Saw it the other day, I guess I kind of/sort of enjoyed it? I mean I wasn't appalled and I had a good time and it was better than I thought it would be. I definitely think the negative reviews are a bit much for this thing.
So I'll start with the negatives. The villains were awful (worse than Spider-Man 3). They're underdeveloped, cliche, and short lived at best (why was kid Goblin there at the end again?). The film had no theme or coherent focus/tone. A lot of the writing (specifically the, dialogue and forced/unnatural exposition) were absolutely cringe worthy. I hated the story with Peter Parker and his "special blood" (and I didn't believe in his friendship with Harry), I hated the Osborn's "Goblin disease" and I hated the forced "cinematic world" that was eerily reminiscent to the problem that plagued Iron Man 2. They're not trying to sell a product or toys here, no, they're trying to sell
future movies. Because of all this, it's just an all around bad movie.
The positives, I liked the mindless, energetic cartoon action. I liked the Gwen/Peter relationship even though the back and forth "we are never, ever getting back together" crap dragged on too long. Maybe I just have a thing for Emma Stone? Uhhh, what else did I like. The movie seemed to have a colorful energy to it that I digged. I think the combination of the new Spider-Man costume (which is better than that monstrosity from the last movie) and his personality helped give it that vibe, more so than the world the characters inhabit. Even though I hated the plane flashback, I really liked the introduction with Spider-Man and Paul Giamati. I actually liked Garfield's Spider-Man in this. He seems like a completely different character than the ****** bag I saw in ASM1, which is a GREAT thing. In fact, if Garfield Spider-Man was featured in a different story, I'm sure I'd like him even more. He's clearly not the problem. What else. I liked the "Spider-Kid" thing, I liked Spidey's funny antics (especially in the opening) and I liked the sentimental ending (the whole changing of seasons thing at the cemetery was really well done, I thought). Oh, and I LOVED how they dealt with Captain Stacey. I'm one of the people that HATED the ending to ASM1 in the classroom. The way they had him as Peter's conscious was great I thought.
It's just a shame that the bad outweighs the good for me. For every good thing that I can think of, there's even more bad things that pop into my head. I think with a little more time and focus, they could have made a killer Spider-Man flick. This just seemed like a rushed product. I definitely got "Schumacher Batman" vibes, but not in a "oh, that's terrible" way. This movie is no "Batman and Robin", but I would say it's a "Batman Forever", definitely. The one-dimensional, OTT villains are similar (Electro was definitely channeling Nygma), the cheese (Electro playing his own theme at the super duper electrical complex) and the juggling of tone was all there. One minute, the movie is all humorous and cute, the next minute it's serious and played straight, just like Batman Forever. It definitely has it's moments and the mind numbing action is quite good, but it just never felt like I was watching a FILM with a quality story. Most of the plot points are "borrowed" from everything else I've seen,
especially the past Spider-Man flicks. Harry Osborn freaking out on Peter and giving him a guilt trip because he needs Spider-Man? Sorry, I saw that in Spider-Man 2 (and it was much better). The back and forth romance, "are we together", "I can't", "I can", "I can't"? I've now had to sit through 4 Spider-Man movies that deal with this crap . . . and it was better in the original films.
So there it is. The movie doesn't even touch the original Spider-Man films to me, but if I shut my brain off, I can get into it. It's not bad, it's not good, it just is. Still, I don't see why they've been so bad in the villain department with these Spider-Man films. Other than Batman, Spider-Man has the best Rogues Gallery out there. Why the hell are they ****ing these guys up so badly? How do you screw up classic villains like Sandman, Venom or the Lizard? How? I mean, I get Electro, he's pretty lame in the comics too. But these classic villains? There's something wrong when Spider-Man 3's villains are more compelling with Sandman and Venom vs. Electro and Kid-Goblin. They made Electro, kid-Goblin and barely-in-it-for-2 minutes-russian-guy here look awful. They think they're going to be able to make a villain team up movie? With these "Oscorp degenerate" guys?
So, my rank (I watched them all literally days/hours apart just last week),
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man
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ASM 2 / Spider-Man 3
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ASM
I'll give ASM2 another try again. Now that I've seen it/know what to expect, I think it can knock out Spider-Man 3 for it's portrayal of Spider-Man alone. For this blockbuster season, it ain't no Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier, but then again, who says it has to be? I'll take a mindless Spidey romp I guess as long as it isn't as bland and monotonous as ASM1. If anything, ASM2 has
style going for it.
And no, I hope JK Simmons isn't featured in this series. He was Raimi's bro and he was of THAT series. The people that hate on the original Spider-Man trilogy don't deserve to have Simmons JJJ in there. **** em'. J Jonah Jameson was one of my favorite characters in those films, so unless it was some sort of meta thing where, the Simmons Jonah craps all over Garfield because he doesn't think this series is as good as Maguire or the originals, I don't want to see it. He's of THAT world and fits the tone of that Raimi style that people seem to want to **** all over these days. Keep it to the emails (which I thought was clever honestly).
