6 Degrees of Separation Blogathon

Last weekend, I was challenged by Rhys at Feeling Fuzzier to participate in the 6 Degrees of Separation Blogathon, which has been passed around the movie-blogging world, for the past month or two. Amazingly enough, this is my first ever blogathon! I'm quite excited to dip my toes in this brave new world, and I appreciate Rhys for challenging me to do so.

To complete the challenge, I must figure out a way to connect Dane DeHaan, one of my favorite young actors, to Kaya Scodelario, who I hadn't heard of, until this challenge.

I must link the two actors together, using any form of association, in six steps or less, much like the infamous game, 6 Degrees to Kevin Bacon.

So... Here goes nothing:

Dane DeHaan

1. Dane DeHaan was in The Place Beyond the Pines (the best movie of 2013) with Bradley Cooper.

2. Bradley Cooper was in The A-Team (the worst movie of 2010) with Jessica Biel.

3. Jessica Biel was is The Truth About Emmanuel with Kaya Scodelario.

Kaya Scodelario

There you are, folks! Not too hard at all.

I now challenge Daniel at Random Mexican Movie Review Extravaganza to connect Kaya Scodelario with Oscar Isaac... Have fun, Daniel!

 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

 

If you want to read my opinion on the state of the Spider-Man movie franchise (including my opinion of the original Spider-Man trilogy), check out my review of the first film of The Amazing Spider-Man series here.

Expectations:
As I trotted off to the theater last weekend, the only thing I had heard about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was that there was just too much going on in the film. Too many bad guys... Too many storylines... Too much stuff... Regardless, there was no way that I could skip out on one of the biggest films of 2014. However, I did realize that I have not actually been uber-excited about a single Spider-Man film since the very first one hit theaters in 2002. In fact, it's as if I only go watch the films out of respect for the comic book hero that I loved as a child. Growing up, Spider-Man was my favorite superhero (until Batman swooped in and took his crown), but the films have never been able to get me as excited as the plastic figures that I played with as a child. Thinking of my prior love for the web-slinger, I've decided that Spider-Man is the perfect superhero for kids, because he is young and they have a hope of being him in just a few years. But, at my age (and even as a teenager), his life is not something that I desire or really care to take interest in. I don't really understand why I don't care for the film version of Spider-Man, because I really love other films about teenagers... That's just how it is...

Plot:
Other's comments regarding The Amazing Spider-Man 2 having too many significant storylines were absolutely spot-on. However, I don't agree that there were too many villains. The problem lied in how important and in need of screen time those villains turned out to be. Electro (played by Jamie Foxx) was a fantastic character, and, because of his need to be built up, the film wasn't able to focus on the building up of Harry Osborn (played by the great Dane DeHaan). The entire theme of the film was built around best utilizing the time that you have with the people that you love, and, unfortunately, the filmmakers didn't even know how to best utilize their time. To me, it doesn't make any sense to cram all of this film's stories into one film, mostly because we live in a day where a studio could put out three Spider-Man films in one year and each would make hundreds of millions of dollars. The big, shocking moment at the end of the film (which I did not expect) couldn't even be fully enjoyed, due to the fact that the rest of the film was so patchy and poorly constructed. Then, after this big event in the continual Spider-Man storyline, we were forced to rush through a process of grief, absence, and reemergence, all in about three minutes. Why can't superhero fans ever be left with a little bit of suspense?!?

Characters:
As I said previously, there weren't really any characters that I think should have been omitted from the film. Actually, I loved both Dane DeHaan and Jamie Foxx in their respective villainous roles, and I am really looking forward to seeing how the Spidey-villain development process continues. In my opinion, Harry Osborn should have been introduced in this film, playing only a minor role, which would have allowed for more focus on Foxx's Electro. But, who am I to write the film?

Negatives:
My least favorite parts of the film involved the hugely unsatisfying answers regarding the death and legacy of Peter Parker's (Andrew Garfield) parents, Richard and Mary, played by Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz. The entire reboot of the Spider-Man franchise was built on the promise of Peter Parker discovering what happened to his parents, and, as you might expect, I had built up a fair amount of anticipation for the outcome of that promise. Unfortunately, I was not at all satisfied with the very science-heavy answer that just screamed Marvel. Additionally, I saw absolutely no need for Peter's Aunt May (Sally Field) to go down the road of financial struggle and finding a job. Unnecessary storylines like that one really took away from the effectiveness of this film.

