Best Of

And in a good way. His films are still easily my favorite Potter films. When I read the last few books I felt like whoever was directing had a daunting job ahead of them, and I cannot but help admire what Yates and Goldenberg and Kloves achieved. They're amazing films that better damn well be fucking applauded for years to come. I rewatch HBP, DH1 and DH2 frequently and as a huge book fan myself I can't help but feel totally satisfied and elated with how the films were handled. I love Azkaban and I love Alfonso, but beyond its cinematography I just don't think it's quite as great as what Yates did. Obviously anyone is free to disagree, but I think the love for what Cuaron did is mostly driven by his other works as a director and not necessarily the film he did make. Gravity was awesome but very barren and empty, IMO. It was cinematically awesome but once it was over I felt like it was good but that Children of Men and Azkaban were better.

That being said, again, I think in years, no decades on down the line Yates' work should be well appreciated and acknowledged. He bit off a huge chunk that few dare to, and absolutely ran with it and nailed it.

The entire climax was solid as fuck, great fights with Electro and Goblin, particularly Goblin which is one of the most intense and heart-pounding fight sequences ever in a superhero film
The buddy cop dynamic between Harry and Electro was fun as hell and hilarious
Dane, Garfield and Stone fucking annihilated their roles
The graduation speech intercutting with the action at the beginning
The fact that the story was specifically a character piece that put the focus and importance on developing Spider-man into Spider-MAN
All the subplots worked and served their purposes respectfully
The movie was never in a hurry, plenty of chill moments with the characters but still maintained good pacing nonetheless
The dynamic between Peter and Gwen
The dynamic between Peter and May
The emotional core of Peter and Gwen and Peter and his parents
Time as a metaphor which brilliantly led to the... you know
The soundtrack was terrific, great new main theme, great love theme, great action cues

Yeah it was pretty bitchin and not afraid to take risks, felt unique and unlike other superhero films, and the ending still lingers due to characterization and emotion, also unlike many other superhero films. As a huge Spiderman fan I felt it absolutely nailed the title character and all the repercussions that come with being Spiderman, and never before has it actually went the lengths that the comics always did but that the films had been lacking, until now. The end of this movie was like, damn, this is no joke huh? He got far more development and maturity than Raimi's Peter. I still think Spider-man 2 and The Amazing Spider-man are fantastic films, but Amazing Spider-man 2 was finally the one that got everything right in terms of character, emotion, aesthetic, themes, entertaining and tragic payoffs, etc. It's the quintessential Spider-man film.

It isn't perfect, but what is? I also disagree heavily with most of the complaints I've seen, the biggest being that the story isn't focused and has too many subplots. Cannot disagree more. The main plot is about Peter and Gwen which by extension is also about Spider-man accepting responsibility and his maturity which is his deepest struggle that was finally brought to fruition here, and the subplots concerning Electro and Harry worked separately well enough but then converged toward the end seamlessly. Finally there was the subplot about Peter's parents, but that had been founded and built upon since the first film and was finally addressed here.

Okay, Stafford. Name a single thing Ron would bring to the relationship. He's emotionally crippled. Stupid. Average. Cowardly. Can't succeed on his own. The list of his negative qualities goes on. Frankly, there's not a single character in the series that's good for him. I don't think there's anyone in the series for Hermione either.

He may be many things, but he's not a coward. He sacrificed himself in the chess match to get the philosopher's stone when he was just 11. He was willing to accompany Harry into the Chamber of Secrets to rescue his sister. I doubt you'd get many cowardly people walking into a lair of giant spiders, even if they weren't arachnophobic. There wasn't a point where he backed out of danger until DH, when his family were in danger and the Horcrux was bringing out the worst in him. Even then he came back and saved Harry's life, which would have taken a lot of emotional courage, given the terms on which they parted. A coward would certainly never have been able to then fight and destroy the Horcrux - the very thing which was torturing him internally and exploiting his insecurities and character flaws for months. By the end of Hallows he's openly defying Voldemort by shouting him down to his face. In your eagerness to deride the character as stupid and useless, you've overlooked - unintentionally, no doubt - a great deal of evidence from the books.

And Hermione's not as perfect as you're making out either. She's immature and blunt in her own way. If she'd had her way with SPEW, there'd have been a lot alcoholic, unemployed House-Elves wandering around, depressed and destitute. Why? Because she didn't have a clue what she was talking about with regards to the social history of the elves and more broadly some of the other prejudices of the wizarding world. She insisted arrogantly that she knew best, thought the elves own opinions on the subject were beneath her and then pretty insidiously tried to trick the elves at Hogwarts into taking clothes by hiding them under things.

Neither of the characters are perfect. The movies have just instilled in people's perceptions this sort of generic, action-girl cliche of Hermione. Both characters are caricatures of what they were in the books, which is a testament to Rowling's writing, and a testament to Kloves's incompetence. But in the books, they balance each other out better than Harry and Hermione do. It's stated multiple times that Harry found Hermione boring to be around when Ron wasn't there. She's quite boring and serious-minded as a person. Did you never wonder why she found it so hard to conjure a patronus? Because she's too stark and serious and sombre all the time. She needs someone lighter to bring out her lighter side, to help her stop taking the world so seriously. Very serious people like her don't often end up with people as serious as them. In a way they're a kind of vague parallel of Molly and Arthur.