The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

[Broadbent]

Just got home. Mixed feelings about this for sure. It had high highs and low lows. Full rant tomorrow....

[Wretchedest]

I enjoyed watching this but it was basically the Batman Forever of Spiderman movies.

It certainly looked fantastic. But it had that very specific variety of cheese oozing from its every oriface. So many "Why?!". Moments.


Still... Second best spidey movie? Its all relative.

[ManBurning]

OK, saw it tonight and... Meh, it might be time to hang up the spider-man suit. I mean, the movie wasn't terrible, but... I just think i've seen this story time and time again.
Spider-man used to be my favorite superhero growing up, but I fear I may have grown out of the franchise. All in all, I think it was a decent film, but just seems like something we saw 7-10 years ago already.

It surprisingly wasn't as clustered as I thought it was going to be based on all the information that I heard leading up to the movie (3 villains?). But the pacing was done well enough. I mean, none of the villains really got any real development time. I like what they did with the Green Goblin, but it almost seemed like it was a little rushed so they could just finally wrap that whole story arc up so they can finally move onto something new. This green Goblin is probably the best on screen Spider-Man Goblin i've seen yet (look wise), I hated the look of the first one, and then James Franco's was even worse. This one, they finally got the look right.

The Rhino suit wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. In fact, that was probably the best part of the film. I remember hearing Rhino was going to be in it and it was a mechanical suit and I was super pissed it wasn't going to be a classic man in a rubber rhino suit, but this worked out well. After I gave it some thought, a live action rubber Rhino suit would have been lame.

I'm just ready for something new now. I want to see where else they can take this franchise. I'm done with NYC super-villain threatens the city and takes one of Peter's loved ones hostage plot. Bring on something like Maximum Carnage. Guess with this so called Venom movie or this Sinister Six movie they are talking about being in the works could be the refreshing spider-man movie i'm looking for. Hopefully they're done right.

[Kid Charlemagne]

Whatever. It wasn't that bad. It was still miles better than the Iron Man sequels.

Wrong. Iron Man 2 was kind of lame, but it looks like Apocalypse Now compared to this movie. Seriously, the first hour of the film just jumps from scene to scene with hardly any development going into any of the minor characters. Jamie Foxx was laughable, his one liners as Electro are on par with Arnold's Mr. Freeze jokes from Batman and Robin. The movie is also way too long, you could've cut it short by at least 20 minutes, and it just ends like that. Someone mentioned earlier that there's so many plotlines that there's no tension, and that's absolutely correct. It's a poorly sequenced film. Sometimes sequels are so bad because they try to paint a bigger story for the future of the franchise, this is The Amazing Spider-Man 2, let's throw all we can into one movie and hope people will go to the next ones so we can tie everything up...which would be fine, if they hadn't done a terrible job in making this one work.

[Wretchedest]

It was so scattervrained and unfocused. Like the last movie, it never seemed to care about its own scenes. Whenever it hit a groive i was confortable with, it woukd introduce some random new plot element we really didnt need. It moves along too quickly to give a shit. Gwen Stacy's going to oxford? Why?..when she dies, the movie spends 3 minutes on him coping and then moves on. Max Dillon is accompanied by his own sing along music number, which is wacky. Also when he first become electro, everyone pretty much attacks him for no reason at all.

[Broadbent]

Alright, Mixed feelings about this for sure, so let's break it down. Let's start on a positive note, the visuals.

Everything in this movie looked fantastic. The new spider suit is great, someone took the time to make perfect subtle reflections in the eyes every time they showed his face. The Goblin look was absolutely nailed and came about in a way that was semi-believable. The Rhino costume was also dealt with in a great realistic way. Though he had zero screen time. Someone mentioned earlier in this thread that they showed too much in the trailers and I agree with that 100%.

Now for the plot. Good god, there were major script problem. Unfocused is the best way to describe it. The pacing was awful and nothing was linear. It was just all over the place. The movie was bloated with villains who had little to no motive. The Electro character was so poorly written. As were all his lines. Now cheesy spiderman lines I can handle, the comics are laced with them. But I didn't need Electro rhyming one liners. I literally lol'd at some of them in disbelief that they made it into the movie on not on the cutting room floor. The casting in the movie was perfect but the lines were just verbal diarrhea. I couldn't wait to see Paul Giatmatti, Jammie Foxx and BJ Novak in this, but the writing was just so poor nobody could make those lines work.


