2014: The Year in Film: "The Amazing Spider Man 2" Review

The first Amazing Spider-Man flick was a pleasant and much-needed surprise. I am among the small but vocal population of nerds who didn't like the Sam Raimi Spider-Man flicks one bit, so it was refreshing to get a cinematic treatment of the character that was more in line with what I felt Spider-Man actually was all about. I won't get into it too much, but Tobey McGuire's dopey Peter Parker, the decision to have him actually shoot webs from his wrists and the setting of an all-white, cheesy 1940's esque New York City all combined to ruin the whole thing. The action in ASM was solid, but what really sold me on the film was Andrew Garfield and the film's treatment of Peter Parker and his relationship with Gwen Stacy. (Emma Stone) That shouldn't come as a huge surprise given Marc Webb's prior film, 500 Days of Summer, but in my honest opinion, ASM features some of the strongest and most honest character work of any superhero flick to date. The Spider-Man scenes were strong, but the draw of that film was certainly the human element, and the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. (Who, surprise, surprise, got together after filming ASM) Compared to the possibly developmentally delayed Peter Parker played by McGuire and his complete lack of chemistry with Kristen Dunst, it was a revelation for true, old school spidey fans like myself.

Enter, Amazing Spider-Man 2. Prior to this flick's release it had been announced that Sony Pictures, the studio who owns the film rights to the Spider-Man portion of the Marvel Universe, had intentions to greatly expand their film treatment of Spider-Man and his villains and supporting characters in a clear effort to duplicate the success Marvel Studios has had in creating a cohesive film and TV universe.  ASM2 would be the film that would jump-start this effort, meaning that in addition to being a straight sequel to the first ASM film, ASM2 would be tasked with laying the groundwork for future films and greatly expanding the universe. ASM2 opens where the first film left off, with Peter Parker keeping New York safe as Spider-Man as the nefarious OsCorp continues to conduct the same type of biomedical experiments that led to the accident that gave Parker his powers. Another accident at OsCorp results in another person gaining superpowers, and Electro threatens New York as new threats bubble beneath the surface.

The Good: Andrew Garfield is pitch-perfect as Peter Parker (if way too old for the age that the character is supposed to be), and Garfield and Emma Stone simply crush all of their scenes. The treatment of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy's relationship by Marc Webb and the ASM series rescues these films from being mediocre, and are a million times better than anything involving Peter Parker from the Raimi Spider Man movies. The visuals and effects are pretty damn great, and all of the action sequences are well choreographed.



The Bad: unfortunately, because I love and have always loved Spider-Man, this flick is sort of an over-stuffed mess. The narrative is bloated and unfocused, and in an effort to drastically expand Spider-Man's world the film rushed way too many characters in, doing every single one of the new characters a disservice. The strongest part of the first ASM film was how-developed every single character was, from Gwen's dad to Dr. Connors and Uncle Ben, every character felt like a realized person. Here, we have a completely wasted Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn, and are immediately rushed into a criminally underused Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn, who becomes the Green Goblin approximately 9 minutes after he first appears. Jamie Foxx is a caricature as Electro, who exists mainly as a featureless menace to create cool action scenes. We are introduced to the Rhino for no reason other than they want to put Paul Giamatti into a future film, and all of the scenes featuring a nefarious conspiracy involving Peter's parents are utterly useless. This plot is bloated and wasted in the same way that Iron Man 2's was, only worse. Hell, the most (in)famous scene in all of Spider-Man's history feels like a thrown-in afterthought a midst all of the madness that is the film's third act.

Honestly, the only thing keeping this film from being as bad as something like the Ryan Reynolds abortion that is Green Lantern is the treatment of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, and the utter joy that the film takes in depicting Spider-Man web-slinging through NYC. It's a shame that such fine performances and a great treatment of one of comic's best characters is stuffed into a film that from a narrative aspect, is simply a mess. If you like Spider-Man, you'll dig this one, but you'll find yourself shaking your head at what could have been. There's a great movie in here somewhere, it's just wearing a fat suit full of OsCorp nonsense.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone make it worth watching, but ultimately, this is a huge step backwards for Sony's attempts to build a worthwhile Spider-Man film universe.

