The Amazing Spider-Man (The Movies)

[Milo]

Looks to me like the film is getting very mixed reviews. I'm checking IMDB's ASM2 message board and most of the people who saw it at the premiere say it was disappointing. But it is mixed since some people enjoyed it too. *shrug*

 

Oh and

Gwen does die at the end.

 

 

Oh wow, the entire world never saw that coming.

[Milo]

Currently at 76% now at RT, with 13 fresh and 4 rotten. For reference, the first movie is at 73% (Certified Fresh) on the site (206 pos./77 neg.). I assume the movie's final aggregate score will hover somewhere around this percentage.

[Jacky]

New clip is out

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturevideo/filmvideo/10765528/The-Amazing-Spider-Man-2-clip-debuts-at-2014-MTV-Movie-Awards.html


Dat Spider Sense. I lovveeeee how they've pretty much nailed down the way Spidey moves about.

[The Tenth Doctor]

Looks to me like the film is getting very mixed reviews. I'm checking IMDB's ASM2 message board and most of the people who saw it at the premiere say it was disappointing. But it is mixed since some people enjoyed it too. *shrug*

 

Oh and

Gwen does die at the end.

Oh snap. What a cracking twist. Hate to break it to people who are unaware of it. How many more neck breaking puns can I work in, who knows.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Producers talk about the Venom Spinoff

http://screenrant.com/venom-movie-carnage-rumors/

 

‘Spider-Man’ Producers Talk Carnage Appearance in ‘Venom’ Movie

 

Published by Kofi Outlaw

If you’re not yet primed and ready for the 2014 summer movie season, you should probably know that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is going to be opening the door to a very big Spider-Man movie universe, which will try to distinguish itself from competitors by offering audiences spinoff films focusing on villain/anti-hero characters, rather than traditional superhero origin stories. The supervillain team-up film Sinister Six is something of a wild card, but fans have been eagerly waiting a LONG time to get a movie starring Spider-Man nemesis Venom – an event that’s finally coming to pass.

Like with Sinister Six, there are so many questions still surrounding Sony’s approach to a Venom film franchise – namely, what kind of story do you tell in order to provide audiences with the sort of bad boy they can rally behind for a solo film, and will be willing to follow into future sequels? Well, one way most hardcore fans have observed would be to employ a particular character from Spider-Man comics: Venom’s other nemesis, Carnage.

 

For those who don’t know Spider-Man lore, there are different versions of the characters Venom and Carnage depending on the telling; however, since much of The Amazing Spider-Man universe seems to rely on the continuity of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books, we’ll discuss those versions first. (Especially since it’s already been strongly hinted that Venom symbiote is indeed the property of Oscorp, like in Ultimate comics – SEE ABOVE PHOTO.)

In the Ultimate universe, Venom is created as a special organic suit developed at Oscorp by Richard Parker (Peter’s dad) and Eddie Brock Sr, as a means to cure cancer. Peter and Eddie Brock Jr. (childhood friends in this versioin) end up bonding with samples of the Venom suit, resulting in the Ultimate versions of black-suit Spidey and Venom. Things later take a further turn when samples of Peter’s blood (containing Venom suit DNA) and Curt Connors/The Lizard’s blood are mixed together, resulting in a vampiric entity known as Carnage. Ultimate Carnage kills Gwen Stacy and takes her form (amongst others, T-100-style), until Spider-Man finally defeats it.

At this point it’s clear that not everything in the Amazing Spider-Man universe will be borrowed directly from the Ultimate continuity, so it definitely bears mentioning that the traditional version of Carnage is actually a serial killer named Cletus Kasady – someone who has already been introduced into the Amazing Spider-Man Movie Universe, via recent viral marketing. Fans tend to love the Cletus Kasady version – and serial killers are en vogue at the moment – but that’s not to say that the shape-shifting Ultimate Carnage (which takes on the appearance of Peter Parker’s deceased loved ones) is not without its own charm.

Given the opportunities and seeds already planted into this film universe, you wouldn’t even have to limit yourself to just one of these versions: there’s room for bad symbiotes to have many (or no hosts)! However, the recent Venom short film does have us curious if a hard-boiled crime story about a reporter with a dark secret hunting down a serial killer with a dark secret isn’t a perfect fit in this era of Hannibal and The Following. It would at least be something different from the genre.