Now Let's talk about the best part of the movie Spoiler: The death of Gwen Stacey. The Chemistry between Spidey and Gwen was spot on the entire movie and kept me interested. And it honoured the comics very well. Shot excellently and scored excellently(unlike the rest of the movie)


Overall I give it 2.5/5

Wait for the DVD.

[AgentofChaos]

The movie does a great job with a lot of things but Webb absolutely sucks at building hype within this universe. He’s got the cast down, he’s got the spidey dialogue and the web slinging down, now he’s got the costume down, he’s done the villains pretty well, the stories are actually decent for the most part (some of Electro’s development was weak but whatever)and the effects were stellar.
BUT where he failed in the first movie, and he failed again here, is creating a fabric to get connected to. I don’t know how many people walked out of there absolutely pumped for Spidey 3, but it wasn’t a lot (even for those who enjoyed it, it did little to get fan boys dicks hard for future instalments). Interested possibly, but it was still such a wasted opportunity when you could have easily accomplished big things if you set the table up properly instead of just tacking on the Rhino scene which you’ve been advertising up the wazoo for months.


In the first movie you had this pointless stinger, who we STILL don’t technically know who it was. Stupid on so many levels don’t even get me started. This movie you wasted Chris Cooper, you teased a concept that is probably still 2 movies away, which while filled with potential, has nothing incredibly enticing about it since we still have to go through the whole painful building process for it. We sat through a whole movie, which while enjoyable (at least for me), established only a small portion of the universe despite taking the huge post spidey 3 risk of appearing bloated by trying to cram too much in (not sure how they managed to do so little to build the universe while having introduced as many as 6 different villains to be honest) and they left us with little clue as to what to expect in the third film. They could still go anywhere at all, more Goblin stories, Venom, Dr Octopus and/or Vulture, apparently Kraven is in the mix now or Webb wants him to be, Black Cat, Mysterio/Chameleon? All of which makes me feel like they don’t really have a plan. And then you have no stinger which only reinforces the fact.
They also wasted time including characters like Colm Feore’s, Gustav Fiers, etc that are completely useless except to help set up basic plot devices, which just comes off as lazy and uninspired.
Across 2 spidey movies you have included only a brief sniff (aka 1.5 scenes) at his two greatest villans, Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius, while no real indication that either is a mastermind pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Spidey’s b villans are cool by design, but they are always at their most effective when used as tools by people smarter than they are. After 4 hours in this universe, we’ve yet to be introduced to anyone who isn’t a chaotic loose cannon Peter is merely struggling to manage, as opposed to a real maniacal genius. And you had all the opportunity in the world to do that. THOSE are the kind of things that get fans excited and build a buzz for future projects.
You somehow have a venom movie already on the books for the future and have only managed a sneaky easter egg with a name. The lack of a coherent thought process in the scene selection and in the characters they introduce is borderline embarrassing since that was the antithesis of what they appeared to be shooting for in the wake of trying to compete with the MCU.


So to wrap up, Norman Osborn could be dead, could be Green Goblin, could be Mysterio, could be Vulture? Harry Osborn could be Green Goblin, could be Venom, we still don’t know the “official” Sinister Six lineup, what the Black Cat is doing, haven’t met JJJ, no sign of MJ (although I do agree it probably made sense to cut her from this cut of the film), and we have two mysterious characters looming in the shadows who could be anyone with any purpose?
Like how stupid and convoluted is Webb trying to make this? It’s a shame because everything else is spot on and both movies have been fun otherwise. I guess it's kind of ironic that people say this feels like a chapter in a larger book which made it hard to care too much, while I feel its a much better stand alone piece, which would actually be great if they weren't so concerned with appearing to be building more than that, and throwing pointless distractions around, ie easter eggs, teaser images of multiple characters they have yet to introduce in the trailer, end credits etc.

All that venting being said, did anyone else love that opening sequence though? It felt so comic book, one of the better intros to a superhero flick in a while. How anyone can like comics, film, and spider-man and write with a straight face this was shittier than Iron Man 3 is so far fucking beyond me.

[Corvus T. Cosmonaut]

This was shittier than Iron Man 3 because that was an imperfect but still great, well-written movie.

But no, you're right: while I do really like film, I'm not a fan of superhero comics, and I've never even read an issue of Spider-Man (and don't believe that's relevant anyway). How anyone can like film or storytelling and write with a straight face that Amazing Spider-Man 2 (or 1) was better than Iron Man 3 is so far fucking beyond me.