Positives:
In the first film, I really hated the relationship between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. Thankfully, that relationship was handled a little bit better in this film and made for one heck of a scene that cannot be mentioned (spoilers!). Heck, the relationship may not have actually been any better, but THAT SCENE!!! Also, as I said, I loved Jamie Foxx's Electro, and I thought his character was so very interesting. Kudos to Foxx for playing the character well, and kudos to technology for making the visually enticing aspects of Electro possible.

Conclusion:
For such a mediocre film, I sure had a lot to say about it!... Some critics have been overly critical of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but I really think the film accomplished what it wanted to accomplish. The only place that it failed (in an epic way) was with the ridiculous airplane scenes that had absolutely nothing to do with anything... at all! Was the film perfect?... No. But, I still have a lot of hope for the future of the franchise. Hope that will likely be killed when the next trailer is released, but, nonetheless, it is hope! If you like superhero movies, you'll probably like The Amazing Spider-Man 2. If you don't like superhero movies, you probably won't like The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I give The Amazing Spider-Man 2 2.34 out of 5 stars.

Chronicle

Expectations:

For multiple reasons, I didn't quite know what to expect with Chronicle. It's sitting at 84% on the Tomatometer, which is rather impressive for this type of film. Before I checked out the Tomatometer, however, I really didn't think it would get great reviews. It is pretty much common knowledge that found-footage films are either loved or hated (example: The Blair Witch Project vs. Apollo 18). I was thinking that Chronicle might fall towards the hated end of the spectrum, but my opinion was based solely on the trailer. For me, the trailer was very intriguing, but it also was a bit dorky. I was mostly afraid that the characters were going to be very unrealistic teenagers who blurted out one senseless line after another. Chronicle was saved, in my book at least, by the Tomatometer score, which convinced me to watch it...

Plot:

If you haven't seen the trailer, these high school kids find something that gives them these "force-like" powers. As you can tell in the trailer, one of the kids starts using his powers in bad ways, and trouble ensues. I think I would have rather not known that he was going to end up bad, but, either way, I was rather impressed. The action was rather good for a found-footage kind of film. What made Chronicle different was that they used any and every camera that might have seen something from the story, which allowed you to see a lot of stuff that you wouldn't get from just one camera. As is with most found-footage films, there are many unanswered questions, but I personally love to be left guessing.

Characters:
Of all of the found-footage films that I have seen ever, Chronicle is the only one that truly develops a deep character background. Andrew Detmer, played by Dane DeHaan, is the main character, and the audience knows so so much about his character that we can actually feel for him, which was extremely surprising to me. The other two main characters, Matt and Steve (played by Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan), didn't get as much background revelation, but we did know a good bit about them. The relationship between the characters was not at all what I expected, and I really didn't expect the depth with the main character, who had many many issues.

Best Character: Although it is rare, I believe the best character had to be Andrew, the main character. There really weren't many cast members to choose from, but, at times, I was very impressed with DeHaan's performance. Andrew had a tough life, and, once he finally had something going for him, he couldn't handle it at all. His character was very deep for a Sci-Fi thriller.

Worst Character: To be honest, this honor was not at all hard to pick. Casey Letter, played by Ashley Hinshaw, was the most pointless addition to any movie I have seen in a long, long time. She had absolutely no point, aside from allowing us to view (through her camera) a bit of Matt's back story.

Conclusion:
I must say that I was politely surprised by Chronicle, as a whole. Certainly there were issues with predictability, but I was expecting the whole thing to be a typical found-footage film. The amount of character depth and emotion really surprised me, and I believe it would surprise you. I truly wish that the trailer wouldn't have been as revealing, because it would have been nice not to know that one of the kids was going to turn evil, but, unfortunately, we can't change the past. Chronicle is a great option for any Sci-Fi/Action lover out there. There are a few dorky moments, but, overall, it's pretty good for a movie about high schoolers. I give Chronicle 2.7 out of 5 stars.