Learning From The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s Mistakes
After a promising start with The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, Sony decided to accelerate its world building by chucking in a whole bunch of characters and narrative threads into The Amazing Spider-Man 2. These were intended to springboard future films and lead up to the highly touted Sinister Six, which would’ve been a Suicide Squad-esque project.
It didn’t work out that way, though, as the film received negative criticism, with most of it being directed at how so much was crammed in that it didn’t make sense after a while. Sadly, this mishap coupled with the fabled Sony leaks also sealed the fate of any proposed sequels or spinoffs.
Speaking to The Daily Beast about where the film went wrong, the series’ star, Andrew Garfield, said:
“I think what happened was, through the pre-production, production, and post-production, when you have something that works as a whole, and then you start removing portions of it – because there was even more of it than was in the final cut, and everything was related. Once you start removing things and saying, ‘No, that doesn’t work,’ then the thread is broken, and it’s hard to go with the flow of the story. Certain people at the studio had problems with certain parts of it, and ultimately the studio is the final say in those movies because they’re the tentpoles, so you have to answer to those people.”
Is anyone surprised to hear this?
Undoubtedly, by giving up some control to Marvel and allowing the company to do Spider-Man: Homecoming, it shows that something was learned from previous mistakes. How much, though? And was it enough? Perhaps the reason for Spidey’s MCU connection has more to do with business reasons and Sony capitalizing from the success of a fully established universe?
Simply put, the world doesn’t need a film about Kraven. There are more than enough properties out there that deserve movies before him. Is there the possibility that it could turn into a sleeper hit like Guardians of the Galaxy was? Sure, but do you really think that Sony possesses the fundamental understanding of its licensed comic book characters? We’re not so certain.