[AgentofChaos]

Look, I could go into lengthy details as to why IM3 is just the worst, but here is not really the place for that. Would I have enjoyed it on its own, had it been a stand alone film that had nothing to do with pre-existing characters or stories? Impossible to know one way or the other, but I still suspect not (and I love Shane Black outside of the franchise).

I will concede to you that if I was not a spidey fan, I *may* have liked ASM2 less than I did. Because some elements that I enjoyed were not necessarily relevant to the story, they were just nice moments, sequences, shots, of stuff I enjoy seeing because of my history with the character. Stuff that was improved over previous films which was nice to see addressed. So yes then, I would say that you not having read an issue is relevant in this instance. Conversely, It also explains why you could like IM3, because it basically takes the character and pisses on its face, and only someone who completely oblivious could enjoy the farcical joke they turned it into. Of course someone who doesnt read comics is going to like a film that basically makes a joke about how stupid they are! At least Spidey 2 tried to take itself seriously, even if it failed in some respects in my eyes.

[Corvus T. Cosmonaut]

You're admitting that your primary issue isn't with whether the movies work independently, or how truthful the characters were to themselves and their stories, but because they differed from the comics or otherwise violated your expectations of how an adaptation of that material should look, in some way deviating from your own take on comics canon. Which is something you're certainly entitled to. But you aren't actually critiquing the movies when you do that, and it's obvious that other readers of the comic books have a completely different take on it. Those others are not betraying the source material by approaching it differently.

I still have tremendous respect for RDJ and Shane Black but my god IM3 was not a good comic book movie. Big step back for Marvel. I'm crushingly disappointed right now. If you read Extremis this basically pisses all over it. I understand sacrifices need to be made for cinema but lines were crossed. I tried so hard to love it. I wanted to very much. But honestly I even favour Last Stand over it. Maybe Spidey 3. Definitely every other Marvel film. Shane Black just doesn't get Tony Stark. He gets RDJ as an actor, but not this character. And with that, there's obviously no way he could get any of the other characters either. Black turned the movie into one big running joke and at times I questioned whether anyone truly cared about it being taken remotely seriously. There was absolutely no fan service which is part of what made the other films cool. It was like they said nobody knows or cares that much about the Iron Man story so let's just make a movie for everyone and take tons of liberties and hope no one will notice. It did nothing to establish hype for another movie or the MCU, even the "stinger" was extremely weak. I don't know what else to say except I can't believe the early reviews were so positive. I feel like they had to have been bought and paid for, or written by people who have absolutely no investment in comics or this universe. Iron Man 2 looks like a gem compared to this.

These films aren't the comics. Readers of the comics might draw various lines in the sand, boundaries within which the film versions of their beloved characters must fit to remain consistent or recognizable, but that's an individual decision. You draw your line here, others may put it elsewhere, and the filmmakers are beholden to neither. But this shouldn't be an issue. The films must be able to stand completely on their own.

[AgentofChaos]

Eh I dont know, of course they aren't the comics, and liberties must be taken, and fans have different lines in the sand, but if you are going to go against the core of the character, and go places and do things that said character would never do, then it ceases to be that character, those stories, that franchise, and whether the film succeeds on its own at that point is somewhat irrelevant. If it wanted to care about doing that, it shouldn't have branded itself under the banner of said character and should have been its own film. A comic book film at the very least has to attempt to live up to the essence of the work and characters it is supposed to be adapting. Otherwise I don't see the point.

[Tony Gordon]

I'm too scared to go see it. Everyone is telling me it's like Transformers 2 all over again, which don't exactly bug me cause I thought the first Transformers was horrible, so I knew the second one wasn't worth my time.


The first Amazing was OK even though I didn't like the idea of a reboot. Yet another time of being told the origin story of Peter Parker? Please.....but surprisingly, I enjoyed it. I found the new version of Spiderman to be a lot more true to the comics with the cheesy fun goofiness that was totally absent in the first trilogy. Parker is a smartass, he's goofy and can be down right funny in the comics. It's supposed to be cheesy like that. Everything that people bitched about with the first Amazing movie were reasons I liked it.

