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The Amazing Spider-Man 2
I love Spider-Man. I grew up as a child watching the '90s animated series, and then I grew up as a teenager reading the comics.
I really want to like this film.
Before I go on, there's something (else) I'd like to get out of the way. Many comic books fan loved this film, hailing it as having just the kind of 'comic book feel' they all wanted. And I get it. I really do. As an adapted screenplay, it did a couple of things really well in terms of its references and the overall 'feel' you'd find in a Spider-Man comic book story - including the corny jokes and the formulaic textbook Spider-Man storyline that come with the package. The flaws aside, the benefits of the comic book feel certainly would divide perspectives of this film into two categories - the comic book lovers who've read and recognized Spidey comics for a long time, and the ones who didn't.
I had read Spidey comics for a long time (though not recently), and I noticed that there was always a kind of cliche formula that the comic book writers tend to follow (especially with story arcs that drag through multiple issues). They'd start with a slow beginning to establish the characters, an anti-climatic middle part where all the sub-plots don't really go anywhere, and a rushed finale where everything the writers had wanted to say come crashing down because they couldn't meet the deadline for the final issue of that particular story arc.
I'd always love the 'slow beginning,' because it's always the best and most meatiest part of the story. It is the part where character backgrounds are established and fleshed out, and right before my eyes, these web-lines of sub-plot (pun intended) would ooze so much potential, as if they're telling me that something beautiful is gonna take their place. I didn't really care much about the Peter's father prologue, but what I loved about the beginning of the movie was the metaphorical imagery that synchronized between Gwen's speech and Spidey's actions. That was always a beautiful writing style you'd see in Spidey comics (and probably just comic books in general) a lot; symbolic imagery that connect the web of sub-plots. This visual symbolism would of course be something Marc Webb tossed out a lot throughout the later parts of the movie. I'll get to that later.
After the graduation scene, I also liked the part where Peter confessed his guilt about his promise to Gwen's father, a guilt which would magically dissipate over the course of the movie. I also liked Max's introduction, even if the deleted "Max is mistreated even by his own mother" scene would've made him much more sympathetic (not to mention that his co-workers remember his name, either calling him "Dillon" or "Max", which made his "I'm a nobody" point kinda moot). He was portrayed sorry enough to made me feel for him. I have not much of a problem with Harry's introduction either, even if I wish they'd kept the "Not everyone gets a happy ending" line from the trailers to establish the two different paths Peter and Harry would take in this movie, despite having similar father-abandonment issues. The "Osborn Curse" was a nice wink to the comic book fans. Moreover, I love the chemistry Andrew Garfield and Dane DeHaan have with each other that erased any awkwardness that might have taken place when the movie suddenly decided to shoe-horn in this childhood friend from nowhere, and I was really convinced that they might have been childhood friends at one point.
The best part of the movie came during the Time Square battle (and unfortunately, it isn't saying much when I say "the best part"), because the sheer paranoia, fear, and confusion I felt during that scene was effectively emphasized by Hans Zimmer's "My Enemy" song, which contained such poetic lyrics to synchronize with Max's emotions. The confrontation between Spidey and Electro was much more natural than the trailer would have you believe, and it was entirely a misunderstanding. And that's not all. The slow-mo spider-sense scene was such a wonderful scene for the fans of the comic book because it showcased just the kind of superman-human agility the amazing web-slinger has.
All of that entire sequence from start to finish was beautifully shot... That was until the "light my candles" one-liner came and ruined it, because I thought it was some rejected dialogue from the Batman & Robin script (you know, the one with such god-awful lines like, "Let's kick some ice!"). Unfortunately, that was not the last time I would see of the textbook comic book villain cliches in the movie.
Now comes the middle part, often the weakest part of a comic book story arc, the part where the writers twirl their sub-plots pointlessly around the audience long enough for the ending to come. When good writers like Roger Stern and J.M Dematteis come around, however, the middle part is where they began the process to connect the multiple sub-plots together (the beginning is to establish them, the middle part is to connect them), like how Spidey's webs would connect together beautifully.
Although Marc Webb did a far better job than most bad comic book writers I've seen, it's still one hell of a mess he created. He threw in a lot of sub-plots, but they've never really meshed together as one single big story theme. Instead, they felt like multiple themes the way people would complain about the multiple themes of The Dark Knight. You have the sympathetic Max Dillon whose character development was cut short after the Time Square battle because textbook mad scientist #1 wanted to run tests on him (Dr. Kafka in the comics, by the way, was female and had much more depth than this). You have Harry Osborn trying to get Peter's blood (and for some unknown reason, Peter is unwilling to just calmly tell Harry that he'll research the blood for a few days to see if his and Harry's blood are compatible or not). You have Peter trying to find out the truth about his father. And lastly, you have Gwen going to London. These four sub-plots never came together like a single picture to tell one story, and thus separately, they felt forgettable, insignificant, and just underwhelming altogether.
