Review 246: The Amazing Spider-Man: Rise of Electro

The Amazing Spider-Man: Rise of Electro continues the darker direction the series has taken with The Amazing Spider-Man...   But an overabundance of characters and plotlines prevent it from reaching its full potential.

For Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield), life is busy. Between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), high school graduation cannot come quickly enough. Peter has not forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen’s father to protect her by staying away, but that is a promise he cannot keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro (Jamie Foxx), emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past.

The plot is very, very mixed bag, it tackles lots of different themes like If you're Spider-Man can you have another life? If you're Spider-Man can you be Peter Parker? It tackles Time and Mortality, Social Ostracism, Family Legacy, Loyalty to Family and Friends, Safety vs Being Happy, Sacrifice, Revenge as well as the usual Power & Responsibility Stuff. You'd think that because of this film has so many themes that it would be a deep, layered piece to unpack but some of those themes ultimately prove to be more interesting on paper than the way they're executed on screen. Too often the film isn't  naturally exploring its ideas through an organic character driven story.

When we see Peter Parker at the beginning of the picture, he thinks he can have it all, he thinks he can protect the city, be a hero, get the girl, all the jazz. But the world isn't like that. He has to fight crime, he has to stop the bad guys but at the same time he has an aunt (Aunt May) and a girlfriend (Gwen Stacy) and those relationships suffer as a result of his duty to serving the city.

We’ve already explored the idea of Peter trying to balance out his duel identities as Peter Parker and Spider-Man in Spider-Man 2. For instance, Peter and Gwen love each other, but Peter made a promise to George Stacy, Gwen's father that he would stop seeing Gwen and he made that promise not because George wants him to stop seeing Gwen, George has seen the dangers of a superhero life and knows and understands the consequences of being a superhero and what dangers Peter could put Gwen in danger and in asking Peter to stay away from her he wants to protect her.
But it's something that Peter Parker struggles with himself, he loves Gwen and she loves him, they're trying to find footing and see if they'll break their promise to Gwen's father which makes us as an audience wonder will they? or won't they?

Time and Mortality plays heavily into the arc of Harry Osborn. He’s dying from genetic disease passed on by his father through hereditary genes and his sense of desperation to cure it before it kills him as he’s living on borrowed time.

Safety vs Being Happy: Peter is in an impossible place with Gwen, he can’t decide if he’s more in the right to stay away from her to protect her from harm or stay with her and fly in the face of the promise he made to Cap. Stacy. He can’t make the decision because he’s constantly trying to do what’s right. If he and Gwen continue their relationship together, he’d be ignoring the last wishes of a man that he admired, feels somewhat responsible for getting killed as well as the father of the woman he loves. He risked her getting caught in the crossfire not just because his enemies might use her as leverage over him but also because Gwen won’t just sit by and let him go it alone. She’ll insist on getting involved in his missions. If he chooses not to be with her, then he forfeits his own happiness and hers. It may not be his responsibility to make her happy at the expense of his own happiness, but it also may not be his responsibility to keep her safe if she’s willing to take her own risks as well as unfair of him to not allow her to have what she wants especially when its in line with what he wants. Only because he’s afraid of taking the chance.

Another problem with The Amazing Spider-Man: Rise of Electro is that, like the first film, it never takes any risks or chances - it’s not lacking in ambitions but it almost fails to fulfil them and I'm sorry to say that this giant web of subplots brings back memories of Spider-Man 3; it's trying to do too many jobs at once and it never gives itself enough time to get even half of those jobs done.
The films screenplay is almost like a pizza with all of the classic topping piled on top of each other wether they make sense together or not. As a result, this makes the films pacing feel very weighed down and overlong at times because there is so much going on.

The films script is just so busy, it never really has time to develop or explore any of its storylines & characters it incites or introduces or answer any of the questions its predecessor raised.

