Wednesday, 9 April 2014
The movie's over-abundance of villains is made up for with on-screen chemistry and savvy direction.
The Amazing-Spider Man 2 is out in the UK on April 16, more than two weeks ahead of its US premiere. However, thanks to the magic of press screenings, the reviews for it have already made their way online – most of them positive.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Leslie Felperin is mostly impressed with Garfield’s second outing with Spider-Man, even if the film is a bit too packed with villains. “The eponymous hero hits his super-heroic stride here, as does Andrew Garfield in the role, especially when Spider-Man's alter ego Peter Parker learns there's always some fine print in a contract with this many benefits,” Felperin writes. “Likeable as a lollipop” Emma Stone also gets a commendation, as does Jamie Foxx, playing a perfectly maniacal, pushed to the brink Electro: “Even under all the prosthetic make-up and visual effects, Foxx manages to project a literally white-hot rage and damaged psyche that threatens to upstage the core romantic plot about Peter and Gwen's relationship.”
Variety’s Guy Lodge is also a fan of Foxx’s “naturally dynamic presence” which never quite seems to fit his wallflower of a character. According to this review, Foxx, Garfield and Stone work together so well, that they almost make up for the fact that this Spider-Man reboot comes less than a decade after Sam Raimi’s Spider Man 3, making the whole effort somewhat redundant.
This time around, the action moves out of Peter Parker's bedroom, high school and Oscorp to feature more of New York.
The Guardian’s Xan Brooks points to Marc Webb’s expert direction as the main reason that this Spider-Man sequel works. Besides heaping praise for the actors (noticing a pattern here?) the Guardian’s review points to Webb’s decision to reinvent Peter Parker, his parents and his childhood story “Bloodlines, after all, must adapt in order to survive and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 seems to know exactly what it's doing. Webb's film is bold and bright and possesses charm in abundance. It swings into the future and carries the audience with it.”
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