Comic Book Films & TV

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Not your fault man, I knew exactly what I was opening. I just didn't expect there to be anything worth spoilering!

Yeah, this, I didn't know the movie was already out in England (I think?) (movies premier thursdays here in Portugal, thought it would be the same in the UK) and thought it was something about a cameo or something like that. Completely my fault, sorry if I worded it in a way that thought I was mad at you, Beroberts, I was mad at me. My bad.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Johnny Latino Heat

[Maxx]

Watching Raimi's first Spider-Man film again and wow, it's got almost the same level of cheese as 90's Batman movies.

[Benjamin]

Pfft, Batman cheese was fun. This one was cringe worthy.

[Noah]

I wonder if 90's cheese is Headcheese's dad?

[TKz]

Oh my god, Amazing Spider-Man 2 is so fucking stupid.

I'll give it this - what it does well, it does pretty darn well. But anything else is done horribly. Every single scene of Electro was awful, everything about the character felt so completely goofy that it was impossible to take him seriously. And oh my god, the fucking music any time he was on screen was just fucking dire. So god damn bad. I went into this one thinking "I can't be anywhere near as bad as it apparently is!" trying really hard to be positive, but everything Electro was so bad.

Gwen/Peter scenes and anything with Aunt May was pretty great, as was Dane DeHaan as Harry. But nearly everything else... god. They even cut scenes from the trailer! There's a scene where Harry tells Peter that he Oscorp was keeping tabs on him and that was nowhere to be seen! I hate stuff like that, it's such a bait and switch.

Really, really poorly put together. There's entire subplots introduced that're never expanded on. I'll go into details on that and my problems with it as a fan of the comics, in the spoiler...

Right, for starters, Peter's parents are introduced as having been involved in Oscorp testing and it's revealed that they were framed - nothing comes from this, at all. No confrontation with Harry, nothing. Fair enough, they can pull it up in the next film, but considering I forgot about that plot until just now, after having JUST seen it, who the fuck is going to remember that? That's if they ever do anything with it. Also, Aunt May takes a job at the hospital. It's built up a little, never mentioned again in the context of her telling Peter. And there was literally zero build on the guy who fucked over Harry - his entire motivation boils down to "Well, I'm in a suit, I must be a bad guy." We get no fucking set up for why he's screwing over Harry, nothing.

Now, let's talk about the Green Goblin. Stupidest fucking way to do it. So fucking stupid. Dane DeHaan deserved so much better than that. Green Goblin isn't a dribbling, monster looking abomination creature. It's a guy in a mask with homicidal tendencies, but he's smart. Really fucking smart. That is the Green Goblin that this film series needed, who has a whole film built around him. Not that pathetic thing at the end that's entire reason for existence in this film is to kill Gwen Stacey. That was fucking weak and a waste of a villain.

Next up: why the fuck are you killing off villains? Electro, fine, okay, I guess he's not got much else to do considering how poorly written he was. But NORMAN FUCKING OSBOURNE? Spider-Man's main nemesis? The ultimate Spider-Man villain? Why? Why would you kill him off? It makes no god damn sense to do it, they've wasted an entire character that could be done so well all for nothing. So stupid. This is like killing off Magneto, or Loki or even better - it's like killing The Joker off.

And the whole thing is to set up a Sinister Six film!? You can't even write two villains in one film well! How they expect to write six of them and not make them all feel completely fucking wasted is beyond me. I could understand it if they'd set up more of them in the first one, but there's no way that works well. No way.

Last of all, a little positivity: Gwen's death was really well done. Seriously heart breaking stuff.

I've said it before, I'll say it again - Marc Webb has no clue how to direct a superhero film. I mean literally the only action scenes in film I even enjoyed were the first and last mini-scenes, which actually felt like a Spider-Man film. You give him a romance storyline, he'll direct the shit out of it. Everything that didn't feature a Spider-Man story in some way was great. But the second the suit comes on for a serious moment or a villain is on screen, it all falls apart.

This would've been a decent Spider-Man film 10 years ago. But considering the competition they've had and the standard expected from these films now, this was nothing but a huge disappointment.