Returning director Marc Webb's direction is confident, in spite of the convoluted screenplay, the cinematography is beautiful, the special effects are fantastic, the score by Hans Zimmer & The Magnificent Six is magnificent, the production design is brilliant, the costumes are colourful (with the exception of the Green Goblin), the action scenes are exciting, intense, expertly staged and well choreographed, there are some nice touches of humour, there are some impressive and creative use of slow mo, the make up is rich, the stunts are incredible, the suspense is killing

The acting is mostly good, the majority of the characters are very sympathetic and engaging - at various points throughout the film at other times, they seem to have muddled motivations and seem to perform actions purely because the film says so, so it get progress to the next plot point.

Andrew Garfield continues to impress as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, you really get a sense of vulnerability and inner struggles as he tries to balance his personal life, his duties as a superhero, his dilemma as to weather or not help Harry by giving him his blood to cure him of his disease and his lust for Gwen. His scenes with Gwen are genuinely touching and romantic and their relationship is portrayed very authentically.

Emma Stone is lovely and sensitive as Gwen Stacy, she loves Peter but she has her own agendas like going to Oxford and getting on with her life. She is also very independent and is willing to get involved in Peter's superhero life. She saves his life more than he saves her's and she's incredibly helpful and supportive to him. He's the muscle, she's the brains which is great.

Dane Dehaan is also great as Harry Osborn, unfortunately much like Electro, his motivations are too thinly veiled and contrived. He doesn’t like how Norman was never around him growing up and at the same time doesn’t want to become like him despite already being on the path to doing so even though its out of desperation rather than a thirst for power.
It doesn’t matter how much, wealth, power or influence that he has, it wont get him what he needs: A cure for his illness. When he finds out that he’s dying, he looks for a quick fix in Spider-Man’s blood which is reckless as well as irresponsible and insane but he’s so afraid of dying and angry at Oscorp’s board for shutting him out that he allows his rage to consume him, gets wrapped up in himself and becomes paranoid.
His scenes with Peter are very well executed and their friendship is very genuine on screen but they don’t quite come into their own as a dynamic duo. They put so much emphasis on their relationship despite the fact that we just met them. Ultimately, they struggle to fill in the void left by Tobey Maguire and James Franco.
His Green Goblin costume looks like a horrid patchwork and looks not at all scary.

Whilst Jamie Foxx is clearly giving the role a lot soul and dedication, Max Dillon/Electro makes for a pretty naff villain. The obsessive villain turns has become a trope that become that’s been done before and done so much better.
There are moments throughout the film when they really over do it on the awkward front which made him a little tedious as a character and he becomes an antagonist for all the wrong reasons.
Initially, the film leads you to believe they're going to go the Frankestein's monster route with him, but instead they go with something far sillier and more contrived.
Max wants to be noticed and loved but he's not willing to do what it takes to make that happen. He's anti-social, creepy and people don't like to be around him because he's so self absorbed and trying to hard.    He may be brilliant and it's sad that he's ignored, exploited and abused by the people around him but he doesn't seem to realise that he's standing in his own way and wants success without fighting for it. By the time he becomes Electro, he's to far gone and he isn't interested in complex human relationships only recognition. Then when he becomes even more delusional and gets jealous of Spider-Man for already having fame, he makes it all about fame and his powers entitle him to do that.
He also initially goes away almost as quickly as he appears after his first confrontation with Spider-Man is quickly resolved.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention, Paul Giamatti is also in this film playing Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino - No reason, he just is. He's literally in this film for what amounts to an extended, glorified cameo.
At least he looked like he was having fun putting on such a hammy Russian accent.

Disappointingly, Chris Cooper is also reduced to little more than a cameo as Norman Osborn. He serves as the catalyst for Harry's villain and that's essentially the begining and end of his character. He's a plot device and that's it.

Sally Field, Facility Jones, B.J. Novak and Colm Feore round out the cast with dedicated but wasted performances though Field manages to make the most of her limited screentime. Peter and May have a distinct rapport and Field expertly conveys that May is not an idiot and suspects that Peter is Spider-Man. But at the same time she give him space and lets him figure that part of his life out on his own until she makes it clear towards the end of the film that he should stop refusing the call.

Overall, there's a lot of stuff to like about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but there a lot of flaws present, 3.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.