The Amazing Spider-Man 2: The Video Game Review

Movie video-game tie-ins aren't as abundant as they use to be. You rarely see any console ones now,  they're usually for the mobile device. (Godzilla is a great example of this.) Perhaps it's for the best, because they have an infamous reputation. Poor gameplay and sub-par graphics are just a couple of the usual complaints. Developer Beenox however is a little different. Having made the fun Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and the criminally underrated Edge of Time, fans were hyped since they would be the ones doing the game adaption for The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012. It sadly wasn't as good as the aforementioned games. Still, its gameplay was leagues ahead of other movie cash-ins. Also sadly, the story was incredibly dull. The Amazing Spidey 2 game received a lot of hype from the developer. Interestingly, they said the game would actually diverge from the movie, becoming its own thing. This was a controversial move, but it could be interesting.The Amazing Spidey 2 suffers in a quite a few areas unfortunately. Despite that, it's still a much more fun game to play than the first.

The story stars Spidey, who is after the Carnage killer, the Kingpin, and trying to help his friend Harry. All of these plotlines for the most part nicely work together. This is a story-based game, but sadly a lot of the writing is pretty poor. The opening scene is the biggest offender. It's a flashback to when Peter walked out of the grocery store in the first film. Sam Riegel, the voice actor for Peter, does a sensationally awful job at this moment. The part where he said in response to the cashier, "Not my problem" was so terrible I was convinced this wasn't actually Peter. Once Uncle Ben was seen however, my greatest fear became realized: the writing of the story was not going to be good.

Thankfully, the rest of the game didn't quite sink that low. A contender however would be Electro. His story is so poorly handled. If the writer wanted the player to sympathize with Max, it didn't work. Electro comes off as one-note, and his lines are so melodramatic it's laughable. While Electro was awful, some of the other villains were nicely introduced into this universe. Shocker, Kraven, and Chameleon were all introduced into their roles very well. The Black Cat also makes a return from the previous game. I really like how her character fits into this universe. It's a shame she was in this story so briefly. That's the interesting thing about this game, it sets itself up for a sequel. So the Black Cat and the Kingpin will surely come back in #3. Sadly like Electro, the Green Goblin feels completely rushed with no build-up. Perhaps the best part of the story is how the Carnage Killer, aka, Cletus Kasady was introduced. It was brilliant how they incorporated him into the plot, and emerging as the final boss. It added some much need pizzazz to the cast, something the first game didn't have at all.

The gameplay is identical to the first game's, with mild improvements. For one thing, you can use Spidey's right arm and left arm to swing, a concept that surprisingly hasn't been used until this point. While the gameplay is still sup-par compared to the more superior Batman Arkham series, it's still pretty fun. Some of the boss fights are pretty innovative. The Goblin fight was unique and interactive, and the Carnage one was climatic. The graphics sadly suffer the movie cash-in syndrome, it looks like a late PS2 game at best. This is not something we should be looking at in the year 2014. The soundtrack is surprisingly very good, you'll be enjoying it as you go through the campaign. One of my personal favorite features is the costumes. Early on you unlock many different ones to play as. From classic to Miles Morales, it's a nice diversity.

Overall, while there are quite a few factors holding back this game, it's still a solid Spidey experience. Carnage is a major highlight, but sadly also shows just how boring most of the other antagonists are. The gameplay isn't anything groundbreaking, but it's still not bad. The story ends on a cliffhanger, so needless to say Beenox has big plans for this universe. While not technically rising too far above the infamous movie cash-in reputation, it's still a fun play.

3/5

On the Venom Film

Just two days ago on March 6th it was announced that Josh Trank is in talks to direct the Venom film. This was quite shocking, since everyone assumed it was dead cause it hadn't been mentioned in years. It was first announced soon after Spider-Man 3 was released. It was never confirmed if it would be a Spider-Man 3 spin-off, but I'm going to assume it was. Similar to what X-Men Origins was to the X-Men series.This was before Spider-Man 4 was canned, and then the Venom film went dead. Since Sony had decided to reboot the Spidey series, a Venom spin-off of a now done trilogy would be strange. So we all accepted the fact that Venom won't be heading to the big screen solo.....that changed yesterday. A little backstory will do....

I won't get into Spidey 3 that much, since all that is covered in my review of the film. Venom made his debut in the live-action world on May 4th, 2007, and was met with backlash from fans. It was quite understandable. Instead of being a larger, monstrous version of Spidey, he was a whiny annoying punk. All the fault lies on Topher Grace, a rather odd choice for the role. In short, Venom was ruined in the film. Too little build-up, nice look though. He just needed to be buffer. So when the Venom spin-off was announced, it was the studio's chance to put a definitive version of Spidey's nemesis on the big screen. The last update was on June 11th, 2010 before the film went dead, until two days ago on March 6th of course. Now I can finally begin talking about the core part of this editorial.

A lot of fans are wondering how this will fit into the timeline. Now that Spidey 4 is dead and the series is getting rebooted, it's quite obvious that it will NOT be part of that trilogy. However, some still think it will be a spin-off of 3, Well, it's not going to be. I am 99.9% sure of that. The Raimi series is finished, there will not be any references to it. Of course, a lot of people speculate that it will be part of the upcoming reboot series. That would make some sense, to try and keep an established franchise. Let's look at this for a second. The Amazing Spider-Man releases in just four months. A sequel will follow in two years. Venom has what looks to be a director, but casting probably won't be announced anytime soon. I don't see this film getting much of anywhere by the time The Amazing Spider-Man 2 releases. Then again, it IS possible that some things will be announced soon after The Amazing Spider-Man releases into theaters, such as a script. The question is will it tie in? Amazing Spidey 2 will most likely have nothing to do with the Symbiote. 3 maybe, but that would be a bit redundant. The point is, if the Symbiote were introduced in that film, Venom will most likely be hinted at. Then what? In 4 he will appear, but where does that leave this film? A director gets practically announced this year, then the film is put off for four more years? Possible, but unlikely. I don't think this will go the Godzilla route. No, you see, I think this will be a complete one-shot with no Eddie Brock. (Or host for that matter.)