Check out Amazing Spider-Man 2 producers Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad discussing the Carnage possibilities in a Venom movie (via IGN):

The Venom movie is being written by Amazing Spider-Man 2 scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, working alongside co-writer Ed Solomon (Now You See Me); Kurtzman will also direct the film, his second directorial feature project after People Like Us. That creative team has sparked some debate and criticism (especially those who don’t care for Orci/Kurtzman’s work on films like Star Trek Into Darkness), but Tolmach’s coy answer seems to indicate that A) They already have a Venom/Carnage scenario in mind, and they’re confident that it (and the movie, conceptually,) will be something to behold.

…And with that we add yet another brick of pressure on the back of Amazing Spider-Man 2. Early Reviews (read HERE) have been slanting on the positive side so far, generally speaking, but there have been pointed criticisms as well – especially in the area of the script and story. Narrative, themes, characterization… these are all things that these experimental supervillain films are really going to have to nail down – especially if Spider-Man presence will be minimal in those flicks.

As for the Venom movie: I believe I can risk speaking for many fans when I say that a Carnage/Venom showdown is what we want to see. More to the point: Carnage is a great way to prop-up a Venom movie, as Cletus Kasady’s (or the symbiote’s) homicidal chaos and sadism is a much darker reflection of what Eddie Brock/Venom could be, if not for his vaunted (but twisted) moral code about not harming what he deems to be “innocents.” If you want to sell an anti-hero to the public, compare him to a much worse alternative.

Although: Amazing Spider-Man 3 will need to a good job of getting through the Venom introduction, if this Venom solo film hopes to have the freedom to really get into things like second symbiotes.

 

[turbojet]

Carnage is what Eddie should have been if it weren't for 90s comic book fanboy obsession for Anti-heroes. Venom should have stayed a fucking villain. 

[Brad]

Currently standing at 83% with 23 reviews, RT summary is

 

Thanks to Marc Webb's confident directing and talented cast, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 entertains in spite of its crowded canvas and occasionally stilted narrative.

 

I wanna see ittttt~

[turbojet]

There is no reason why this movie is good. No reason at all.

[Carbo]

That's an oddly low review cap for a consensus, particularly for something that's going to stand at around 250 reviews when all is said and done. Most movies don't get one until the 50 review mark and only two top critics have weighed in so far.

[Brad]

I was wondering that myself. I guess it could have been done early because it's coming out tomorrow over here in the UK? Not sure.

[Conando]

So will there EVER be a chance that Marvel film studios actually gets Spider-Man back? I'm getting kind of sick of Sony cocking it up.

[Milo]

So will there EVER be a chance that Marvel film studios actually gets Spider-Man back? I'm getting kind of sick of Sony cocking it up.

 

Only way I could see it happening is if Disney traded a equally (if not more) lucrative IP to Sony in exchange for the Spider-Man IP.

 

Even if the film becomes a failure with critics and (core) Spider-Man fans, it will undeniably be a commercial success with general audiences (unless word-of-mouth is really unfavorable to the point that the film bombs, then maybe Marvel could accuse Sony of poorly handling the IP and force them to give it up if the rights to the Spider-Man film IP allow Marvel to do such a thing).

[Agie]

There could be a chance, but first, either the situation Gabe stated would have to happen, or something else causes Sony to not want to make Spider-Man films anymore. Who knows?

[Willsy]

Why don't Disney very kindly ask SEGA to approach Sony and let them use Sonic instead?

Actually no, I want Sonic to be in Wreck It Ralph 2. Maybe if the films keep on getting lukewarm reviews, Marvel will demand the rights back? I hope they would keep Garfield though. I really like him.

[Brad]

When the films stop racking in money, they'll lose interest in the IP and negotiate to give it back. But I can't imagine a day where a Spider-Man film doesn't bring in tons of money. The franchise is too valuable to Sony right now anyway considering their financial position.

 

The only other way I imagine is Disney negotiate a crazy deal but I doubt they need to since they have other things like TV rights under their wing, and obviously the huge Avengers franchise.

[kboyrulez12345]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lHIhnpQ6cc&list=UUxb9vxwXJRI2ewsw7Dj8vgw

 

So according to SevenWebHeads, who is a major Spider Man fan, and who saw the movie today, there were some parts cut from the trailers and some parts changed around again...

 

What in the world? This is the second time Sony has done that. I would have imagined that they would have time to better prepare themselves for the sequel to not cut material from the trailers again. Strange.

