The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Too Much and Too Little

I really don't want to do a review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 because there is so much going on that it would make my head spin so instead I figured I would discuss how the movie handled all it had going on in it.

Sub-par.

Yeah, not gonna lie this movie could not eat all that it had on its plate. If this were like a three hour movie that would probably be different. The ending of the movie and everything that led up to it felt extremely rushed.

Oddly enough, it wasn't the villains of the movie that felt like there was too much. There was actually way too little of them. Green Goblin was in the movie for the final fight and that was it. Electro was in it and had maybe one good scene to himself. Rhino, in his suit, was in it for the closing scene.

There was too much...stuff. Substance. The movie tried to throw so much at us that it was difficult to make an emotional connection to anything outside of Peter and Gwen, which considering the ending is good, but I would also like to be invested in Electro who seemed to be a pretty interesting villain until they just kind of dropped that in exchange for Oscorp stuff that really should have been in the first film, as it was barely relevant to this film.

Also Harry's whole little thing about him dying and whatever is never really explained. Norman says that Harry has it and that he'll start seeing the effects (and then he dies, like what the heck). But outside of that, we just know that Harry is sick. When he gets injected with the Goblin serum, are we just supposed to assume what happens to him? Obviously he goes crazy and he gets stronger, but, why?

If the serum was extracted from the same spiders that Peter was bit by, why didn't Peter go crazy? I suppose the Oscorp stuff with his dad explains that, but, wouldn't that also mean that Harry should be like dead, or should be weaker and frail and not being the Green Goblin?

See what I mean? That was a subplot that was built up and then just kind of faded. I assume that most of the subplots faded because we were supposed to just care about the final fight but that's not cool. I want resolution for all of this stuff over some action. The action should come as a result of the resolution or the resolution should come as a result of the action. I need some explanation.

When Green Goblin arrives to fatally take Gwen Stacey, he's crazy and apparently we're supposed to just go with it.

Two things wrong with that. One: I believe, in no way that the effects would take place that quickly on him. It took Peter a whole night and like a fever to get the powers. And Harry gets them in five minutes? Nope. Two: Peter does not remotely ask why Harry is like that, and I feel like that is something very, very important. He offers to help Electro, a guy he doesn't even know, but then with his best friend he does nothing.

Speaking of Electro, I do believe that he would have made a sufficient enough villain to stand on his own in this movie. Like I said, we see him being some crazy, Spider-Man obsessed guy who kinda has a reason to do what he does. He feels like an outsider and he wants to take revenge on those who would shun him. Nothing new, but, with Electro's ability to disappear and reappear and his great strength we could have seen a great struggle within him and we could have seen Spider-Man try to take reason into him.

And, best part of what could have happened if Electro was the main villain: Electro could have somehow found out who Spider-Man was, realized he was just some guy, and then take Gwen Stacey and say something that she meant the world to Peter just like Spider-Man meant the world to Max Dillon, and then he drops her off of the bridge and Spider-Man is unable to save her and then Peter is forced to fight and in this way kill Electro. That's...well it's better than:

Oh no, Electro is evil. Better stop him. I'm going to kill him because he's trying to take over the city. Generic villain hooray.

Like, no. If that's the case then we could have had any other villain in the role. The only purpose Electro served was for a couple of scenes as a geeky Spider-Man fan and then a guy with an evil master plan. Every villain has that.

It only got worse when Harry Osborn, out of nowhere, decides he wants to kill Spider-Man. Harry is kind of a punk in this movie, he wants to kill Spider-Man for not giving him his blood when he should know that Oscorp manufactured the spiders so there should be some remnant of that laying around.

When Harry decides he wants to kill Spider-Man, all of the Electro stuff is thrown to the wayside and now he has become generic villain and we get a generic climax. Lame!

The movie suffered from too many little things all trying to lead up to one big thing and really only one of the little things paid off and that was the built-up relationship between Peter and Gwen. To me that was the only thing I could believe out of the whole movie. I barely bought into Peter and Harry's friendship because all I saw them do was walk and skip stones. Yay?

So when Gwen died (which anyone who knows Gwen Stacy going into the movie would have known about just by the trailers) I wasn't surprised in the slightest but I am satisfied they went with that ending to have some sort of pay off with all of this stuff.

