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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released on Blu-ray and DVD this week (1 September), much to the anticipation of comic book and superhero geeks everywhere. The sequel to the hugely successful blockbuster ‘alternate universe’ Spider-Man sees Spidey face off against three of his most formidable enemies – Electro, Rhino and The Green Goblin – all whilst maintaining his everyday life; negotiating his relationship with incredible girlfriend, Gwen Stacy; and facing the looming dangers of OSCORP, which is mysteriously linked to the disappearance of his parents.
Everything about this movie screams ‘bigger’, and it completely blows the original out of the pond and into next week. The visuals are incredible, the stunts are bigger, the acting is phenomenal and the casting is something Zeus himself must have had a hand in! Jamie Foxx as the disturbed Max Dillon is brilliant, and Dane DeHaan who plays Harry Osborn and the Green Goblin is intense and broody and has these piercing eyes that make you want to cry out for a hug from your mama. Andrew Garfield is delicious as always, and don’t get me started on Emma Stone and Sally Field. Those women give me life! You’ll find yourself smiling like an idiot when Emma does literally anything, and you’ll cry when you see those lines on Sally Field’s face deepen when she’s telling Peter about his father. Somebody hold me.
But Gwen… Oh, Gwen… She didn’t deserve that. After the initial shock of Gwen’s head cracking like an egg on the floor of the clock tower and the trickle of blood running from her nose, I cried for a thousand years. For comic book fans Gwen’s death was always coming, but in stunning high definition… It’ll still rip out your heart and stomp on it, and then spit on it and set it on fire, and then stomp on it again. Wounded, I was… Wounded, I still am.
Stop it, Scott! You’re reviewing the Blu-ray, not crying about the film! Yes, okay! Back to it!
Well, first things first, the menu was the realist. Before I even pressed play I was blown away by how beautiful it looked on my TV. Webslinging Garfield in spandex all over my screen in HD and big blue Jamie Foxx – let me get comfy! I could watch the menu for longer than the movie’s running time! I finally pressed play and it was just glorious. I could watch Spidey swinging around New York all day, especially when it’s so beautiful. Just the sounds and the music and the colours… I’m sorry, I need a minute.
If you’re reading this, you probably saw the movie at the cinema and loved it because it was brilliant, so when you hear that there are almost two hours of special features on the Blu-ray, you may pee a little. The ‘headlining’ deleted scene is set after Gwen has popped her clogs and Peter is all depressed in the graveyard – his father shows up (say whaaaaat?) and it’s totes emosh. Also there are deleted scenes including big, buff Flash (phwoar) from the first movie, Electro’s mum who is a complete monster (who also could have cranked up the sass about a million percent but disappointingly didn’t) and an extra scene with Aunt May (any extra time with the champion human Sally Field is fine by me!).
The other special features include a full audio commentary with director Marc Webb (which is fun to listen to if you have two hours spare), and the ‘making of’ feature: ‘The Wages of Heroism’. The latter includes how the filmmakers tackled making a spectacular sequel to out-do the first movie; the music used in the movie, aptly named ‘Spidey Gets His Groove Back’; and an inside look at the development of Spider-Man’s fearsome foes (AKA making the Green Goblin so frikkin ugly!). The highlight for me was seeing how they went about filming in New York City. Now, I’m a sucker for architecture – it’s my thing – but they had to recreate Times Square to scale in Rhode Island! Excuse me, what? It blows my mind! It’s great to watch, and one of Andrew Garfield’s stunt doubles is worth an honourable mention, because he is crazy fine.
Also included in the special features are the music video for Alicia Keys’ single ‘It’s on Again’ which was written for the movie, and a new public service announcement for Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO) with Andrew Garfield and CEO Dr. Jane Aronson.
I would have loved an extra featurette just about how Emma Stone does that thing that she does that makes me all jelly inside. But I’ll settle for what we have instead.
