As of this writing, it is the Wednesday of Holy Week.  I bring up this date to contextualize the emotional reaction I had to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (03/27/2024).  At my parish, this day is the time of the week when we have the school Mass.  This involves the youth choir, which is led by a top-notch instructor.  You have to give credit to the kids for singing their little hearts out with her guidance, but her and her adult helpers can make some wonderful harmonies.  Being so close to the Triduum, they sang two songs that spoke to my heart and had me on the verge of tears: “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” and “Via Dolorosa.”  Obviously, they are about what Jesus did for us on Good Friday, and it struck me to my core.  I then get home later and decide to put on a superhero movie.  If nothing else, I figured I can finally have all the wall crawler films complete for The Legionnaire.  In it, Peter Parker’s (Andrew Garfield) girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), speaks to some of the same themes of the coming Day of days.  Allow me to show you how we get there with this review.

Speaking of the theme of sacrifice, we are given at the beginning of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 the completion of a subplot from the previous film: what happened to Peter’s parents.  They are Mary (Embeth Davidtz) and Dr. Richard Parker (Campbell Scott).  He is an employee of science conglomerate Oscorp, and he had been experimenting with spiders in order to unlock their healing powers for human use.  Yet, when he discovers that the company has nefarious plans for his formulas, he attempts to flee the country with his wife, leaving his son with Ben (Martin Sheen) and May Parker (Sally Field), Peter’s aunt and uncle.  Unfortunately, Oscorp sends people to assassinate Mary and Dr. Parker, doing so on their private airplane.  In the struggle, they end up dying in a crash, but not before he sends a file to himself.  We then jump to modern times and Spider-Man is helping the police to stop Alexei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti), a Russian gangster who has stolen plutonium from Oscorp.  As the web slinger glides through the air, Gwen is giving a high school graduation speech at which he is also supposed to be in order to walk with the rest of his classmates.  After hastily concluding his battle, he makes it just in time to hear his name called.  After the ceremony, Peter is invited to dinner by Gwen’s family, and he says he will be on time.  Yet, when he arrives, he hesitates to go inside.  Gwen comes out, and he explains that he has been having visions of Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary), Gwen’s father, to whom Peter had promised not to get involved with his daughter before the police officer died.  Since this is a recurring hesitation on Peter’s part, Gwen makes the decision to break up with him.  Meanwhile, we also meet Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), a shy but brilliant electrical engineer working at Oscorp.  In the middle of Spider-Man’s chase of Aleksei, our hero had saved Max from being crushed by a police car.  The fact that Max’s idol would take the time to do something like this, and have a brief conversation, meant the world to Max.  Max’s co-workers do not treat him with any kindness.  We witness this when, on his birthday, he is asked fix the power grid that he designed, by himself.  Doing so leads to him accidentally falling into a tank of electric eels, and he appears to be killed.  It is also during this period that we are introduced to Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan).  He has returned to New York City in order to be at the side of his demanding father, Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper).  Norman is the founder of Oscorp, and had been working with Dr. Parker to develop a serum that could treat his degenerative disease.  It is on Norman’s deathbed that he reveals to his son that his condition is generational.  Norman dies shortly thereafter, leaving Oscorp to Harry.  It is at this point that Peter comes to comfort Harry, as Harry had done when Peter’s parents died.  Another source of solace, this time for Peter, is when Gwen contacts him, asking that they talk.  The idea is that they are going to try to be friends, but it soon becomes apparent that they still have feelings for each other.  They are about to kiss when she admits that she has applied for a college program at Oxford in England.  Before Peter can react properly to this news, his Spidey-senses tingle with a new danger.  This is Max’s emergence as Electro, a blue-skinned villain with a hunger for conducting electricity.  Spider-Man gets to the scene, and at first it looks like he is getting Max to calm down.  The intervention of the police erases any good will, and Peter is forced to subdue Max.  Peter also starts feeling like he is letting Harry down.  Harry learns of his father’s work, sees reporting about Spider-Man, and thinks the wall crawler key to his survival.  Harry loses any hope of help from those who are supposed to give it, and decides to turn to Electro.  Harry frees Max with the condition that the live wire (if you will) helps get Harry into Oscorp so that he can take control of the company back from Donald Menken (Colm Feore), who had tried to oust the younger Osborn.  Harry forces Donald to take the heir down to the weapons division where Harry injects himself with the venom Dr. Parker had been developing.  It turns Harry into the Green Goblin, with a desire to kill Spider-Man.  This is Max’s goal, too, taking down the power grid for all of New York City in order to draw in the web slinger.  With some assistance from Gwen, they are able to defeat Electro and save the city.  Just when they think they are safe, however, the Green Goblin attacks.  In the fight between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man, Gwen is killed after falling from a great height.  Harry is defeated, but Peter is devastated, spending months grieving.  What revives him is a pep talk from Aunt May (a standard for these films).  As such, we end with Spider-Man taking on the Rhino, the latest Oscorp bad guy with Alexei at the controls.

There are a lot of people who do not like The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  I shared this reaction when I saw it in the theater, and I have not seen it since.  As I alluded to in the introduction, I am in a different head space, particularly today.  The character that most triggered my feelings was Gwen.  During her speech to her classmates, she talks about how life is precious because it ends.  If that is not a Catholic sentiment, then I am unworthy of the Faith.  Still, I think what annoyed me then was the constant waffling as to the relationship status between her and Peter.  They clearly love each other, but they feel their other duties, particularly with Spider-Man, mean that they cannot be together.  For her, it is about her decision to go to Oxford, potentially leaving behind the man she loves.  Nonetheless, it is her that clearly states why these meandering thoughts are meaningless, and it dovetails nicely with the concept of sacrifice weighing so heavily on my heart in light of the Easter season.  God chose us to be redeemed by Jesus through His death on the Cross.  More specifically, He did it for you.  We are called to follow his example, too.  This does not necessarily mean that we have to literally be Crucified, but if that is our fate, then so be it.  As Jesus tells us in John 15:13, there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.  As odd as they might be to read (or write), this is precisely what Gwen does.  Granted, she did not expect to fall from the top of a clock tower to her death.  Who knows?  Perhaps if she had known this would be the outcome, she would have acted differently.  The point is that she made the choice, and she did so out of love and a desire to have a relationship.  God asks of us the same thing.  We were created in order to have a relationship with Him.

Yes, there are many plot holes in The Amazing Spider Man 2.  The fact that Harry becomes the Green Goblin in the last twenty minutes, or how Electro magically gets an electricity themed costume upon escaping captivity are a little silly.  However, there are worse movies you could see.  Before you watch those others, you could pick this one.