[SilentDoom]

Went to see this first today (I'm honestly kind of confused as to why we quite often get super hero movies before the US but hey I can't complain) and found it to be pretty solid and enjoyable.  Not quite up there with Captain America The Winter Soldier but worth a watch.  I absolutely loved the action sequences.  They're crazy stylised and over the top but still incredibly detailed and very well shot such that it's almost never unclear as to what's happening.  Spidey's fight scenes against Electro were definitely the highlights, as they were simply captivating to watch in motion.  The visual portrayal of Spider-Man in this film, in my opinion, was absolutely spot on.  His suit is beautiful and looks like it was taken straight out the comics (seriously though the costume designer for his costume did an impeccable job) and the way he soars, flips and swings is just done in such an artful way.  The other element of Spidey's portrayal I really loved was just how he sympathised with his city.  The film really gave a sense that he didn't just save the people of the city because he was obligated to, but because he enjoyed doing so.  Whilst he knew it was his responsibility, he expressed a real sense of compassion for the city and its people.

 

The other main triumph of this film were Andrew Garfield's and Emma Stone's performances as Peter and Gwen and the relationship between the two.  The way the two interact with each other, especially given the context of their respective situations, was really well written and both of them gave really strong performances.  The chemistry between the two was even stronger here than in the first film, and miles stronger than anything between Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in the Sam Raimi films.  Dane Dehaan and Jamie Foxx also gave really solid performances as well.

 

My main issues with the film lay in the rather clumsy script and pacing as well as how much the tone of the film overall tends to fluctuate.  Unlike in Captain America, for example, where humour is quite cleverly injected into what its overall quite strong, stern tone; Spidey 2 doesn't quite know what kind of tone it wants to adopt.  The script and pacing were probably at their worst in the last 20 odd minutes of the film, as what should have been the most climatic part of the film felt a little rushed in areas, particularly in the final fight (which also wasn't particularly well shot or choreographed).

 

Still I enjoyed it for the most part.  As I said, not as good as Cap 2 but a fun film to watch nonetheless. 

[Brad]

Saw the movie a few hours ago. I could be in the minority here, but this film was seriously brilliant for me. My worry about the movie being a clusterfuck were thankfully relieved as every plot thread the movie had was told naturally and solidly, nothing really feeling out of place. The human element Webb brings to the romantic dynamic of Peter and Gwen is still amazing, and everyone's performances were top notch here. Garfield continues to be the better of the two Spideys we've had on screen for me, and Stone is a wonderful Stacy. I have issues with some elements such as Peter and Harry's relationship still feeling relatively underdeveloped and Max Dillon's situation feeling... slightly unrealistic?

 

Some highlights for me:

• Action scenes were top notch, and so were the swinging sequences through New York. Super entertaining to see. 
• The costume is basically perfect. I see no reason to change it anymore.
• Zimmer's soundtrack was a particular surprise for me. Spider-Man's new theme is ace.
• Humour didn't feel forced anymore, it felt naturally delivered and in line with what I expect from Spider-Man.
• Strong world building, setting up characters and locations future instalment casually. Even if it's for Sony's money grabbing eyes.
• Peter's family. Aunt May and Peter's scenes were great and the continuing mystery of Peter's Dad was delivered in a non-disruptive and interesting way.

Honestly, I think this film captured what I've wanted from a Spider-Man film for a looooong time. It's not without fault but it's probably the most energetic and enjoyable Spider-Man films I felt fully engaged in.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Saw the movie a few hours ago. I could be in the minority here, but this film was seriously brilliant for me. My worry about the movie being a clusterfuck were thankfully relieved as every plot thread the movie had was told naturally and solidly, nothing really feeling out of place. The human element Webb brings to the romantic dynamic of Peter and Gwen is still amazing, and everyone's performances were top notch here. Garfield continues to be the better of the two Spideys we've had on screen for me, and Stone is a wonderful Stacy. I have issues with some elements such as Peter and Harry's relationship still feeling relatively underdeveloped and Max Dillon's situation feeling... slightly unrealistic?

 

Some highlights for me:

• Action scenes were top notch, and so were the swinging sequences through New York. Super entertaining to see. 
• The costume is basically perfect. I see no reason to change it anymore.
• Zimmer's soundtrack was a particular surprise for me. Spider-Man's new theme is ace.
• Humour didn't feel forced anymore, it felt naturally delivered and in line with what I expect from Spider-Man.
• Strong world building, setting up characters and locations future instalment casually. Even if it's for Sony's money grabbing eyes.
• Peter's family. Aunt May and Peter's scenes were great and the continuing mystery of Peter's Dad was delivered in a non-disruptive and interesting way.