Where I feel the movie also had too much was in the marketing, in the trailers and all of that. So much of the movie was given away by the trailers that, like I said, the ending became predictable. If they never showed Green Goblin or Gwen falling down into the clock-tower, then her death would have come as a little more of a shock to me. The film was advertised as the beginning of a sinister new era, but, that was only mentioned in one line uttered by Harry at the end of the movie.

There was also way too much Oscorp technical mumbo-jumbo with Peter's parents. I would much rather have woven that web (ha...spider joke) in the last film and then shed more light on how all of that affects Oscorp today. Like how many people know about it and actually have Spider-Man talk it out with Norman, build up their relationship so I can actually buy into Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin.

What was there far too little of was action and stuff that made sense. To be honest, the only action sequences that stand out to me are the one with Electro in Times Square and the final quarrel between Peter and Harry in the clock-tower. I remember the former because we got more characterization for Electro, which was cool. I remember the latter as the only scene we saw Green Goblin in.

I hate to say it, I really do, but this movie reminded me very much of Spider-Man 3. Was it better? Absolutely. But regarding the whole too much too little, yeah, it was very much the same. The big Spider-Man enemy was only thrown in at the end for really no reason at all and the other villains had cool characterization to a point until they just dropped off into nothing.

The movie's ending, though, is what seriously bugs me. Like I said, Green Goblin is thrown in for no reason which leads me to believe the only reason he was in this movie was to kill Gwen Stacey, which is absolutely stupid. They should have just let Electro be the main villain and leave Norman alive. Or just make Green Goblin the main villain so we could have Peter and Harry's friendship build up and consume the movie so that we could have a very meaningful Gwen Stacey death at the end. Then there was the Sinister Six implication and then there was Gwen's funeral.

I know I keep saying this is what I would have liked to see, but, this is what I would have preferred: Have the final scene with Peter be him standing over Gwen's grave while we hear that Spider-Man is gone and the city continues to rot and then the final scene of the movie could have been with Mr. Fiers walking into Harry's cell with Otto Octavius, since Doctor Octopus forms the Sinister Six, asking him what the team should comprise of, have Harry say something like, "Keep it small...say...six." And then boom end the movie.

Then in the beginning of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 we could see that some more time has passed and that there is a new vigilante around, calling herself Black Cat, since Felicia White was in ASM2, and it turns out that she has learned about the new symbiote that Oscorp is working on that will rival the spider venom. Using Oscorp's intel, Black Cat finds Peter Parker and tells him to back in the ring. As the movie progresses we see both Peter struggle and we discover who Eddie Brock is, as he was placed into the Daily Bugle by Fiers and has some emotional distaste for Peter, maybe he's beating him at everything or something. And while Peter struggles he goes to Oscorp with Black Cat and the symbiote latches onto him and his struggles are intensified as he becomes the black-suited Spider-Man and has to fight off another member of the Sinister Six, like Vulture or something, as Fiers is testing Peter Parker. Then when he starts to think about Gwen and her father and how he has to be Spider-Man to honor their memory he manages to get it off and then Eddie Brock becomes Venom. But Venom doesn't fight Spider-Man, instead he is captured by Fiers and that sets up both the Sinister Six and Venom flick as well as establishes Black Cat as Spider-Man's ally for future films. Hmm?

Also, fun fact: there was a post-credits scene cut from the movie featuring Fiers walking into the Special Projects division of Oscorp and he goes straight up to Norman Osborn's frozen head, in a jar so it's very Futurama-like and says "Time to wake up, old friend" and then leaves the room.

For me, that scene would have saved the movie, as it would establish that yes, Norman is alive, and that there is a strong possibility he will be taking over as Green Goblin, and maybe Harry will become the Hob Goblin alongside him. That would be interesting, and heck, maybe that would be the villain of the third ASM flick. But, nah, it was cut from the movie.

This movie showed off too much of itself and had too much of the wrong stuff, whereas there was too little and that is what the ending comprised of. Hopefully they can learn from their mistakes and not make the next film another set-up film. I like Easter Eggs and all but an entire movie based around them is kind of ridiculous.