[MalaCloudy Black]

It sounds like they went with

Ultimate Green Goblin, which really doesn't surprise me considering how a lot of stuff in both films now has been cribbed from the Ultimate Universe. Electro and Rhino were their Ultimate counterparts too. I'm not really sure why they drew so much inspiration from the Ultimate books, my assumption is that they feel like they've done as many mainstream Marvel Spider-Man stories as possible I guess.

[TKz]

Ultimate line is good, I like it in the comics. But even then, Ultimate Green Goblin was still so much better than this one. It was really poorly done, man. It was like they tried way too hard to go creepy and it was just goofy.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I'm not saying Ultimate Universe is bad or anything, it just seems odd when there's roughly ten zillion mainstream Marvel Universe Spider-Man stories they haven't even touched. They did the "big ones" with Raimi's films and then immediately jumped to the Ultimate Universe.

[Gabriel]

On a brighter note, I finally saw Winter Soldier, and it exceeded my already lofty expectations. Cap and the Falcon make a great pairing, and I can't wait to see more Sebastian Stan in the MCU.

[ZJ Penn]

Amazing Spiderman 2 is sooooooooo bad. People ripped into Thor 2 but AS2 makes Thor 2 look like The Avengers. Just so weak.

And that's coming from me. Who'll go see anything and give it a 'that was mediocre'pass.

[Noah]

Amazing Spiderman 2 is sooooooooo bad. People ripped into Thor 2 but AS2 makes Thor 2 look like The Avengers. Just so weak.

And that's coming from me. Who'll go see anything and give it a 'that was mediocre'pass.

This concerns me, more than any bad review yet. Mainly because your description of you, also fits me.

[Monkey D. Lars]

So even if you love Spidey this movie will blow?

[Noah]

I loved Transformers, I'd say even more than I love Spidey and I gave the Bay franchise more of a chance than most I know but even I eventually gave up on it to.

I think what I'm saying is, my love for Spidey isn't as intense as my love for Transformers and it'd take less to sour me on a Spidey franchise and I gave up on Transformers at some point during......umm was Devastator in the 2nd one? Devastator took a fond childhood memory and did robot wees all over it.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Guys, I went in with low expectations but I don't care about what is bad about the film. I loved my Spidey!!!

[Johnny Latino Heat]

I managed to go watch it tonight and honestly? I really liked it. It's obviously not half as good as The Winter Soldier, but it's a fun movie, and I liked mostly everything about it, except the ending. That was awful. But the rest? It was great in my book.

[DFF]

I found AS2 to be decent and fun, if quite flawed. All the principle actors/actresses were pretty good too.

I'll put the rest of my thoughts in spoilers:

I think they tried to shoe-horn too much stuff into the film and that’s where it fell down. I liked the

idea of Electro, and thought Jamie Foxx was good in the role, but I think they backed themselves into a hole a bit with how powerful he ended up being.

I think there are two ways they could have gone to make it all play out better:

1 – Leave a full powered Electro for a future film.

Put more emphasis on Harry’s return, and let him and Peter spend more time together. In AS2 there’s not enough interaction for us to care that much when Harry flips and goes rogue. Also, why not intersperse these with scenes of Spidey taking down petty crooks (a la Kick Ass, minus the ineptitude), where the segments are there to show off some cool stunts and give a bit of back ground to how often Peter goes out at day/night and does his thing. Maybe have him get a few minor scrapes on the way to show that he is still human, and have Gwen worry about him a bit. It would have given more time to flesh out their on-and-off again relationship (which felt rushed in the film). Have Rhino in it a little more – maybe some back ground on a job he’s planning to do (or even just tell us why he was stealing the Plutonium etc/have some interactions with the shady dude). 2nd half of the film plays out like Harry’s stuff in the actual film, but with more time dedicated to it. I’d possibly even have the final fight as Oscorp, and in the melee have a pre-Electro Max Dillon fall into the vat, seemingly killing him. Rest of the ending plays out like before, then have a post-credit sequence showing someone retrieving the now-Electro’s body and bam, there’s a future villain in either AS3 or 4.

2 – Leave Harry mostly in the background/save Goblin for AS3.