I wasn't very big on the original series that came out in the early 2000's. The first movie was pretty good,but it had it's problems. It felt like half way through it, it became boring. I had this same problem with the Captain America and Thor movies (I have not seen the sequels and have no plans on it).
Then the second Spiderman totally lost me half way through. It had the effects, I loved the bad guy this time around, and some parts of it were really cool, but the whole "I love her but I don't love her" bullshit with Mary Jane dragged it on. Toby wasn't a bad Peter Parker whatsoever, but something just did not click with me regarding that movie. I do not understand all the praise it gets NOW. I remember when it first came out, everyone was disappointed in it, but now it's the best thing since sliced fucking bread now that they don't like Garfield as Spidey.
I won't even mention Spiderman 3, cause I don't think it's even worth going into.


I haven't seen this movie but I was really excited for it. I've been hearing all these rumors about how it's going to bomb in the box office now cause it's so terrible. Word of mouth has not been very kind to it. I still hope it's good, and I'm not here to compare it to the older movies, fuck that nonsense.

[AgentofChaos]

FYI the original Spider-Man 2 at the time of its release was widely regarded as the best super hero flick made to date. Granted it didn't have a lot of competition, but I'd say it's not aged as well as one would have liked. It still stands up, but there have been much better things done since then that make it pale it comparison to what it was once viewed as.

If you liked the first Amazing Spidey, you should definitely check 2 out. I would say its as good or better than its predecessor. There is definitely a ton of classic spidey charm and Garfield kills it once again. My issue with it is more as a second piece in a trilogy +, and not so much as a stand alone entity. I think had this been the first instalment and they just dove into it, I would've liked it that much more. But its definitely worth seeing. Haters gonna hate, and all that.

[Tony Gordon]

I'm just ready for something new now. I want to see where else they can take this franchise. I'm done with NYC super-villain threatens the city and takes one of Peter's loved ones hostage plot. Bring on something like Maximum Carnage. Guess with this so called Venom movie or this Sinister Six movie they are talking about being in the works could be the refreshing spider-man movie i'm looking for. Hopefully they're done right.

Maximum Carnage was so fun on the Super Nintendo. Great game and even greater music in the 16 bit MIDI form.

I would love to see a super hero movie based on a villain for once. Give us a Lex Luthor or a Victor Von Doom movie. I would totally pay money to see a Doom movie, though Venom wouldn't be a bad one either!

[ibanez33]

I'm reading Maximum Carnage right now and I would piss myself if they turned it into a movie.

[implanted_microchip]

I'm reading Maximum Carnage right now and I would piss myself if they turned it into a movie.

Problem with a character like Carnage is that if it wasn't R rated it would really lessen the impact and I can't imagine them making a Spidey related movie anything above PG-13. I'd rather have no Carnage at all than have a watered down version.

[Conan The Barbarian]

Not true. They can cut out of frame when graphic shit happens. A pg13 can get you anywhere these days, as long as there is no nudity.

[ibanez33]

Not true. They can cut out of frame when graphic shit happens. A pg13 can get you anywhere these days, as long as there is no nudity.

exactly. And even if they gave it an R, they'd still probably water it down. off-screen violence for most of it would be best no matter what the rating is.

[littlemonkey613]

Eh I dont know, of course they aren't the comics, and liberties must be taken, and fans have different lines in the sand, but if you are going to go against the core of the character, and go places and do things that said character would never do, then it ceases to be that character, those stories, that franchise, and whether the film succeeds on its own at that point is somewhat irrelevant. If it wanted to care about doing that, it shouldn't have branded itself under the banner of said character and should have been its own film. A comic book film at the very least has to attempt to live up to the essence of the work and characters it is supposed to be adapting. Otherwise I don't see the point.

I completely agree with this premise. Comic book movies are first and foremost adaptations of source material and people forget that. Like when they change a character so much that they are not recognizable or at least don't have the same core, I always just don't understand why they dont just make a new character. I think arguments for changing those things does get stronger when the movie is a masterpiece but when the fuck does that ever happen? None of the best super hero movies in my opinion took much liberty with the core of main characters. Spiderman 2 perhaps, since Raimi's Peter Parker is questionable (not bad in my personal opinion though) , but so much of that movie was true to the spirit of the comics and it was a really great and consistent movie overall.

Nobody would be okay with people changing Harry Potter characters so much that they aren't the same character anymore for instance. I think it comes down to non comic book readers forgetting that the source material (at least where character and motivation is concerned) should be respected just as much as any novel or book series. Saying that the only thing that matters is how good it is as a stand alone film with no context is a real insult I think to the legacy of the character and everyone who has enjoyed that character over decades and worked on it.