Honestly, I think this film captured what I've wanted from a Spider-Man film for a looooong time. It's not without fault but it's probably the most energetic and enjoyable Spider-Man films I felt fully engaged in.

So Goblin wasnt a hobo then? because thats what we were getting worried about

[Carbo]

So.

It's no secret that I hated the original TASM. Walking out of the theaters of that movie at first left me relatively okay about it, only for it to come crashing down when I really thought harder about it, something which only The Dark Knight Rises holds the dubious honors of alongside it. Walking out of the theaters for the second movie I don't really have that impression but it kind of made me think a little bit about things. If Raimi detractors were ones to condemn the original movies purely on the basis that the movies were just too damn corny, TASM2 ought to be an interesting movie to dissect because compared to the first TASM, the sequel opts for a tone that really has me believe someone shuffled the creative team around completely during it's sequel's inception.

TASM2 is a stupid movie, and quite frankly a bit of a disjointed mess. Actually scratch that - it's a completely disjointed mess. And yet somehow, I'm actually pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. Which is to say, instead of expecting it to be awful it's merely decent.

From a structural perspective the one thing I hated most about the original TASM is the fact that there is little to nothing memorable about it in terms of what it could provide as a Spider-Man movie or what it could even do as a Peter Parker movie. The former barely gets any screentime worth speaking of to justify any sort of bold new take on the action which Spider-Man should provide, with the only exception being his web swinging (which paved way for the fucking moronic crane scene making a huge deal of Spidey's attach points which, ironically, don't make a lick of difference in this movie). The latter is a mess of a character who can never settle on a concrete personality which made it hard to relate to the hero or even feel like being Peter Parker was supposed to be someone desirable.

TASM2 does very little to fix the latter and if the movie has any weaknesses this is where it already gets into play early on in the movie. The movie's predecessor did a haphazard job in painting up the romance between Peter and Gwen as anything more than pandering to a modern audience who are into the "romantic bad ass dudes" (not a criticism towards Gwen's character more than it is a criticism towards the movie itself painting a narrative where Peter's stalker attitude can be excused as "chemistry" between characters). Since then the movie changed it's screenwriters to Kurtzman and Orci, most notably responsible for their work on Transformers, and quite honestly, it shows. This hyped up chemistry between characters in this movie basically amounts to multiple scenes that are in concept no different from the romantic sub plot in Revenge of The Fallen. The scenes effectively waste a lot of the movie's running time in order to show characters pretending like they don't want to be with one another and so many of them are completely redundant. I don't care much for Kirsten Dunst in the original trilogy but when she put her foot down in Spider-Man 2 to move on with her life and refused to do any second guesses during Peter's desperation, the lack of any interaction between the two and her being serious about it meant more, because the hero is suffering the consequences for his lack of conviction. Here the movie retreads the same "I can't be with you" shtick within the first 20 minutes which the last movie implied that it was done with, and they still go on acting like they're a couple afterwards because of how much interaction they get, some of it even being by sheer coincidence. There's an incredible lack of subtlety, even if it plays with the idea of it - particularly with how many photos Peter looks at every once in a while, which elicit more of a reaction than anything else involving words.

Where TASM2 improves substantially over it's predecessor though, it's with the former - Spider-Man himself. If you're in the movie just for the sake of seeing Spider-Man be Spider-Man, you can't really go wrong with it. The movie is substantially making up for it's lack of action in it's predecessor here and amping things up pretty well. Spidey has no more stupid excuses for not web swinging and goes all out with his movements. Despite the sometimes awkward video game styled CGI, when the movie gets going, it provides a lot of thrills. If it weren't for The Winter Soldier coming out just recently, this movie might have had the best comic book-styled action to show in a movie, as long as it would ditch those tacky as hell lens flares. Obviously, a lot of it is undermined by the fact that we've seen so much of it in trailers and I didn't take it lightly how all these latest months we've basically seen the entire movie with how much it's showing off. But the movie sets up some cinematic fun regardless, partially thanks to Zimmer's score. If I hope this movie, and The Winter Soldier, teaches Hollywood anything, it's that you don't need overly orchestrated scores to set a good scene. Adding an action pumped soundtrack with other instrumental focus adds onto the feeling of a comic book that's come alive. The electronic chops give some good vibes here and there, a lot of which makes Electro a relative scene stealer. And surprise surprise, Spidey is actually kind of funny in this one, not just Batman with a cornier sense of humor.

