic book. The way the film is shot only brings more credibility to this notion. The lighting and the visual atmosphere of this movie reminds me of a comic drawn by Stefano Caselli. It might not take scenes directly from the panels of The Amazing Spider-Man, but it Spidey's shot in ways that look like it.

Speaking of Webhead, let's talk about Peter Parker. Tobey Maguire will always hold a special place in my heart as my first Spider-Man, but he was basically a teenage Captain America with spider-powers. He was heroic enough, and quite nerdy, but he was a bit too rigid to be Spider-Man, and didn't have nearly enough sass.

Andrew Garfield is not quite the same level of nerd as the Maguire Spider-Man, but I can overlook that given the more modern take on Spidey in these films. Garfield's Spider-Man is cocky, sassy, and confident. People take issue with that, but you have to keep in mind that Peter Parker is the kind of guy who will walk up to a crime boss and start making fat jokes about said crime boss. That takes a certain level of cockiness and confidence to do so effectively. There's one particular scene that highlights Spider-Man's characterization towards the beginning of the climax of the film. Electro, having gone to a power plant, is confronted by Spidey, to whom he delivers an "I will become a god" speech. With Maguire's Spider-Man, Spidey's reaction would have been something along the lines of, "You'll never get away with this!" Garfield's Spidey, though, simply replies, "A god named Sparkles?" This is a movie that understands the character of Spider-Man.

It also has a superior understanding of the movements of Spider-Man. In the beginning of the film, Spidey is trying to keep some radioactive isotopes from being stolen. At one point, he's webbing together canisters of the isotope that have fallen from storage because of Aleksei "the Rhino" Sytsevich's reckless driving. This scene highlights Spidey's spider-like reflexes really well, his movements being quick and fluid. The scenes of him webswinging also feel far more realistic, and the way they show off the hypersensitivity provided by his Spider-Sense is also done quite well.

Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy is a much stronger character than Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson. She's proactive, she's assertive, and she's willing to endanger herself if it means she can help Peter. Her relationship with Peter starts off great, gets a bit shaky a little later, and then begins to recapture its initial charm. The love story of this movie is handled really well. It's an important aspect of the plot, but it's not the main focus. The movie starts with them having reunited as a couple, but they break up again so quickly afterward, it seems a bit pointless to have them together in the beginning. Where it really begins to shine is when the two of them try to be friends. I particularly liked when they began to set ground rules for their interactions as friends. The two of them get back together before the climax, and it's done naturally enough, but... well, you should be able to figure it out.

When the first full-length trailer was released, I was initially skeptical of Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn. His acting seemed like it would be the worst in the film, just given how awkward his line delivery sounded in the trailer. Needless to say, I was wrong. Harry's friendship with Peter felt very natural, as displayed by his first interaction with Peter in the movie. You really grow to like Harry. This is what makes his transformation into the Green Goblin all the more tragic. It doesn't occur when he first chemically alters himself into the Goblin. It begins when he begins to develop the first signs of retroactive hyperplasia, the hereditary disease that afflicted Norman Osborn. Desperate for a cure, Harry surmises that the only way to save himself is through the venom of the spiders from the first movie, which had been destroyed by OsCorp as a public move to regain the trust of investors. Although there webbing was used as the biocable that they manufactured, Harry learns that the spiders were originally created by Richard Parker to cure Norman Osborn's disease. While human trials were never officially conducted, Harry deduces that Spider-Man is someone who has the spider venom in his blood, which gives him his powers. He asks Peter to find him, knowing that Peter takes Spidey's photos, and ask him to provide Harry his blood, but Spider-Man doesn't give him his blood, fearing the potential consequences. His assistant, Felicia (meow) reveals to Harry that OsCorp secretly stashed away samples of the spider venom in their secret projects division, but Harry loses the rights to go there when he is framed for illegal human testing and removed as CEO of OsCorp. In desperation, he seeks Electro's help to break into OsCorp and obtain the venom. In exchange, Electro will be able to feed off of the power grid. His descent into insanity is gradual but natural, and it culminates when, upon being injected with the venom, Harry's disease accelerates, transforming him into the Green Goblin. He goes after Spider-Man, blaming him for his transformation, and discovers that Peter Parker is Spider-Man when he sees Spider-Man talking with Gwen after the two of them defeat Electro. Vowing to take away Spider-Man's hope, Harry flies Gwen to a clock tower, Peter in hot pursuit.

When Max Dillon first walks into Times Square, it's not the fact that Spider-Man doesn't initially remember his name that drives him over the edge (which he was already teetering on, given his obsession with Spider-Man after he was saved by him). It's not the fact that Spidey assured that Electro wouldn't get shot, only for a trigger-happy sniper to shoot him. It's the fact that Max comes to believe that everything Spidey does is for himself, which conflicts with the idealized image that Max had associated with him. Max had been ignored his entire life. The only notable accomplishment that he had was the fact that he designed the power plant that would provide New York electricity, and that was stolen from him by OsCorp (chiefly his boss, Alistair Smythe). When he walks into Times Square and causes a scene, it's the first time that everyone sees him, since his image is projected on every large screen nearby. Spidey, though, unintentionally steals the spotlight when he tries to pacify Electro after he was shot. As a villain, Electro is far superior to the Lizard from the first movie. Here, we have a man who is very disturbed and has now been given immense power. Jamie Foxx gives a wonderful performance, my only complaint with the character being that Spidey kills him, but I don't think he's actually dead.

The story is a bit basic. What really sells it are the characters. Even Aunt May adds just enough zest to the movie to more than justify her presence.

Before I give my final rating, though, I'd like to mention the music. James Horner's soundtrack in the first film was phenomenal for a movie about the origin of Spider-Man. It captured the heroism, but wasn't very grand, coming off as slightly innocent. Hans Zimmer manages to take the heroism to create a soundtrack for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 that is just as phenomenal as the first, but with an increased sense of grandeur and heroism. There's a very triumphant theme throughout it that he doesn't use in his scores for The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel, and it works brilliantly. It may very well be some of his best work for superhero movies to date.

Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 more than lives up to its name. It's fun, it's engaging, and it's beautiful. It progresses the over-arching story set by the first film while also having its own self-contained story, and it does so very naturally. It's the best Spider-Man movie we've gotten to date, ebing more than a match for it's 10-year-old cousin. 9/10. Go watch it.

... Oh, and the Rhino was in it. He didn't do much, but he was fun.