6/10

2014: The Year in Film: "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" Review

I think that anyone who knows me at this point probably knows that I'm a big, big fan of the grand experiment that is Marvel's Cinematic Universe.  I was a Marvel comics fan growing up, and what the studio has managed to do, creating an overarching and interconnected movie universe is unparalleled in film history.  It's also worth noting that it's all the more impressive considering that Marvel doesn't own the movie rights to what would have been, pre-Robert Downey Jr. becoming the king of everything, their three biggest properties, in Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.  Marvel is calling all of their movies through Avengers "Phase 1" of their endeavor, meaning that Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and now Captain America 2 comprise what is now "Phase 2".  I know, needlessly complicated, but I wanted to give a quick primer for those who may be newcomers to the MCU or to this blog.  The flicks aren't direct sequels to one another, except within their own franchises (i.e., Captain America 2 is a sequel to Captain America, but not a direct sequel to Thor 2 or Iron Man 3 for example), but they are related in the same way that the overarching comic book universe is, in that large events reverberate throughout all of the stories and the characters occasionally meet up to take on a large threat. (i.e., Avengers)

Captain America may have been the biggest surprise of all of the first round of Marvel flicks. I was never a huge fan of Captain America as a character, and generally found him to be a kind of a corny cliche of what a "good guy" might be, However, the decision to set the first film almost entirely in the 1940's really played up Captain America's stronger elements as a character, and as he was ripped from his own time and brought to ours the character took on a fundamental naivete, sadness, and heroism throughout Avengers.  Consider Captain America's scene where he saves a building full of civilians and gets them to safety, while coordinating an evacuation of the city with police in Avengers.  It was probably the single biggest moment of pure heroism in any superhero flick to date, and sums up perfectly what Captain America can be when he's done right.

In Captain America: The First Avenger we meet Steve Rogers as he's recruited and given the super-soldier serum that made him into the superhero known as Captain America. After ditching his role as a propagandist and war bonds salesman he becomes America's greatest soldier, leading the battle to defeat the Red Skull and Hydra, the rogue secret Nazi science division. In the sequel we see what Captain America is up to in the modern day, running secret missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. and becoming increasingly troubled by the lack of moral clarity in the modern day geopolitical landscape. It becomes clear that more is going on at SHIELD than anyone was letting on, and Captain America finds himself forced to unravel the conspiracy while on the run from dangerous forces that plot against freedom everywhere.

The Good: the film is as smartly written and concise, from a narrative standpoint, as any film that I can recall from the last several years. It's not just smart for a 2 hour Hollywood blockbuster, it's smart for a story, period. As Marvel moves deeper into its cinematic universe, it's taking more chances with its films, and The Winter Soldier really has the feel of a political/spy thriller at its heart, with all of the big action sequences you'd expect from a superhero flick. The "don't trust anyone" atmosphere really adds a palpable tension, and as Captain America finds his allies few and far between, the character development really ratchets up. Chris Evans is perfect as Steve Rogers/Captain America, combining a wholesome "aw shucks" naivete with a steely determination that just nails everything we're supposed to admire about the character. In an era where militarized police and NSA surveillance dominate the headlines, this film proved to be as spot-on and thoughtful on the topic as anything else I've come across. Framing it as a shoot-em-up superhero flick was a stroke of genius, and the film somehow manages to flawlessly wed a cautionary tale on police state style surveillance with an effective Marvel superhero film. I felt that Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow was the weakest link in Avengers, so it was reassuring to see that she was pretty effective in a large role here. Robert Redford (!) was great, and brought and earnest and refreshing gravitas and real-feeling villain to the whole endeavor. In many ways, a professional bureaucrat can be as much of a villain as a theatrical superhuman in a mask. Newcomer Anthony Mackie wasn't given a ton to do, but the fact that his Sam Wilson/Falcon doesn't feel like a patriotic cornball is a credit to the writing and his performance.



The Bad: unfortunately, the downside to the shared cinematic universe is that sometimes it doesn't make sense when other characters are absent. In this case, a conspiracy involving SHIELD and threatening the entire world set on the east coast requires at least an explanation as to where Tony Stark/Iron Man is. I'm not asking for a lot. A 5 second scene where Black Widow explains that they can't trust Stark or they can't get a hold of him or whatever would do the trick, but Iron Man's absence simply doesn't make sense from a narrative perspective. There isn't a lot to criticize in this flick, but that's a biggie. Additionally, I know that this film was right on the edge of being too long and had a lot stuffed in, but it would have been nice to get a little more development on the Winter Soldier himself. It's fair to say that that will be saved for Captain America 3, but I feel like considering the title of the flick, he doesn't get a lot to do other than serve as a foil.

Make no mistake, though, when it comes down to it, this is a great example of what superhero movies can be, and why they're likely going to endure as a key part of the cinematic landscape for years to come. This film is at once a key part of the Marvel universe and one of the more effective political thrillers in recent years, It's a true achievement, and one that everyone involved should be very, very proud of. Full-disclosure, and other downfall of the MCU: knowledge of at minimum Captain America and Avengers is going to be required to enjoy this one.

8/10.