Amazing Spiderman 2: Reviewed

Since my previous review, life's been good to Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), finishing both high school and armed street thugs, it's probably one of his golden days of youth, beside his on-off relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) there's seemed nothing that can stop his pretty beautiful days.from go on.

Of course there is always a but, while life's been good with both Spidey and Peter, it's not really had it going on with Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), he's practically invisible, his boss stole his credit for his work, his colleauges doesn't even know about him, he's a nobody and he accepted that while at the same time harboring the growing need to be seen by the world, a really really unhealthy need. so it begins: The Amazing Spiderman 2

Being a sequel sucks, you must make sure you overshadow the first and deliver things that makes the audience said: "it's not a rehash of the first one", being a remake is even more sucks because you also have to make sure it's better in ALL things than the predecessors. So in this remake we've already knew that Spidey is a delinquent that enjoys spouting funny and catchy lines to the bad guys, and in this movie he also liked being in the spotlight and thrilled at every negative stigma of vigilantes labeled at him, Spidey made fun of the world while saving it, and that's cool, this movie is extremely optimistic and melancholic at the same time, Peter and Gwen has their share of optimistic love story, they're young, they're in love, and yes they can do anything....

Meanwhile: Max Dillon got into accident partially caused by the ignorance of his colleagues, while previously he has his issues with his obsession of Spiderman (after he got saved by Peter) when he finally returned as Electro he carried this unhealthy dose of his complex, so if you're bullied by almost everyone you met for God knows how long, what will you first do when you finally obtained a nearly unlimited power? revenge? unfortunately it's just a small prize, he's aiming beyond revenge, he developed a new obsession, obsession for his own power, and for that Spiderman must die since he's the only thing stand between him and his ultimate goal.

Spiderman and Electro are antithesis, it's the other theme of this movie, Spidey reject the statement of "the strong wins" while Electro accepted that, Spidey's aim is to protect while Electro is to rule, it's just like when the goblin said to Raimi's spiderman on the first movie: "they will hate you no matter what you do" Electro is that Spiderman if he accepted the offer to rule, and we can't really blamed him since Max was a broken man for far too long as the result of those who are strong, one more thing: the description of him in this movie never made the audience sympathizes with him, it's a perfect balance to split Max and Electro, when Electro lives Max is no more, while on the other hand just like the first movie we can't really split Spidey with Peter, with or without mask.

I know there are two other villain in this movie, The Goblin/Harry Osborn (Dan DeHaan) and Rhino (Paul Giamatti) but their appearance here is only a prelude for what is coming on the next sequel, and to be honest I'm afraid that it won't deliver, Amazing Spiderman 2 is a decent sequel and deliver a progress of both on Peter and Spiderman's life, it prepared him to face the next level with these baddies (and others) but I really don't think next level can be described in two hours length of movie because it can only focus so much on some character, Avangers did it with six heroes but each of them has their own prequel movie, what about six villain? I know there wll be spin off about them, but it will come after Amazing Spiderman 3, so what will spidey do on the third? Another Venom thing? I really hope it won't become another Venom-Carnage comic relief like in the cartoon series where only one of them is the villain and the other is just stand there to deliver Strascream's-minion-like cheesy monologue.

For this sequel, despite the review I'm gonna give it an eight since it's optimistic and light-hearted

The Amazing Ultimate Unlimited Review: The Amazing Spiderman

I should've get an achievement called "I finally get my lazy bum to the nearest Theater and watch The Amazing Spiderman (in 3D)", it also creates the hardest review I ever wrote... so the short words would probably: "I'm awesome":))

So let's get to the The Big Question first: Is this Spiderman BETTER than the rest of them? I can honestly answer no, it's not, but it's still a good movie though, you see the real problem with reboot is you always compared them with their predecessor, and in this case: with Sam Raimi's spiderman, you will start comparing the casts, the story, the director, the special effects (if there was).

In my case though rather than just comparing This Spiderman with the original Tobey Maguire's I also started to compare it with an old cartoon series from Saban: called Spider-man Unlimited, it aired during the late 99, here's a synopsis from it:

"While covering the launch of John Jameson's one man mission to Counter-Earth (another Earth located on the far side of the Sun), Spider-Man attempts to stop his two symbiote adversaries Venom and Carnage from boarding the shuttlecraft. Blamed for Jameson losing contact with our Earth, Spider-Man becomes a target of persecution by the media and the public. Believed to be dead after saving a person's life in a fire, Peter Parker uses the ruse to embark on a mission to retrieve John Jameson on Counter-Earth, using nanotechnology borrowed from Reed Richards to design a new suit that incorporates stealth technology and sonic weaponry. Making his way to the planet, Spider-Man learns that Jameson has fallen in with a band of freedom fighters opposed to the High Evolutionary whose Beastials, hybrids of animal and humanoid attributes, are the dominant species whilst humans are the second-class minority" (Wikipedia)

I love the series, Of course I was still in high school at that time and can't dedicate much to watch it, but it was the first time I watch Spiderman in all time badassery, Peter Parker is cool in and out of his suit, and that blue-black-red nanobot suit is badass, the war theme is badass, even Jameson.Jr is badass, of course it's a short lived series but I still can't shake the image, when I first saw Raimi's Spider-Man I always think Tobey Maguire portrayed a rather timid Peter Parker but it fits perfectly with other character especially J.J Jameson, but the ting of badassery resurface again in The Amazing Spiderman, Andrew Garfield portrayed a high schooler Spiderman, true to it's comic theme, complete with it's all teen angst, he's also portrayed a genius, capable to solve complex equations and (again: stay true to the comic) invent his own web-shooter, in other words: This Spiderman is a vigilante punk.

The story is a soap opera, yes, it's a love story between Parker and Stacy without any secrets between them, just a nice flowing sometimes agitated first love, the same captivating theme as in Eureka Seven series without any major shouting dramas, but the problem of the movie is the villain, The Lizard is probably the most forgettable person in the movie despite him being the major villain, it's because the protagonist build a good theme surrounding Parker. the movie is reek of goodness of Parker, if the Tobey-Spidey is the most unknown person in his Parker persona, trying to make ends meet and college on-offing in the harsh uncaring city of New York while being unknown superhero that roams the night, Andrew-Spidey is a shining persona in his friend and family, he's also sometimes portrayed without masks on some occasions (the same reason why Spiderman 2 is the best movie from the previous franchise), the movie humanizes Spiderman and merge him and Peter parker together that you'll start to see they're the same person, known to some people and unknown but still a human to other.

The future of the franchise is also intriguing, you know who's the first Spiderman franchise's most memorable character? Yep,the Green Goblin a.k.a Norman Osborn, the character portrayed by Willem Defoe is so strong it's overshadow Spidey in the first movie, the character is never shown in Amazing Spiderman but always hinted strongly that he'll be the major villain on the next movie. It'll be interesting who's gonna portray him next, I personally like Defoe's Goblin and want to see if the sequel suffers from sequel syndrome. Also this Spiderman is more fit to join the Avengers rather than Tobey-Spidey, everyone will always need a punk running around among the superiority-complex men =))

Overall: Good movie, fresh reboot, heartwarming drama, 7.9/10

I'm just gonna post it here, image from Link