Spidey vs. 'Merica!

Rating: 2/10 (3 May 2014)

The new Spider-Man film, while exciting and cool, is actually worse than Spider-Man 3. I am a huge fan of the Spider-Man films, but this one simply bites off more than it can chew. If we stack TASM2 (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) against CATWS (Captain America: The Winter Solider), Cap actually comes out on top. CATWS is not a perfect film. It is loud and violent, and maybe overstays its' welcome by a half hour, but it is also tighter and more focused than it's competitor. The reason Cap works so well is because it follows only one or two story arcs and sees them through until the end of the film. Only once the loose ends have been resolved does the film leave a door open for the sequel. Spidey drops breadcrumbs throughout its' bloated 140-minute running time, and actually leaves you with more questions by the end instead of answers. The effects in CATWS are more practical, with the majority of the action scenes consisting of urban warfare that would make Jason Bourne proud. Spidey's action is a bit more jarring and inconsistent. It doesn't really fit with the amusing and moving scenes with Garfield and Stone that are few and far between. While the principal actors are good in Spidey, particularly Dane DeHaan, the film sacrifices emotion at the expense of explosions. I love explosions as much as the next guy, but they have to be justified or they are just plain stupid. Cap focuses more on character development and as a result you are much more invested in the story by the time the fireworks come into play. Speaking of story, it is so much easier to summarize CATWS. A brief summary of the film would probably look like this: "In this film Steve Rodgers confronts a corrupt government organization who is using an old friend of his as a brainwashed assassin." Done. Comparatively, TASM2 is about "Peter Parker's fading relationship with Gwen Stefani--I mean--Stacy, the growing conspiracy at Oscorp, the mysterious death of Peter's parents, Harry Osborne's rushed return and transformation into the Green Goblin, the completely unnecessary and "unrelatable" presentation of Electro--who has no justifiable motivation to kill Spider-Man, the shoehorning of The Rhino that bookends the film..." And the list goes on and on. The problem with Spidey is that it tries to do too much and trips at the finish line. You'd think Sony would have learned their lesson after Spider-Man 3. Three villains is just too many. I also thought that Redford, Jackson, and especially Anthony Mackie were much more compelling in Captain America 2 than the characters in Spidey 2. Of course, they had more material to work with. Ultimately, TASM2 seals its' own fate by failing to take a page out of Spider-Man 3's book, and Cap 2 succeeds by going back to basics and focusing on one story that (unlike Spidey 2) is actually concluded satisfactorily in the end. Captain America: The Winter Soldier all but exceeds your expectations, but unfortunately The Amazing Spider-Man 2 just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Do yourself a favor and skip the latter.