Amazing spider man 2 - Opening two minutes analysis

Amazing spider man 2

Opening two minutes analysis

The music is key in the opening two minutes for building suspense and making the viewer feel like they are part of the action and willing the protagonist to defeat the enemy and to save the innocent. The trumpet building in tempo and volume shows that something important is going to happen as trumpets symbolise tradition and respect, Spider-man’s iconic badge then fades onto screen. As he gets closer to the ground you can hear car horns overlapping each other as the viewer gets a sense of chaos, Spider-man fell from the sky into this world dragging the viewer with him, effectively into another world, away from their usual lives and into this fantasy like universe. The trumpets continue as Spider-man fly’s through the city building our excitement and getting us to root for the hero as we grow curious to where he is going and what he is doing. The sound of webs spewing from his wrists as he flies from building to building reminds the viewer who this hero is and introduces new viewers to his immense powers he has and how the spider part of him shines through. The narrative of ‘what you got for me today New York’ shows that he does this most days and loves the excitement of not knowing what he's going to get up to, it also excites the viewer as they're intrigued to find out what's going to happen. A news report (non diegetic sound) informs the viewer what’s going on and provides them with information so they don’t fade from the story and make sure it’s action packed from the beginning. This is a commonly used form of providing the viewer with information in action films as it’s quick and effective and can deliver specific information quickly and interestingly. The explosions and car crashes fit the conventions of a action film and provide the viewers with what they want to see, just one minute into the film and there's already police cars flying of roads and big heavy trucks – all what the viewers want to see in a good action film as well as a high octane car chase. Police sirens alert the viewers of danger as floods of police cars track this one enemy truck, the music builds to a high tempo as Spider-man gets closer and closer to the action until it cuts out completely so were only left with diegetic sound as Spider-man meets the enemy. The enemy speaks in a foreign language, another convention of action films – the bad guy has to be foreign, most likely Russian. Spider-man is very laid back and jokey showing he’s not scared in anyway and supports the theory that he does this all the time and therefore seems quite relaxed about the fact this could end in disaster and he could die at any point. A warning from the box of radioactive substances is key in informing the viewer what is going on and alerting them of the danger, without this they would be unsure of what's going on and less interested as its not explicit enough for them.

Spider-man needs no introduction, as this film has a preconceived audience there is no need to introduce the main character, the hero and get to know him and what he does and all that – everybody knows who Spider-man is and that he’s a hero who can fly through the streets of New York swinging from building to building. In the opening two minutes you’re also introduced to the enemy and find how he fits the stereotype of a foreign bad guy with tattoos, bald head and bolshie attitude rather than the new, more intelligent, don’t get their hands dirty types of bad guys. We are yet to meet the love interest in the opening two minutes but if you give the viewers all the crashes and chases in the first few minutes you can then move onto the plot of the story, the core that keeps it all together and meet the girl.

The genre is pretty obvious from the opening two minutes: crashes – check, car chases – check, hero saves someone – check, foreign bad guy – check, the list goes on. Spider-man subverts from the stereotype that heroes have to be muscular as he is fairly puny and doesn't have the excessive amount of upper body strength other heroes have visibly but then swinging from building to building shows he must have a lot of body strength after all. Also his mind is very strong as he is clever and, as seen in the opening two minutes, can anticipate what is going to happen and act on it. This is not as common in action films as most of the time they are strong to look at and can destroy the enemy with brute force and bullets rather than devising a master plan that requires no or little action as this would suit the genre. People want to see fights and explosions and action rather than a skinny guy save the day with his wonderful mind.

The opening shot is a high angle one of Spider-man which would represent him as weak and insignificant but as he takes up nearly all the screen and is so large compared to the small world below him it contradicts the camera angle representation of him and instead shows him to be powerful and more important than the city and all the people below. A low angle shot as he flies away shows him to be powerful and on top of things, even thought there's an enemy on the loose and there's danger he doesn't seem faltered by this and is still the most important thing in the city. A tracking shot shows that the viewer wants to see him, where he’s going, what he’s up to and therefore follows him around the city as he swings from building to building. He has prevalence (editing) as he’s the key character and the only one we want to know about at this point in time. This is followed by an interesting shot from underneath him looking up as we see how big he is and how central to the story he is, a low angle shot of him looming over us highlights his dominance and power before a medium shot shows him brought down to city level dodging cars and people. Low angle shots of the cars flying of in all directions shows how powerful the thing must be that is causing all this destruction, a shot or the big truck in the foreground followed by a blur of white cars and red sirens in the background shows that nothing can stop this enemy and calls out for a hero to help save the day. Action packed shots of men running and cars flying past with sirens blaring all highlight the genre and fast cut editing builds the tension as the viewer is curious to see what's going to happen and if Spider-man will be able to save the day. A high angle slow motion shot of Spider-man before his decent to the truck shows how although he may not seem scared he is bracing himself for what's to come and the fact this could be very dangerous for him. His calm narrative of ‘hello pedestrians’ would support the theory he isn't scared at all so alternatively it may be that as he’s flying around he's thinking about how he will actually save the day, the slow motion is the calm before the storm and he has a final run through in his head of how he's going to fix this. A long shot shows the damage this truck is causing and how many crashes have happened because of this, it shows in one shot, all the features of an action film people like and pay to see.