The Amazing Gwen Stacy

Rating: 6/10 (17 June 2015)

Two years after Marc Webb ("500 Days of Summer") relaunched the Spider-Man franchise with Andrew Garfield, he released the second movie. This was also the last one as they probably weren't too happy with the movie not even reaching the Top10 of the year in terms of box office success. They did not make it to three like Sam Raimi did before him and I read about another relaunch coming soon, possibly starring Asa Butterfield from "Hugo". Anyway, in the last movie Gwen Stacy's dad died and here, in the end, it is her who has to go. A pretty bold movie getting rid of a central character, but maybe they were also very certain that there would be no third movie. Also, right now, Emma Stone is a much bigger star than her boyfriend Andrew Garfield. Garfield was freshly back from almost scoring an Oscar nomination for "The Social Network" during the relaunch, but he has become slightly less significant by now, maybe because he is not really making (m)any other films apart from Spidey. Stone on the other hand just managed her first Oscar nomination for her work in Best Picture winner "Birdman". This movie here has a couple more actors who had great success with the Academy in the past, such as winners Sally Field (twice) and Jamie Foxx and nominees Paul Giamatti and Felicity Jones. Jones was actually wasted in this movie. She really has a bit of a nothing role. I am not sure what they were doing here, if they intended to slowly build her up as Parker's love interest in a 3rd film or why they cast her here. Then again, she wasn't as famous as she is today when this was made.
Giamatti also has a pretty small role as a bald Russian mobster, but he was lots of fun actually, especially in the final scene. He plays the least significant out of three antagonists. The other two are played by Jamie Foxx and Dane DeHaan, who looks a lot like the young Leonardo DiCaprio here. However, he was occasionally over the top and hurt the portrayal of Parker's formally best friend this way. Foxx did an okay job, but his character's story about being invisible, not really existing could have been depicted in a more heartbreaking manner. The "Happy Birthday to Me" scene was a good inclusion though. In general, I wonder why they have to go with more than one villain. Actually, the entire film centering around Electro and completely without Osborn would have been a preferred choice for me, especially given the fact that Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin is almost impossible to improve. At least they understood it with Simmons' Jonah Jameson that they cannot top him and did without the character or, to be more precise, only mentioned him occasionally. It's no problem if the movie runs for considerably under 2 hours then, just get some more focus and clarity in there instead of including too many story lines. There's no need for this film to make it to 140 minutes. And even with this running time, the ending feels really rushed. There is so much happening in so little time after Stacy's death. Spider-Man decides not to be a superhero anymore, then goes back to his altruist ways in the end. There have been entire Spider-Man movies about these changes in character in the past.
Anyway, it is very similar to other Spidey films in general. OSCORP plays a crucial role again as always. Seems like there always goes something wrong over there. The movie has many biological and scientific references and Stan Lee also gets his usual cameo. The final battle scene with Electro/Green Goblin and Parker did not do too much for me, but it was saved by the emotional impact of Gwen Stacy's death near the end. Taking everything into account, I'm tempted to say this film is more about her than about everybody's favorite spider. A decent watch, but nothing really outstanding. Recommended.