In 2003 Daniel Way did a short-lived comic series simply titled Venom. This wasn't your usual Venom story however, there was no host in the beginning. Basically, it was John Carpenter's The Thing for the first couple of issues. I'm serious, the Symbiote was in the Arctic with a bunch of scientists/explorers. And get this, the Symbiote absorbs a dog. I don't know if this was an intentional parody or not. The point is, this would be the most realistic approach to a Venom film. Let's face the facts, Venom as a 'lethal protector' first of all wouldn't translate to screen at all, and second of all, it's just not going to happen. The concept would just get goofy after awhile, like in the comics. Another possible thing would have Eddie Brock get absorbed by the Symbiote in 3, which then leads to his solo film. That doesn't really make much sense, does it? Personally, that possibility is slim. The only real way a 'realistic' way the studio can bring Venom to the big screen is by going the horror route. It shouldn't be about the host, it should be about the Symbiote. I'm not saying it should adapt the Way series, but it's a good starting point on how to go about this project.

If you want to talk villains for a bit, the most realistic approach would be to have the Symbiote as the villain with the humans working their way around it. Now, that's not exactly how I would want it personally, and I doubt Sony would go fully that route of having no one to battle Venom. Enter what is really Venom's only villain: Carnage. Now how would that go about? Cletus Cassidy could fit to be absorbed by the Carnage symbiote, but where would that leave the Venom symbiote? No, I think there should be no 'main' hosts. The way I see it, it could be just a no-name person, then Venom has a form. Like in the Way series, it goes from human to dog to human. The host isn't in control at all, it's the Symbiote using the person, not the other way around. The point is Venom should be a 'different' film. Realistically, Eddie Brock as a lethal protector isn't going to work. It should be a horror story with the Symbiote, and if they could fit Carnage in, all the better. I have been waiting for this a long time, so it gave me pleasure to write this up. It feels good to talk about a film that is actually most likely going to be happen.

Thanks for reading.

Retro Review: Spider-Man and Batman

When I was smaller, the idea of a Marvel and DC crossover was a dream. Little did I know that there had actually been quite a few crossovers from the 90's. I found out one random day on the internet, and immediately the next day I went to Jim Hanley's Universe to purchase the DC Comics vs. Marvel Comics trade paperback. Wow, seeing these guys on the same page itself was almost too much. I went and bought some of the crossover classics, such fun reads. (The best being JLA/Avengers.) I am not here to talk about those however, I am here to talk about a one-shot from the 95 featuring two unlikely partners: the amazing Spider-Man and the Batman.

It's funny, these two are quite the opposite. They're both heroes, and believe in a strong sense of morality. Spidey definitely has more fun with the job, and actually seems to enjoy the job of being a superhero. Batman on the other hand, is a deadly serious vigilante who isn't afraid to really get down and dirty. It's not so much as he enjoys being a superhero, it seems like he takes it as more of a commitment. So pairing these two clashing personalities would be very interesting. It would be more fun than a Spider-Man and Superman one, mainly cause those two would make more of a lighter story. As fun as it is to see these two guys together, the choice of villains is equally important, and the writers did an amazing job with that.

The two villains are the most ruthless psychopaths from their respective universes: Venom's spawn: Carnage, and the Clown Prince of Crime: the Joker. Very interesting choice of villains, I would have thought that they would have chosen the Green Goblin rather than Carnage. But, I'm happy with the pick, I prefer Carnage a thousand times to Goblin. Anyways, the two characters are pretty much portrayed accurately. The writing is top notch, I love this quote by Carnage: "Go home to your wives and children, tell them you stared Death face-to-face, and he gave you a second chance." The pages where Carnage explains how he's been impressed with Joker is just priceless. Then when they start to have conflicting views on how to accomplish mass genocide is both amusing and triple A class writing.

I noticed that Batman is slightly more livelier and sarcastic than usual. One scene I didn't like all that much was when Batman was saying that he doesn't want Spidey to "get hurt." Really? If Carnage is any indication, he should know that Spidey deals with problems as big as Gotham City's. Also, "I don't need your help, or want it." Uh, Batman doesn't have Spidey's knowledge of Carnage, he does need him. He came back later to ask for Spidey's assistance, but still. I do like the head-shots of the two heroes right before Bats says "Or want it." Such great drama. This issue is packed with great comic book drama, the dynamics between the heroes and villains are priceless. I also like how Bats referenced Maximum Carnage.

I don't know about you guys, but I just love the art in this comic. My gosh, this is how Spidey should be drawn, he looks perfect. I prefer the big eyes on the mask than the smaller ones we're getting right now. Carnage looks plain crazy and evil, such a great depiction. I mentioned this already, but the writing in this comic has such a high-quality feel. There's some moral things here that make you think. Is it right to pull the plug and erase a person's character when it appears there's no decently left in them? That's the main question in the beginning, good stuff.

Overall, don't think this is a cash-in on two of the most popular heroes. It has a very compelling story, I was surprised at how impressive it was, one of the best comics I've ever read. (Just look at the gorgeous embossed cover.) It's definitely worth the buy, I think this comic is a bit underrated. The dynamics between the characters is amazing, sometimes amusing, and just plain awesome. Look up the comic and purchase it, it's not too expensive and it's worth it.

10/10.