Cut some of the chaff from the beginning of what actually happened in AS2 – maybe shorten the opening sequence, but keep Spidey saving Dillon. Have the background news story be the deteriorating health of Norman (don't kill him off yet), which prompts Harry to return. Give Harry a few short, key scenes that only take up about 10-15 mins screen time. Use these to simply to introduce the character, show that he’s an old friend of Peter’s etc. Also, make a point of have him meet Gwen whilst with Peter. Rest of the film is dedicated to Electro in a similar vein to AS2. Have less of the on-and-off again scenario with Gwen – maybe just have them be distanced for part of the film, with them reuniting for the finale. Final scenes show the passing of Norman, and Harry revealed to be dying of the same illness, as well as hinting that he need Spidey’s blood to survive. Gwen survives until AS3. AS3 is Harry-centric, and you have some character building between him and Peter only for so far in it is revealed that Harry is using him to get to Spidey… and then you run the rest of the plot from actual AS2, with Gwen written out et al. Mary Jane would be put be given a small role.

[Gabriel]

I found AS2 to be decent and fun, if quite flawed. All the principle actors/actresses were pretty good too.

I'll put the rest of my thoughts in spoilers:

I think they tried to shoe-horn too much stuff into the film and that’s where it fell down. I liked the

idea of Electro, and thought Jamie Foxx was good in the role, but I think they backed themselves into a hole a bit with how powerful he ended up being.

I think there are two ways they could have gone to make it all play out better:

1 – Leave a full powered Electro for a future film.

Put more emphasis on Harry’s return, and let him and Peter spend more time together. In AS2 there’s not enough interaction for us to care that much when Harry flips and goes rogue. Also, why not intersperse these with scenes of Spidey taking down petty crooks (a la Kick Ass, minus the ineptitude), where the segments are there to show off some cool stunts and give a bit of back ground to how often Peter goes out at day/night and does his thing. Maybe have him get a few minor scrapes on the way to show that he is still human, and have Gwen worry about him a bit. It would have given more time to flesh out their on-and-off again relationship (which felt rushed in the film). Have Rhino in it a little more – maybe some back ground on a job he’s planning to do (or even just tell us why he was stealing the Plutonium etc/have some interactions with the shady dude). 2nd half of the film plays out like Harry’s stuff in the actual film, but with more time dedicated to it. I’d possibly even have the final fight as Oscorp, and in the melee have a pre-Electro Max Dillon fall into the vat, seemingly killing him. Rest of the ending plays out like before, then have a post-credit sequence showing someone retrieving the now-Electro’s body and bam, there’s a future villain in either AS3 or 4.

2 – Leave Harry mostly in the background/save Goblin for AS3.

Cut some of the chaff from the beginning of what actually happened in AS2 – maybe shorten the opening sequence, but keep Spidey saving Dillon. Have the background news story be the deteriorating health of Norman (don't kill him off yet), which prompts Harry to return. Give Harry a few short, key scenes that only take up about 10-15 mins screen time. Use these to simply to introduce the character, show that he’s an old friend of Peter’s etc. Also, make a point of have him meet Gwen whilst with Peter. Rest of the film is dedicated to Electro in a similar vein to AS2. Have less of the on-and-off again scenario with Gwen – maybe just have them be distanced for part of the film, with them reuniting for the finale. Final scenes show the passing of Norman, and Harry revealed to be dying of the same illness, as well as hinting that he need Spidey’s blood to survive. Gwen survives until AS3. AS3 is Harry-centric, and you have some character building between him and Peter only for so far in it is revealed that Harry is using him to get to Spidey… and then you run the rest of the plot from actual AS2, with Gwen written out et al. Mary Jane would be put be given a small role.

So, basically, the issues with ASM2 are the same ones that plagued Spider-Man 3 and caused the reboot in the first place?

Way to go, Sony.

[apsham]

It really feels super weird that they have a long term plan, and at the same time also seem like they are rushing and incorporating things way more than they actually need to meet their goals. It essentially feels like someone saying "I want to make this Spiderman movie, but it doesn't make sense without a build-up... so I'm really just going to half-ass my way through these first few films as an excuse."

It's a huge turn-off.

[TKz]

It's the post-Avengers world, everyone wants a bite of the extended universe pie. But no one's willing to put the time in to build the world first.

Saying that, I don't think they were half assing the first two to get to the third, but I'm pretty sure that's why we had so many villains in the second. I know it's not going to concern those that aren't comic readers, but I feel like Webb really doesn't have much interest in the original stories and characters.

[Benjamin]

Man, having to wait a whole week while you guys talk about it sucks.