The Amazing Spider-man 2 In-depth Analysis

I’ve always dreamed about what it would be like if an electrical engineer had super powers. He would be able to shoot lightning and deflect bullets with a magnetic field. To my pleasure, in the recent movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a power systems engineer is fatally shocked and gains the power to control electricity. The story of the movie is rather simplistic: the hero fights for justice and the villain tries to kill the hero out of revenge. In the end, Spider-Man eventually finds a way to overcome Electro and justice is served. Good guy wins, bad guy loses, audience claps. This is an example of a comfort zone film; it takes its characters from comic books, we feel good because Spider-Man wins, and the film does not challenge our thinking.

However, I did not walk out of the movie gaining nothing. Bill Swanson in his article on “How Films Feed the Mind,” claims that “it is a mistake to put [simple universal values] in the pure realm of fantasy.” I have watched plenty of comfort zone films and a couple of films that make me think; however, rarely can a director successfully incorporate the mythical, action-packed elements of “escapist” entertainment while also creating a non-universal and real, humanly conflict. Unlike movies that focus on a complex plot and in some way question reality, the “escapist” fantasies can more easily create the artistic views that we do not get to see in daily life. The Spider-Man movie brought the super-powered engineer to life with its dazzling special effects, while the simple plot allowed the movie to conclude with an ultimate final battle to showcase the abilities of protagonist and villain. Furthermore, quality action movies successfully create strings of images that last and stick to the spider-web of one’s mind. Some humans on the inside crave the special feeling of aggression and power that the images on the screen create.

Like a person that repeatedly watches a movie to get more meaning out of it, a person can rewatch a movie to further soak in the details of an epic fight scene. Some people watch movies to fulfil this Freudian desire and see their dreams as reality, while others want to boost their brain by expanding their thinking. The big problem is that it is very difficult to satisfy both types of people in one film. It’s a very large gap taking the story of the Lord of the Rings or a typical superhero movie—The Dark Knight excluded—and changing it to the complexity required for an intellectual view. Adding the elements of fantasy to “non-escapist” film proves difficult as the characters lose their cartoon-like qualities that make them so great in a blockbuster film.