Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Opinion: Why Amazing Isn't as bad as you think

Rarely does a comic-book movie polarize it's target audience, in fact in recent times i can only recall it happening to Man of Steel, however it also this year happened to The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The highly anticipated blockbuster divided fans on it's release back in the late spring. Spidey fans were in part hoping for a steady improvement over The Amazing Spider-Man in which some felt that what it gained in gritty realism it lacked in humour and fun. Director Marc Webb sought to appease any lingering doubts about the follow-up movie by stating that this time out the cast crew and writers had gone "Full Comic-Book" and embraced the spectacular making the film more vibrant and fun. well they certainly did embrace the spectacular.


The production values were improved for this film and it shows in the final product the entire movie feels. shinier and cleaner which emphasizes the departure from the gritty elements and feel of it's predecessor. Where it could've used a little polishing and tidying up however is the script and storyline. during the initial reviews before and after the cinematic release there were complaints regarding the pacing. I can partially see the argument but i feel that what those complaints are based on are weak foundations. Firstly this is a flat out Comic Book Movie. the pacing element is essentially presented as it would be if you were reading a comic book. Does this affect flow or the ability to follow the movie? not in my opinion it's a minor defect in a movie that is admittedly fast paced where it needs to be and does tend to slow down a little when concentrating on the more day to day aspects of Peter Parker's life and his relationship with Gwen Stacy.. 

Peter meets his long dead Father.......or does he?

Another element that many critics and fans didn't much like or feel warranted inclusion in the movie was the continuation of what had happened to Peter's parents. a side story arc that had begun in The Amazing Spider-Man and billed as the untold story that during the course of the first film seemed to go nowhere, but was re-visited at the very beginning of this sequel, showing the apparent reason for the Parker's leaving Peter with Aunt May and Uncle Ben in the first place, as well as the fateful cause of the plane crash that leaves Peter an orphan. The critics and fans believe it to be nothing more than a contrived plot point that only serves to link Peter to Oscorp via his father. However, i believe that what was intended was set to serve as a set up for potential events in Amazing Spider-Man 3. There is a deleted scene featuring a meeting between Peter and Richard Parker clearly meant to be from the graveyard montage near the end of this film. I've seen comments on forums and other sites saying that having a surprise appearance by Richard Parker at the end would've made no sense due to what we see beforehand. Really? ok hang on what about if that scene was later to have been seen as being NOT Richard Parker at all but.........The Chameleon disguised as Richard Parker? or does that seem too much like a bad comic book plot?

Sometimes i feel that the detractors of This movie tend to forget that the source material has fifty plus years of storyline plot points and various other guises and media to draw from to construct the wider Spider-Man universe.
For example, it's quite evident that the villains in Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Electro, Rhino and Green Goblin) although iconic Spider-Man enemies well perhaps not Rhino. have had elements of their origins updated into the modern age Lets take The Green Goblin's origin in the movie. people complained that it happened to quick and was contrived as a side point to shoe-horn the character into the movie negating any real character development. or was the more likely scenario that the origin was  based on The origins of The Green Goblin within the pages of Brian Michael Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man Power and responsibility arc. During that story arc Norman Osborn discovers that Peter became Spider-Man due to a bite from a spider carrying the OZ formula. in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Harry Osborn transforms into the Green Gobin after injecting himself with the spider formula created from Richard Parker's OZ formula which we first saw in The Amazing Spider-Man where Peter's tampering with the equation inadvertently creates the Lizard. 
It's very clear that the vision for this franchises iteration of The Green Goblin was inspired by the Ultimate Version of the character albeit less hulkified than the comic book version 

The transformation That harry undergoes within the movie produces a version of the Goblin based loosely on both the Ultimate (Earth - 1610) version and also the classic (Earth - 616) version. by doing this Director Marc Webb is celebrating all aspects of the Spider-Universe that has been around for the fifty plus years and that should be classed as a good thing rather than the detractors complaining that the look or feel of the antagonists are not exact in their look to the Earth - 616 characters that they are portraying. Of course Ive heard the arguments of well if the film-makers are drawing heavily from the Ultimate comics then why not call the movies The Ultimate Spider-Man? well frankly because that's a rubbish title. Just because the title of this franchise  is named "The Amazing Spider-Man" doesn't mean that all the characters  should be exactly the same as they are in the comic book of the same name.

Of course Amazing Spider-Man 2 isn't as good as it could've been but it certainly isn't as bad as many people tend to make out. one of the major reasons for this is because it's Sony Pictures and not Marvel Studios that are producing this franchise and a lot of people are angered that the flagship Marvel Character is not part of the MCU. However it is not Sony's fault that Marvel sold off the rights to there most well known brand. there the fault lies entirely with Marvel for their lack of fore-sight but at the time they needed the money and now they've sold the family silver only to find the current owners are happy with their purchase and won't give it back no matter the cost. 

To be perfectly honest i would love to see Spider-Man back in the folds  of Marvel Studios but they'd still be no guarantee that Marvel could produce a better set of Spider-Man films than we already have.........ok they'd do better than Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 but they others we have i think Marvel would struggle. after all lets not forget this is a company than gave the comic book world One More Day. One Moment In Time, and Sins Past still want Marvel to do a Spider-Man Movie? 

Why not leave a comment? feedback is good. or if you want to keep up with this blog Subscribe or follow me on Twitter @TelFirth 

Thanks for reading.