But I have to give props where it's due. Marc Webb gets an 'A' for effort for trying his best to connect them together with the symbolism of 'time'. Every of the main character was running out of time in one scene or another throughout the whole movie. There was even a metaphoric representation of Peter being just a child at heart, like the two little boys he rescued in the movie. That said, I wasn't really impressed by it. The visual symbolism felt rather pretentious. They felt like symbolism for the sake of being symbolic and clever. Most of this is due to the sub-plots not really saying anything in the big picture. More on that later.
The final part is where it all comes raining down like brimstone and fire. Max turned from a sympathetic villain to an outright murderer seeking petty revenge. Harry was shoe-horned in as the last second villain because Peter was too busy jogging to tell him that he could've easily offered him the blood that Richard Parker said on-tape that would cure him as long as it contains Parker DNA.
And as for Gwen, the guilt Peter carried at the beginning of the movie has resurfaced at this point, which would've been fine with me if they had Peter soul-searched in the middle act whether he should endanger Gwen or not, so that when the actual death happens, his choice to endanger her would have that much more weight. See, the problem with adapting comic books is that you can't have internal monologue for this kind of important stuff. You can't have Peter thinking out loud, "She should go to London, because I was nearly killed fighting Max Dillon last night and god knows what would happen to her if she's around me." It's left up to subtle visual cues to tell that story, and unfortunately, I just didn't really feel that Peter was very much inclined to let Gwen go for her own good, with him kissing her after the 'break up' in the locker room, with him stalking her, with him badgering her non-stop to get back together again.
These visual cues told me another story instead - that Peter's being irresponsible and selfish, and that he deserved what had happened next. It wouldn't have been that tragic if Seth Brundle didn't have any emotional conflicts about his transformation, which he did in The Fly (1986). Thus, when Gwen finally died, what could've been a tragic death full of emotional turmoils, I saw it coming from a thousand miles away and merely shrugged it off, even if I hadn't any prior knowledge of the famous comic book story.
Another reason why I didn't feel much about Gwen's death was because the relationship problem that seemed to be Peter's main conflict in this movie wasn't made all that significant in the movie. To distract himself from that problem, Peter focused on another problem, the truth about whether his father was a traitor (or not). The motivation behind that was because of his childhood insecurities about abandonment issues, while the motivation behind his reluctance to confess to Gwen his love was because of his guilt towards Gwen's father. So how does the two connect, Marc?
That seems to be the major problem with this movie - none of the sub-plots connect, thus they don't carry as much emotional weight in the big picture, and it all felt just like a ride full of random noises instead of a beautiful symphony. And a story that doesn't say anything significant feels lackluster and soulless in the end. It feels pretentious. And it's disappointing, because this movie was the compilation of what could have been some very good ideas.
9th January
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
I love Spider-Man. I grew up as a child watching the '90s animated series, and then I grew up as a teenager reading the comics.
I really want to like this film.
Before I go on, there's something (else) I'd like to get out of the way. Many comic books fan loved this film, hailing it as having just the kind of 'comic book feel' they all wanted. And I get it. I really do. As an adapted screenplay, it did a couple of things really well in terms of its references and the overall 'feel' you'd find in a Spider-Man comic book story - including the corny jokes and the formulaic textbook Spider-Man storyline that come with the package. The flaws aside, the benefits of the comic book feel certainly would divide perspectives of this film into two categories - the comic book lovers who've read and recognized Spidey comics for a long time, and the ones who didn't.
I had read Spidey comics for a long time (though not recently), and I noticed that there was always a kind of cliche formula that the comic book writers tend to follow (especially with story arcs that drag through multiple issues). They'd start with a slow beginning to establish the characters, an anti-climatic middle part where all the sub-plots don't really go anywhere, and a rushed finale where everything the writers had wanted to say come crashing down because they couldn't meet the deadline for the final issue of that particular story arc.
I'd always love the 'slow beginning,' because it's always the best and most meatiest part of the story. It is the part where character backgrounds are established and fleshed out, and right before my eyes, these web-lines of sub-plot (pun intended) would ooze so much potential, as if they're telling me that something beautiful is gonna take their place. I didn't really care much about the Peter's father prologue, but what I loved about the beginning of the movie was the metaphorical imagery that synchronized between Gwen's speech and Spidey's actions. That was always a beautiful writing style you'd see in Spidey comics (and probably just comic books in general) a lot; symbolic imagery that connect the web of sub-plots. This visual symbolism would of course be something Marc Webb tossed out a lot throughout the later parts of the movie. I'll get to that later.
After the graduation scene, I also liked the part where Peter confessed his guilt about his promise to Gwen's father, a guilt which would magically dissipate over the course of the movie. I also liked Max's introduction, even if the deleted "Max is mistreated even by his own mother" scene would've made him much more sympathetic (not to mention that his co-workers remember his name, either calling him "Dillon" or "Max", which made his "I'm a nobody" point kinda moot). He was portrayed sorry enough to made me feel for him. I have not much of a problem with Harry's introduction either, even if I wish they'd kept the "Not everyone gets a happy ending" line from the trailers to establish the two different paths Peter and Harry would take in this movie, despite having similar father-abandonment issues. The "Osborn Curse" was a nice wink to the comic book fans. Moreover, I love the chemistry Andrew Garfield and Dane DeHaan have with each other that erased any awkwardness that might have taken place when the movie suddenly decided to shoe-horn in this childhood friend from nowhere, and I was really convinced that they might have been childhood friends at one point.