I think the films should take the same approach as comic writers when they are making a non canon stand alone or when companies reboot a character's universe. You can take liberties, but no one is going to respect your shit if the character is some random person with the beloved name slapped on it.

Moving on!

Things I liked about this Spiderman movie:
1. Spidey being Spidey - they really got down his web slinging action, swinging shit and his humor and snark
2. I actually really liked Electro up until towards the end of the movie. I thought he was a really sad and sympathetic character.

Things I disliked:

Literally everything else. Ugh.
The way they introduced the Sinister Six shit was literally the most tasteless garbage ever. I would give up my first born for the MCU to have the Spidey franchise :'(

/ @AgentofChaos its funny because I obviously agree with your rant but I also think this movie was perhaps like BAREEEELY better than Iron Man 3, so I disagree that its totally cray for people to like that movie better and I hated that one as much as you lolol. I agree that this movie got way more right in terms of the protagonist's character (and not making an iconic villian imaginary LOL), but as a whole I thought this was pretty terrible in general so Idk

[ibanez33]

I completely agree with this premise. Comic book movies are first and foremost adaptations of source material and people forget that. Like when they change a character so much that they are not recognizable or at least don't have the same core, I always just don't understand why they dont just make a new character. I think arguments for changing those things does get stronger when the movie is a masterpiece but when the fuck does that ever happen? None of the best super hero movies in my opinion took much liberty with the core of main characters. Spiderman 2 perhaps, since Raimi's Peter Parker is questionable (not bad in my personal opinion though) , but so much of that movie was true to the spirit of the comics and it was a really great and consistent movie overall.

Nobody would be okay with people changing Harry Potter characters so much that they aren't the same character anymore for instance. I think it comes down to non comic book readers forgetting that the source material (at least where character and motivation is concerned) should be respected just as much as any novel or book series. Saying that the only thing that matters is how good it is as a stand alone film with no context is a real insult I think to the legacy of the character and everyone who has enjoyed that character over decades and worked on it.

I think the films should take the same approach as comic writers when they are making a non canon stand alone or when companies reboot a character's universe. You can take liberties, but no one is going to respect your shit if the character is some random person with the beloved name slapped on it.

Moving on!

Things I liked about this Spiderman movie:
1. Spidey being Spidey - they really got down his web slinging action, swinging shit and his humor and snark
2. I actually really liked Electro up until towards the end of the movie. I thought he was a really sad and sympathetic character.

Things I disliked:

Literally everything else. Ugh.
The way they introduced the Sinister Six shit was literally the most tasteless garbage ever. I would give up my first born for the MCU to have the Spidey franchise :'(

/ @AgentofChaos its funny because I obviously agree with your rant but I also think this movie was perhaps like BAREEEELY better than Iron Man 3, so I disagree that its totally cray for people to like that movie better and I hated that one as much as you lolol. I agree that this movie got way more right in terms of the protagonist's character (and not making an iconic villian imaginary LOL), but as a whole I thought this was pretty terrible in general so Idk

In a perfect world, we'd have the spidey movies being adapted from books by the guys who wrote said books, and all of the Marvel character movie rights would be owned by Marvel still, and the Deadpool movie would finally exist.

But, of all the marvel movies thus far, Spiderman is the one that is getting the most fucked over. It's like Sony doesn't even care, they're just making Spiderman movies to spite the Avengers franchise. I haven't seen TAS2 yet, but it looks awful. The concept is pretty good, but the casting and looks for Electro and Harry Osborne are fucking atrocious. It's a fucking Spiderman movie, we WANT it to be campy! Not Jamie Foxx covered in blue shit. I haven't seen it yet but from the trailers I'm going to assume it's awful, just like the Lizard still having a mostly-human face.

The Venom movie could change everything, though. We'll just have to wait I guess. I would love it if they did pull a Harry Potter though and make the movies increasingly darker as the series progresses, so they can ease into a hard R rating for Carnage but still gain fans from the earlier PG-13 movies of ASM and ASM2 and Venom.

[Shadaloo]

It's a mixed bag. It's not hot garbage (Nowhere near as terrible as Transformers 2, which probably deserves its own oxford entry under 'shit'), but it is rather unfocused, and goes on longer than it needs to. It beats you over the head with foreshadowing until you're numb.

If there's a reason to see it, it's just to see Garfield in action as Spidey, and his chemistry with Stone. He nails it, and they work well together, respectively.

It's a really average sequel to a slightly above-average film. It's not bad, but coming off of the showing that was Captain America 2 is not going to do it any favors.