"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" Review

Source

The first blockbuster of May is out and making a splash. We saw it last weekend, and after letting it marinate in my mind for a while, here are my thoughts.

You know, sometimes I am very against remakes of recent movies.  How can you really want to remake something that only came out 5-10 years ago?!  It's not like the movie is really that outdated.  Sure technology has changed but enough to warrant spending millions of dollars on making a movie that was just made?!  It's not like the movie needs updating to be relevant to current times or anything.

However, I would not wish away the Spider-Man reboot for anything.  Don't get me wrong, I saw all three of the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies in theaters, but if I had had those and the Andrew Garfield movies to choose between, I'd choose the newer ones every. single. time.

I absolutely love Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker.  He's hilarious.  I love the snarky-ness and general lack of worry that he brings to the character.  He doesn't take anything seriously, but he's also not a pretentious jerk about it.  He has a great personality to bring to Spider-Man.

And don't get me started on Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy.  Now, I don't know much (and by much, I mean anything) about the Spider-Man comics, but my husband tells me that the Gwen Stacy character isn't really a thing in the comics (or something like that...).  But I don't care.  I love love love Emma Stone.  She and Andrew have a great on screen relationship and their characters are quite perfect for each other.

Now that you know how I feel about the casting of the main characters, let's get down to the movie.

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that there was a heck of a lot going on in this movie.  There were plots and sub-plots galore.  And that makes sense since the flick was 2 hours and 20 minutes long.  It progressed well between the different parts of the sometimes seemingly unrelated events.  But, man!  There was a lot of plot.  A lot.  Don't get me wrong, a lot of plot can really work for a movie, but it also leaves you feeling like you just read a 600 page book in 2 hours.  It's a little overwhelming.

I did not like the introduction of new plot material in the last 10-15 minutes of the movie.  I know that they wanted you to know that a new Spider-Man movie would be in the works, and they like to give you some hints about what villains it will feature, but it was a bit much for me.  I felt like the last 10 minutes of the movie were a little disjointed.

If you're looking for a movie that will keep you entertained and on an emotional roller coaster for over two hours, you will definitely get your money's worth with this movie.  There were parts when I was laughing hysterically, parts when I gasped and held my breath, parts when I thought WHAT?!, action parts, love story parts...  You name it, and this movie probably had it.  However, don't expect to have it all processed right when you walk out of the theater.  There's a lot to digest.  And I can't say that I totally loved everything that the writers did, but overall, this was a solid movie.

If you decide to go see it, I really hope you enjoy!