*Warning: article may contain spoilers!*
Welcome to this week’s article of The Good, the Bad, and What The? where we took a good, long look at characters in movies, video games, anime, and books and put them on the judgement table to see if they are worthy to be in their respective stories. I strongly believe well developed characters are more important than anything else in a good story, so I always judge them hard. At the end of every character’s evaluation I will give them one of four ratings; Good for those characters that are developed and deserve their place in the story, Bad for those characters that have no place being made or interacting with anyone else in the story, and What The for the characters that I can’t figure out the idea for or that I think could have been good, but didn’t get a chance. For those characters who are as dull as dishwater and make you wonder what the author was thinking in creating them, they will get the rating of Sack of Potatoes. Today on the judgement table is Electro, the main villain of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
Spider-Man is my favorite superhero of all time. I’ve watched many Spider-Man cartoons, original movies, and played many of the games. I am aware that Electro has been a villain in many other Spider-Man things. I figured that, because the new Spider-Man movie came out and is basically the best superhero movie we have had in a while, why not look at one of the best parts; Electro.
When I saw that Electro was going to be in this movie, I flipped many, many tables. Electro is not a villain that many people know about in the Spider-Man universe, and he is really awesome. The fact that he was getting big screen time was the best thing I could have heard. In the beginning of the movie, I wasn’t actually sure who Electro was going to be. I saw that Max Dillon kept showing up, but it didn’t dawn on me until he walked by the eels. Then Max became the one and only Electro.
The story for this movie takes place directly after the first “Amazing Spider-Man.”, also a great movie. Peter is still seeing Gwen Stacy and they are both graduating high school. Peter, however, is having a conflict because he keeps hearing Gwen’s father’s last words. Before he died, Gwen’s father told Peter to stay away from his daughter. In the beginning of the movie, Spider-Man is chasing a mobster who is stealing plutonium from Oscorp. While chasing the truck, Spider-Man saves a bystander from getting crushed by a car. That bystander was Max Dillon. Spider-Man said to him “Hey, you gotta be my eyes and ears buddy!” and then swung away. Spider-Man said this to encourage the guy and be nice, but he didn’t realize what it caused. From that point on, Max was obsessed with Spider-Man, and in a very creepy way. He wanted to be just as awesome and well-known as Spider-Man. This was the source of his evil. After falling into the eels and becoming Electro, Max freaks out and starts to walk around the streets. He can’t control his powers and starts to blow things apart. So of course, Spider-Man shows up. Max reminds Spider-Man of who he is. While Max is talking with Spider-Man, the police get ready to take him down. Spider-Man says don’t shoot, but of course they do. Max now explodes with anger and starts firing off electricity. This was the final straw. Max was not a mentally stable man. He had no friends or family that even cared about his birthday. As such, he was a very lonely man. This caused him to be obsessed with Spider-Man and look up to him. When the police shot him, Max felt betrayed by Spider-Man and lost it. He crushed Times Square with his great power. Nothing was out of reach. His entire character was about loneliness, but it soon shifted.
After Max was captured and sent to Oscorp, he was done being nice. He knew he was a being of pure power and couldn’t be stopped. A doctor was experimenting on him when he declared “Don’t you know, Doc? I’m Electro.” From then on, Max was gone. Electro was a man of destruction. He had one target; Spider-Man. This was his shift into truly being Electro. He didn’t care about friends anymore; he wanted power and for people to know who he was, the mighty god Electro. Harry Osborn broke him out of his containment and the revenge was set in motion. Electro set out to control the power system of the entire city and be the god he claimed to be. This change throughout the movie was crazy. He went from a character who you felt really bad for to a man who wanted power and recognition. Even with all the power, you could tell he was hurt. His great hero, Spider-Man, had thrown him in prison and declared him a menace. There was no turning back. Electro’s mind became twisted from the change. It became schizophrenic and split. I really like this touch because it is true to the original comic character of Electro. Even when he was pure evil, you still felt like he didn’t deserve everything that was thrown at him, but he didn’t care anymore. His character was deep. There was a real struggle even for Spider-Man to kill him because he knew it was sort of his fault. He caused a man’s mental distress and forced him into being a power hungry beast.
Even the fight scenes with Electro were awesome. The effects were phenomenal. The bolts of energy and the way Electro merged into electrical objects gave a real sense that this man is powerful. He crushed things with simple shots of energy that could crush a building. His entire visual set up was a perfect representation of what Electro is; a man fueled by rage, power, and desire.
Now for the verdict. What do you guys think? Good, of course. Electro is one of the best movie villains I have ever seen. On top of that, I think this movie was better than the highly acclaimed “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” This movie, and Electro, is a real sign that Marvel Studios has some serious talent. I couldn’t help freaking out at everything awesome in this movie, and Electro was on the top. I liked Electro so much, I wanted to see more of him and less of Spider-Man at times, and that is an achievement. I hope Marvel keeps pumping out these absolutely fantastic movies and amazing villains like Electro.