The Amazing Spiderman 2

It took quite a lot of stabs, but this reboot finally seems to have gotten Spiderman right. Andrew Garfield actually gets the persona right, being a wisecracker with a goofy sense of humour who is nonetheless both likeable and formidable - easily the hardest thing to do well with Spidey, and the thing that can totally sink the film when it goes wrong...just like Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four. Garfield's fast-talking but often dumb-sounding Parker is just enough of a wise-ass to not be loathesome, vulnerable enough to be identifiable and awkward enough with romance for the central relationship of the film - with Emma Stone's Gwen - to work very well. 

On the other hand, this is a film that I very much enjoyed for its first two acts only for the third to tear down a lot of the good work. I really like what the film has done with the radioactive spider concept, making it very, very specific: Spiderman got his powers not at random but because the spider had been modified in a very specific way that would work with him and him only. At the end, though, the film doesn't really deal with how it seems that if you give the spider venom to someone dying of a debilitating disease and then quickly put them into an expensive suit that heals injuries, they will survive their disease - albeit with other side-effects. I'm sure many dying of terminal illnesses would take that trade. With Gwen, there was a clever tension between Peter wanting to push her away in order to protect her and the empowering notion that putting herself in danger was her choice - but the empowerment is rather undercut by, well, Gwen having the fate Gwen always has. Electro had a very interesting story arc about an ignored, undervalued talent screwed over by a big corporation finally getting attention for once, but that sort of gets thrown aside when he becomes the secondary villain and the way he's dealt with - somehow connecting some power cables with webs while he's attacking makes electricity feed back into him and overload him despite the fact he previously absorbed entire cities' worth of power - was horribly Saturday-Morning-Cartoon-cop-out. And honestly, having Peter's mourning period essentially dealt with in a few minutes at the end of the film rather than at the beginning of the next one, boiling down to a fight with a cameo baddie and a nice but thinly-veiled 'get over it' speech from Aunt May, felt horribly rushed: are they that keen to get MJ in?

These problems really stood in the way of my truly being able to say I liked the film, but there was a lot of good stuff here. Three iconic villains made it in - not counting hints at Doctor Octopus and Vulture and a post-credits scene that seems to continue from the last film's post-credits scene - and all had updated designs that thankfully took them a long way from their goofy original designs. I mentioned Electro's mask, but then we have the new Green Goblin in a cool battlesuit - along with a good motivation for his actions and a sweet hint at a childhood friendship and some hints at homoeroticism for the crowd that likes that sort of thing (don't kid yourself, the studios see what the Avengers fandom churns out!) - and also a gleeful cameo for an actor of the stature of Paul Giamatti clearly having a marvellous time doing a silly voice for a battlesuit-armoured Rhino. Some fans seem disappointed at the short shrift Rhino gets, but for me that little cameo appearance did the trick nicely. 

There was a very cohesive balance of cheese, clever humour and romance here, and I have high hopes for the sequel and any Sinister Six developments. But for this one - well, satisfying as it was, I feel like it fell a little short.