So what about everything else? I was worried about the villain divide. In a way my worries were kind of justified but not the way I expected it to be. Rhino really does take a backseat and despite the kind of character he's meant to be he's treated more like a punchline to a joke, so in the grand scheme of things he's largely expendable. However, his inclusion makes me question why Sony thought he deserved equal billings to the other villains. In fact, if they kept him under wraps his inclusion would have been a pretty pleasant surprise despite the fact that he has guns now.

Electro has a fun powerset in the movie which is easily cause for the more interesting action scenes, but as is the case with a lot of other elements in this movie the character himself is... kind of stupid. I actually made fun of his villain motivation a while ago and I still think that stands, but I didn't know the tragedy of his character would be played up to this kind of degree, and to me that attributes to a whole lot of why I think this movie is a complete cheese fest. Each consequence or development in this movie is played up to levels where it's plainly obvious that the creators want you to think "this is important" for any sort of twist to come later in the movie. The character is not only mentally fucked in the head but it is ridiculous how Max is treated with such abandon. Before his transformation I actually told myself "I'm literally watching a movie where Sony paid top billings in order to get Jamie Foxx on set to be treated like he's road side trash".

I've said once that Electro's depiction in this movie could, given the circumstances, have taken the forefront of this movie. His build-up screams "character arc" and for the most of the part the craziness of him is endearing in a way, because it reminds me of Sandman in Spider-Man 3 - a bit of an Anti-Villain who you kind of hope gets a proper sendoff. Unfortunately, much like Spider-Man 3, that gets completely thrown to the side when Green Goblin enters the scene. Literally, he is this movie's weakest link and a complete scene stealer in the worst possible way. Dane DeHaan is decent enough as Harry on his own but as Goblin he feels literally shoved into the movie in the last minute with a weak as hell justification, not only robbing the focus of Electro but also just doing a huge disservice to the character itself.

As for other side notes; the mystery behind Peter's parents feels like it's in here just for the sake of wanting to wrap it up. It still adds literally nothing to the plot but I'm glad that it's actually done and dusted. I'm glad that Aunt May is finally pulling some weight here and actually being a good, endearing character. She's not reaching Rosemary Harris levels yet, but a scene near the end of the movie gets her close. And also the product placement was dumb.

Overall The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is completely all over the place in terms of what it does right and what it does wrong. The things it does right it does better than it's predecessor and the things it does wrong it kind of does even worse, but for me that's a much preferable result which generally had me enjoying the movie a bit more than I expected. The biggest crime TASM really did for me was just be boring (in the dark, damp and dreary way), and for me that is really the biggest offense a movie can possibly do, because I'd have a much better time enjoying myself if I went in to watch a movie that's so bad it's good rather than wasting my time. But TASM2 provides some interesting thrills on different levels with a more colorful direction and visual design, and the good parts of the movie are pretty fun to behold. It's overall a marked improvement over it's predecessor, because instead of feeling like a boring cash grab it feels like this movie actually had some effort gone into it. My main problem boils down it's inconsistency in terms of showing the good parts and the bad, a lot of which doesn't serve a lot of purpose, which considering the credentials should be expected of Orci and Kurtzman. But if nothing else, it was nice to see a movie where Spider-Man actually looks and acts like Spider-Man, and in an ideal world, if a Spider-Man movie could combine Webb's sensibilities for an action hero's edge with Raimi's creative talent for depicting scenes where we're just following the every day life of some regular guy, I think that would have made for a damn good Spider-Man movie.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

So from the general consensus in this thread so far, it sounds like TASM 2 is pretty damn good and not as disjointed as we feared out to be.

Now it comes down to actually seeing it for myself.

[Sami]

Carbo didn't hate it...

I'm gonna love the shit out if this aren't I?

[Brad]

So Goblin wasnt a hobo then? because thats what we were getting worried about

 

No, Goblin actually had a kinda cool backstory to how he ends up the way he is. The only issue is it doesn't pack the punch it should because Peter and Harry's friendship is underdeveloped in the movie. There's only one sequence they feel like "friends".

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

SO I guess they don't pull a "Norman Osborn youth-i-fied and in disguise is 'Harry Osborn' "after all. Ah well.

[Brad]

No, though I wouldn't put it past still being a possibility I guess. Movie spoilers -

 

Norman Osborn dies early in the film, but that could have been faked, who knows? Maybe Norman just wanted out of the lime light. But Harry is the Goblin for now, the way he looks is a response to his illness, hence why the costume looks so... organic.