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[191] Thwip thwip
So I finally got around to seeing The Amazing Spider-Man 2! And have thoughts?
Which is kinda surprising, in and of itself, I didn't have any real strong feelings about the first one one way or another. It was all right, and I didn't much think about it ever again after seeing it? But this one, man... I just don't know. For the most part, I felt the same about this one. Not a very good movie, but not terrible, and I enjoyed parts of it. But that ending, man. Or rather, one of those endings, because that was some serious Lord of the Rings style "oh my god, there's seriously more? how many times is it going to seem like the last scene?" going on.
Okay, first up, stuff I liked: Jamie Foxx! Completely unsure about how I feel about this weird take on Electro, but he fucking nailed whatever it was nevertheless, so great. The big action setpieces were a lot of fun, the whole Times Square sequence was phenomenal. Ummm, Garfield and DeHaan somehow having enough chemistry to make me buy their friendship in the... one scene they gave it? And of course COLM FEORE, MY MAN FOREVER. Seriously, back when he was rumoured to be playing Norman and then it turned out he was just some random dude, how could I have known that it would result in him getting twenty times as much screentime? Delightful.
Then there's the rest of it. I just don't understand this franchise? They straddle this bizarre line between not giving a shit about the source material (Electro, doing away with Norman entirely, Russian gangster Paul Giamatti and his pet transformer, etc. etc. etc.) and being really weirdly slavish to it (distancing itself from the original trilogy by having Gwen come first + web shooters, Richard and Mary all over the damn place, THAT FUCKING ENDING)? IT'S SO WEIRD, IDK. You can have movies that are relatively faithful to the comics and are amazing (the entire MCU), and you can have movies that don't give a shit about comic canon and are good on their own merits (the decent half of the X-Men films), but this strange half-and-half mush of faithfulness and random bullshit is just so odd to me.
But yes, anyway, there was way too much going on in that movie, and yet parts of it still managed to be aggressively boring and pointless, but whatever, if that was all there was to it, it would already be on my mind's backburner like the first one was. As it happens, though... I'm really fucking upset about Gwen dying?
WEIRD, RIGHT? IDEK. I always figured I'd be impressed if they did it when the whole Stonefield thing seems so bankable, but... fuck, that was terrible. Like, not the scene itself, that in a vacuum was quite well done, my heart was racing even though I knew how it was gonna end, but it was SO FUCKING POINTLESS? I just don't feel like it fit in with the rest of the movie at all? They beat Electro, it was big and climactic and satisfying, and then oooooh yeeeeeeah, Harry's a thing, too, we all forgot him in this jumbled mess of a film. And then this character that they've just spent two hours meticulously establishing as being smart and capable and useful and brave and chock-a-block full of her own agency gets snatched and damseled and killed.... why? The movie started with Peter being all "baaaaaaaw, I can't be with you because you might get hurt like ghost Leary, I must pull away" and then they worked through it and got over it and she proved herself and then.... NOPE, HE WAS ACTUALLY RIGHT ALL ALONG. GOSH, HOW VERY SATISFYING.
I don't thing it's as simple and dumb a matter as 'better fridge the love interest to angst things up'. Gwen dies because she dies in the comics. That's the only reason. This is just one of the random bits of canon they HAVE to be faithful to because The Night Gwen Stacy Died is just SO ICONIC, and how can they pass that up? Having a woman kick ass with science in the big final fight of your Spider-Man movie? That's cool. Having her be a co-lead in the franchise proper? Well, that's just not done. You couldn't possibly have her go to Oxford, have Peter go with her, and have ASM3 take place in England, because that would actually be unexpected and surprising, and if there's anything these movies are dead set against being? It's interesting and innovative (as further evidenced by that one "LOL A MILES MOVIE AS IF NEVER GONNA HAPPEN" interview that was just going around). So Gwen dies. Because she just fucking does, okay, read the damn comics. And ignore how hilariously different everything else is, SHE'S WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?
Other than a big action scene featuring Richard Parker, of course, who WASN'T clamouring for that?
In conclusion: The strange crush that Saving Mr. Banks somehow gave me for B.J. Novak lives on, Gwen is dead, long live Gwen, and Menken is definitely gonna be the Vulture in the next movie, right?
HAVE A POLL! Seriously, you guys? A three-way tie already? Dice roll says we're gonna cast a spell.
