Film Preview: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Poster

Trailer Link

Release Date:

May 2, 2014

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Peter Parker runs the gauntlet as the mysterious company Oscorp sends up a slew of supervillains against him, impacting on his life.”

Poster: B (3) / D / B- / C+ / C+ / C- (3) / C+ / C / B / C- / B- / C-

Review: (#1-#3) This triptych design shows Spidey facing off against three enemies, a giant robot animal, the Green Goblin and Electro. It’s a fanboy’s dream, but nothing more.

(#4-#12) Image #5 is displayed at right) Design four is a chintzy “storm is coming” motif. While the next several posters are all variations on a design that doesn’t add depth of inventiveness with #5 being the more interesting and designs eight through ten being least interesting. The eleventh is more common for the genre while the twelfth turns the film from a superhero action film into a superhero romance, an odd transition.

(#13-#16) Lucky 13 is indeed one of the better designs simply because it goes for the less obvious, more artistically playful manner. The fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth are all foreign designs with the last being the worst, the fourteenth being the most cartoonish and the fifteenth playing nicely with action elements that don’t entirely feel played out.

Trailer: A- / B

Review: An exciting, thrilling trailer that should have little trouble finding an audience. Fans of the first film will already be signed on, but this may pull in the reticent fans of the original trilogy, making this one of the most successful in the franchise to date. It’s even more exciting on a HUGE screen like the IMAX. The 3D part isn’t any different than we’ve had before, but it doesn’t detract.

The second trailer, as expected, gives the audience more of what it wants, but deprives the same audience of any potential surprises in the movie itself. The next trailer will almost assuredly spoil even more.

Oscar Prospects:

If it competes anywhere, it will be in the techs, the two sound categories and Best Visual Effects. I suspect visual effects is probably its only opportunity.