Movie Review by Roger Moore, of McClatchy-Tribune News Service
If theres a tie that binds most of the characters of the Marvel Universe together, its the mutability of the supposedly immutable human body. Characters are poisoned by radiation, zapped by electricity, bitten by spiders or broken, crushed, ruined or whatever.
And as Spider-Man cracks in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, just shake it off.
But the real world doesnt work like that. Thats one reason this comic book world has such a lasting appeal. Bullies are foiled, criminals are caught and great wrongs righted with supernatural intervention by supernaturally augmented humans.
Amazing 2 is kind of about that. Its a violent film, with blood and death in between the digitally-animated brawls. Human bodies are tortured and broken, and theres not always a web slinger there to stop that flipping police car, that hurtling bus, that Russian psychopath or that jet thats about to crash.
Its not an altogether pleasant experience. Things tend to drag as director Marc Webb has problems with focus, keeping the many story threads straight and continuity (watch Gwen Stacys outfits). Many otherwise faceless extras pop off the screen as if hes about to give their nameless characters the same significance as Stan Lee himself who always has cameos in these Marvels.
But Andrew Garfield finds his voice as the character, making his second try at Peter Parker a caffeinated wise-cracker, enjoying his notoriety, talking to himself just like the guy in the comic book. Hes funny.
Clueless Aunt May (Sally Field) wonders why he has soot all over his face.
I was ... cleaning the chimney!
We HAVE no chimney!
Peter hums Spider-Mans theme song and hurls himself into situations with a teens recklessness. He almost misses his and Gwens (Emma Stone) high school graduation, dealing with a villain named Aleksei (Paul Giamatti).
But even though he doesnt carry the angst of Tobey Maguires Spidey, Peter has problems. He sees Gwens late dad (Denis Leary) everywhere he looks, and remembers his promise to the dead cop to distance himself from his daughter.
Peter hasnt seen the opening scene in the movie, in which we flash back to Peters parents (Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz) grisly deaths. Peter has no idea his chemistry with long lost rich-kid pal Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) will go nowhere, because some of us remember 2002s Spider-Man and how Harry turns out.
Jamie Foxx is an ignored, humiliated electrical engineer who has an accident involving electric eels and power lines. That transforms him from a Spider-Man fanboy into a glowing blue guy in a hoodie. In the ethos of this movie, Peter/Spidey reasons with the tormented villains, trying to connect with the doomed rich kid (Osborn) or this nobody engineer.
Youre not a nobody, youre SOMEbody!
Except for Giamattis Russian. Hes just bad.
Returning director Webb relies, again, on the 3-D flying effects to cover the rough patches and there are many in Amazing 2. While Garfield and Stone have a nice sass to their scenes, Webb can do nothing to give this relationship the longing and heat of the Kirsten Dunst/Tobey Maguire moments from earlier films.
And Webbs team of screenwriters dont find any pathos in all this computer-animated flying and fighting, not until the finale.
So while this Spider-Man is, if anything, more competent than the first film, its still not one that demands that you stick around after the credits. Theres nothing there.