Which is kinda surprising, in and of itself, I didn't have any real strong feelings about the first one one way or another. It was all right, and I didn't much think about it ever again after seeing it? But this one, man... I just don't know. For the most part, I felt the same about this one. Not a very good movie, but not terrible, and I enjoyed parts of it. But that ending, man. Or rather, one of those endings, because that was some serious Lord of the Rings style "oh my god, there's seriously more? how many times is it going to seem like the last scene?" going on.
Okay, first up, stuff I liked: Jamie Foxx! Completely unsure about how I feel about this weird take on Electro, but he fucking nailed whatever it was nevertheless, so great. The big action setpieces were a lot of fun, the whole Times Square sequence was phenomenal. Ummm, Garfield and DeHaan somehow having enough chemistry to make me buy their friendship in the... one scene they gave it? And of course COLM FEORE, MY MAN FOREVER. Seriously, back when he was rumoured to be playing Norman and then it turned out he was just some random dude, how could I have known that it would result in him getting twenty times as much screentime? Delightful.
Then there's the rest of it. I just don't understand this franchise? They straddle this bizarre line between not giving a shit about the source material (Electro, doing away with Norman entirely, Russian gangster Paul Giamatti and his pet transformer, etc. etc. etc.) and being really weirdly slavish to it (distancing itself from the original trilogy by having Gwen come first + web shooters, Richard and Mary all over the damn place, THAT FUCKING ENDING)? IT'S SO WEIRD, IDK. You can have movies that are relatively faithful to the comics and are amazing (the entire MCU), and you can have movies that don't give a shit about comic canon and are good on their own merits (the decent half of the X-Men films), but this strange half-and-half mush of faithfulness and random bullshit is just so odd to me.
But yes, anyway, there was way too much going on in that movie, and yet parts of it still managed to be aggressively boring and pointless, but whatever, if that was all there was to it, it would already be on my mind's backburner like the first one was. As it happens, though... I'm really fucking upset about Gwen dying?
WEIRD, RIGHT? IDEK. I always figured I'd be impressed if they did it when the whole Stonefield thing seems so bankable, but... fuck, that was terrible. Like, not the scene itself, that in a vacuum was quite well done, my heart was racing even though I knew how it was gonna end, but it was SO FUCKING POINTLESS? I just don't feel like it fit in with the rest of the movie at all? They beat Electro, it was big and climactic and satisfying, and then oooooh yeeeeeeah, Harry's a thing, too, we all forgot him in this jumbled mess of a film. And then this character that they've just spent two hours meticulously establishing as being smart and capable and useful and brave and chock-a-block full of her own agency gets snatched and damseled and killed.... why? The movie started with Peter being all "baaaaaaaw, I can't be with you because you might get hurt like ghost Leary, I must pull away" and then they worked through it and got over it and she proved herself and then.... NOPE, HE WAS ACTUALLY RIGHT ALL ALONG. GOSH, HOW VERY SATISFYING.
I don't thing it's as simple and dumb a matter as 'better fridge the love interest to angst things up'. Gwen dies because she dies in the comics. That's the only reason. This is just one of the random bits of canon they HAVE to be faithful to because The Night Gwen Stacy Died is just SO ICONIC, and how can they pass that up? Having a woman kick ass with science in the big final fight of your Spider-Man movie? That's cool. Having her be a co-lead in the franchise proper? Well, that's just not done. You couldn't possibly have her go to Oxford, have Peter go with her, and have ASM3 take place in England, because that would actually be unexpected and surprising, and if there's anything these movies are dead set against being? It's interesting and innovative (as further evidenced by that one "LOL A MILES MOVIE AS IF NEVER GONNA HAPPEN" interview that was just going around). So Gwen dies. Because she just fucking does, okay, read the damn comics. And ignore how hilariously different everything else is, SHE'S WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?
Other than a big action scene featuring Richard Parker, of course, who WASN'T clamouring for that?
In conclusion: The strange crush that Saving Mr. Banks somehow gave me for B.J. Novak lives on, Gwen is dead, long live Gwen, and Menken is definitely gonna be the Vulture in the next movie, right?
HAVE A POLL! Seriously, you guys? A three-way tie already? Dice roll says we're gonna cast a spell.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4
Which spell will you use against the Master of Wolves?