The Amazing Spiderman 2 is a love story and an unprecedented superhero spectacle.
Most female characters in superhero movies are simply required to look good, scream when kidnapped and push a button or solve a puzzle at some point. Their presence is purely ornamental and they only appear when the director wishes to control the pace of the movie. But Emma Stone's character Gwen Stacy in the new Spiderman movie is different.
I am not saying she doesn't scream loud enough when kidnapped by the Green Goblin... she also solves a puzzle and pushes a button by the way, but she has a much bigger part in Marc Webb's latest superhero outing, or I could go further and say that she is at the very center of The Amazing Spiderman 2's web of intrigue and action.
The story begins with Peter Parker being tormented by his promise to stay away from his girlfriend. Throughout the film the high school graduate is seen going back and forth between keeping her safe and keeping her by his side. Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield both put on a great show of unrelenting love, almost making a chick flick out of a comic adaptation.
But I only realized what the main plot was all about after the film was over. During the movie itself all I was thinking about was how I was getting such great value for money from my ticket with all the mind-blowing action scenes, which come one after another. First there is the sheer number of villains. One by one, spidey goes up against Electro, the Green Goblin and Rhino, with the webbed wonder's encounters with Electro being the most striking.
Then there is the spectacle element of the whole thing. The previous Spiderman franchise starring Tobey Maguire consisted of actions films at best, but the reboot films with cutting-edge CGI technology are comic book adaptations in the real sense. While watching Electro exhibiting his power with vibrant and colorful electric discharges, I couldn't help but start to wonder how the little web-crawler would defeat such a seemingly invincible opponent. Well, he just slings himself around and eventually makes a breakthrough.
The hopping and slinging shots also look remarkably real, I mean I knew it was shot and produced in a studio, but that knowledge never stopped me from enjoying the movements on screen, and I was amazed at how convincing the images could get.
For regular sci-fi lovers, "The Amazing Spiderman 2" might seem a bit long, with all the romantic elements getting in the way. But if you prepare yourself for a romantic chick flick, you'll be duly rewarded with many pleasant surprises.