Oh boy, here we go again. Another big blockbuster superhero movie begging for our money. For some of us, that doesn’t sound like much of a chore. The Amazing Spider-Man may have been the least financially successful of any of the Spider-Man movies to date but it made enough money and won enough hearts to warrant a massively budgeted, multi-villain sequel on which all of Sony’s hopes appear to be placed this summer. They’ve been pumping the internet full of trailers, clips, interviews and news stories non-stop for months. Is there anything we DON’T know about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 by now? And will the answers to those questions make us more excited to see it when it hits American theaters on May 2, or less?
We hear at CraveOnline have been examining the Amazing Spider-Man 2 hype machine this whole time, deciding what we care about and what couldn’t matter less. In the process, we’ve narrowed our expectations, curiosities and nervous observations down to just five questions about The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Take a look, and find out what we think really matters.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Amazing Spider-Man 2: Our Five Questions
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Will it feel like Spider-Man again?
The trailers and online clips for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 seem to imply that Marc Webb's sequel will be lighter, literally and figuratively, than his broody, Batman Begins-inspired original. Good! Sam Raimi's films may have been too cartoonish for some audiences but they captured a tidy balance between Peter Parker's obsessively neurotic angst and the entertaining, often absurd world of superheroes and supervillains. If Marc Webb marries a dramatic storyline with a more playful tone, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 might actually feel like a Spider-Man movie again. We hope.
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Are there too many villains?
Electro, The Rhino, The Green Goblin and possibly the entire Sinister Six have been teased as part of The Amazing Spider-Man 2's storyline. If Batman & Robin taught us anything (besides the "no nipples" rule), it's that too many villains can sink a movie. But Batman & Robin came out nearly 20 years ago, before Hollywood figured out how to make good superhero movies with relative consistency. It's entirely possible that Marc Webb will find a way to introduce this many villains without all of them stepping on each other's toes or - worse - making Spider-Man a supporting character in his own movie. Yes, it's entirely possible... but is it likely?
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Does anyone actually care about Peter Parker's parents?
The first Amazing Spider-Man shifted the focus from Peter Parker's surrogate parents, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, to his biological parents Richard and Mary Parker, who apparently set this entire chain of superheroic events in motion when they betrayed Norman Osborn years ago. But nobody here at CraveOnline got terribly invested in the off-camera backstory that shifted attention and Peter's affections away from beloved, established characters and towards underwritten, non-entity plot points masquerading as the emotional crux of Spider-Man's journey. We may be vaguely curious about where Marc Webb is going with this, but we don't "care." Do you?
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Will Gwen Stacy die?
It's a decades old plot point in one of the most famous comic books ever published, so it's hardly a spoiler to remind you that Gwen Stacy is really only famous for one thing: dying. It seemed like Emma Stone's time in the Amazing Spider-Man franchise would be short as soon as she was cast, but she emerged from the first movie unscathed (her dad, not so much). This time, however, Spider-Man is going up against The Green Goblin, the supervillain responsible for Gwen Stacy's unforgettable death in the comics. Will she be back for The Amazing Spider-Man 3? And not in a flashback or dream sequence?
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What if it fails?
It seems unlikely that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is going to bomb completely. Sony has reportedly sunk over $400 million into the film's production and marketing. That's bound to put some butts in seats. But spending that much money on a movie means it needs to make an astronomical amount to make up for it. Perhaps as much as $1 billion, a box office figure that few movies have ever reached (and none of them in the Spider-Man franchise, old or new). The first Amazing Spider-Man was the lowest grossing film in the series to date, which doesn't inspire confidence. If The Amazing Spider-Man 2 fails to reach that high water mark, will it ruin all these very public plans for multiple sequels and spin-offs? Or will it just mean that Sony won't spend a lot of money on them?