The best part of the movie came during the Time Square battle (and unfortunately, it isn't saying much when I say "the best part"), because the sheer paranoia, fear, and confusion I felt during that scene was effectively emphasized by Hans Zimmer's "My Enemy" song, which contained such poetic lyrics to synchronize with Max's emotions. The confrontation between Spidey and Electro was much more natural than the trailer would have you believe, and it was entirely a misunderstanding. And that's not all. The slow-mo spider-sense scene was such a wonderful scene for the fans of the comic book because it showcased just the kind of superman-human agility the amazing web-slinger has.
All of that entire sequence from start to finish was beautifully shot... That was until the "light my candles" one-liner came and ruined it, because I thought it was some rejected dialogue from the Batman & Robin script (you know, the one with such god-awful lines like, "Let's kick some ice!"). Unfortunately, that was not the last time I would see of the textbook comic book villain cliches in the movie.
Now comes the middle part, often the weakest part of a comic book story arc, the part where the writers twirl their sub-plots pointlessly around the audience long enough for the ending to come. When good writers like Roger Stern and J.M Dematteis come around, however, the middle part is where they began the process to connect the multiple sub-plots together (the beginning is to establish them, the middle part is to connect them), like how Spidey's webs would connect together beautifully.
Although Marc Webb did a far better job than most bad comic book writers I've seen, it's still one hell of a mess he created. He threw in a lot of sub-plots, but they've never really meshed together as one single big story theme. Instead, they felt like multiple themes the way people would complain about the multiple themes of The Dark Knight. You have the sympathetic Max Dillon whose character development was cut short after the Time Square battle because textbook mad scientist #1 wanted to run tests on him (Dr. Kafka in the comics, by the way, was female and had much more depth than this). You have Harry Osborn trying to get Peter's blood (and for some unknown reason, Peter is unwilling to just calmly tell Harry that he'll research the blood for a few days to see if his and Harry's blood are compatible or not). You have Peter trying to find out the truth about his father. And lastly, you have Gwen going to London. These four sub-plots never came together like a single picture to tell one story, and thus separately, they felt forgettable, insignificant, and just underwhelming altogether.
But I have to give props where it's due. Marc Webb gets an 'A' for effort for trying his best to connect them together with the symbolism of 'time'. Every of the main character was running out of time in one scene or another throughout the whole movie. There was even a metaphoric representation of Peter being just a child at heart, like the two little boys he rescued in the movie. That said, I wasn't really impressed by it. The visual symbolism felt rather pretentious. They felt like symbolism for the sake of being symbolic and clever. Most of this is due to the sub-plots not really saying anything in the big picture. More on that later.
The final part is where it all comes raining down like brimstone and fire. Max turned from a sympathetic villain to an outright murderer seeking petty revenge. Harry was shoe-horned in as the last second villain because Peter was too busy jogging to tell him that he could've easily offered him the blood that Richard Parker said on-tape that would cure him as long as it contains Parker DNA.
And as for Gwen, the guilt Peter carried at the beginning of the movie has resurfaced at this point, which would've been fine with me if they had Peter soul-searched in the middle act whether he should endanger Gwen or not, so that when the actual death happens, his choice to endanger her would have that much more weight. See, the problem with adapting comic books is that you can't have internal monologue for this kind of important stuff. You can't have Peter thinking out loud, "She should go to London, because I was nearly killed fighting Max Dillon last night and god knows what would happen to her if she's around me." It's left up to subtle visual cues to tell that story, and unfortunately, I just didn't really feel that Peter was very much inclined to let Gwen go for her own good, with him kissing her after the 'break up' in the locker room, with him stalking her, with him badgering her non-stop to get back together again.
These visual cues told me another story instead - that Peter's being irresponsible and selfish, and that he deserved what had happened next. It wouldn't have been that tragic if Seth Brundle didn't have any emotional conflicts about his transformation, which he did in The Fly (1986). Thus, when Gwen finally died, what could've been a tragic death full of emotional turmoils, I saw it coming from a thousand miles away and merely shrugged it off, even if I hadn't any prior knowledge of the famous comic book story.
Another reason why I didn't feel much about Gwen's death was because the relationship problem that seemed to be Peter's main conflict in this movie wasn't made all that significant in the movie. To distract himself from that problem, Peter focused on another problem, the truth about whether his father was a traitor (or not). The motivation behind that was because of his childhood insecurities about abandonment issues, while the motivation behind his reluctance to confess to Gwen his love was because of his guilt towards Gwen's father. So how does the two connect, Marc?
That seems to be the major problem with this movie - none of the sub-plots connect, thus they don't carry as much emotional weight in the big picture, and it all felt just like a ride full of random noises instead of a beautiful symphony. And a story that doesn't say anything significant feels lackluster and soulless in the end. It feels pretentious. And it's disappointing, because this movie was the compilation of what could have been some very good ideas.