I think Captain America: The Winter Soldier may have just spoiled the summer market. It had set such high standards so early in the season that every other superhero movies is going to pale in comparison.
Sony had pumped in crazy numbers in marketing to promote this sequel. Did they truly believe that this movie is a great one or were they doing whatever they could to pull people in because they knew this wasn't as good as the first one? Interesting.
Let's start with the visual effects. Spider-Man swinging across the city and all those awesome action sequences we saw in the trailers, they were there and more. Though I would argue that we saw too much in the trailers because there were so many of them. Nevertheless, a step up from the first installment of the series which I just watched a night ago.
Next, performances by Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Sally Field and even Chris Cooper and Denis Leary; who had small roles; were great. Especially Sally Field who delivered when she had to in the emotional scenes. In the overall grand scheme of things, she made me feel when a lot of times the movie didn't.
DeHaan also gave new life to the character Harry Osborn. I didn't miss James Franco at all though I wouldn't say he's above Franco. His angst and frustration were emoted very clearly that he commands your attention when he became his alter ego. I would have liked more plays on his relationship with Garfield's character but their back-and-forth was also fun to watch. Not to mention also Harry and his father's that one scene was also powerfully done.
What about Jamie Foxx? He lost all his charisma to play the first character as required, before becoming Electro, in which there's not much acting involved with his face. Not his fault that he didn't shine in his role but it was what it was.
Garfield and Stone had fantastic chemistry and romantic moments in which director Marc Webb - who I have come to believe is so skilled and adept at it - had so beautifully weaved out in his storytelling for the couple. The story between the two lovers felt very much like a whole this time. I'm not sure, though, of the Michael Bay / Transformers' style of inserting background music on those sweet moments to up the emotional impact, but Webb is a master of onscreen relationships.
Stone was the best thing in this movie, not just her portrayal as a beautiful and witty leading lady but I really loved the way her character was always so insightful and always understanding Peter Parker. That quality I found of her was very attractive.
So what went wrong? A lot of people like to blame it on the number of villains, that it was overcrowded. That is rubbish. There were only 3 villains as compared to other franchise like X-Men for instance. Furthermore, to be exact, it was only 2 and 1/3. Rhino was almost non-existence except for a quick introduction with Paul Giamatti, who didn't have a lot to do.
The only thing to blame was on was plot points. There was one too many plot points that dragged the movie a little too long or couldn't put in more focus on other plot points.
I would remove the entire plot point about Peter's father and how he was searching for him. That would have lighten the load. And the extra time could be used to develop DeHaan's plot point better, for instance Harry and Peter's relationship, or when Harry had to rush into the facility for a certain jailbreak.
As great as Webb is, I don't think he could really pull off something as intricate and complicated as this. And the complications came from the writing team who lost their way when they increased the intensity to outdo themselves on the first one.
It's a shame really, as this sequel was supposed to be Spider-Man's version of The Dark Knight. While the potential was there, the execution didn't pull through.
And here's a little bit more thoughts but it could be a spoiler to the non-comic book fans.
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So I woke up this morning and after a while, I remembered the last Gwen Stacy scene. Even after a night, I could still feel Peter's pain. I could still feel that desperation and anguish. Even though I knew this was how it all ends, when it happened I still found myself holding my breath and not believing my eyes.
This was a testament to how well Webb was at telling a love story, reminiscent of his (500) Days Of Summer.
I said earlier that if they had taken out a plot point, they could do more somewhere else. One would be when Harry went in to the facility to break Electro out, he did it with such ease through the security guards when this should have been a heavily armed fort. That was a bad storytelling, taking the very easy way out.
I didn't quite enjoy Electro's origin. Falling into a tank with electric eels was too cliche and suited more for the Sam Raimi's version. Webb's version was meant to be more modern and more grounded, at least on the first installment.
Lastly, Rhino looked completely silly in that armoured suit.
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