Right off the bat, I’m happy that the tone looks right, raising the stakes without falling into the new cliche of making everything darker. Spider-Man isn’t Batman and it's a relief that they don’t appear to be treating him that way, as is usually done in sequels. It also looks like there isn’t any sign of him wanting to quit being Spider-Man yet, which is another overdone superhero trope that usually pops up around here, so that’s good news as well.
Building on the tone, as expected, the chemistry between Peter and Gwen looks great. Likely due to their real life relationship, they come across as a believable and engaging couple that can help to establish the mood of the film while developing Peter a lot more. And no sign of MJ! Although technically this might be her, it seems that Webb and co. weren't trying to trick us when they said they pulled her footage. I’m not celebrating because I disliked the casting, but rather because it shows they are at least aware of the potential for overcrowding. I don’t need to tell everyone here the dangers of throwing too many plotlines into a Spider-Man movie. While it still looks like there’s a lot going on, this gives me hope that it won’t be too much.
It’s clear that the Ultimate Universe has been a huge visual inspiration for the villains. I love the classic looks as much as the next guy but this was a very wise decision. Not only are Rhino and Electro at least somewhat more palatable, they each look infinitely more badass than a guy in a literal rhino costume or one with a mask made of yellow lightning bolts. And Green Goblin Hobgoblin DeHaan Goblin, well... at least it looks like his armor is taking some cues from Elysium, so that’s cool I guess.
More than just how they look, all three baddies appear to be pretty pissed off at the wall-crawler. One of The Amazing Spider-Man’s biggest mistakes was trying to toe the line between having a sympathetic villain and a purely evil one. It failed miserably and we got The Lizard, who no one really gave a shite about. The sympathetic villain was already done as well as it’s going to be done with Dr. Octopus, so them trying to reach that standard is misguided. So far, nobody looks too agreeable and all come across as very monstrous towards our hero.
Speaking of Dr. Octopus, holy crap, right? Talk about an expanded mythology. Knowing that a bunch of actors had been cast without their characters being revealed already had me salivating at the possibilities, but seeing the Vulture wings and Ock arms instantly does a lot of world-building for Spider-Man. People recognize those tentacles and in a second, his universe gains both scope and danger, not just for comic book fans but for passive, mainstream ones as well.
A large part of this expansion comes courtesy of Oscorp, which seems to be the actual untold story of this series, unlike the BS one we got in the first film, which featured a couple minutes about Peter’s dad and not much else. That this evil empire is clearly at the center of things gives me hope that the plot has a common element to come back to, which connects all the characters and subplots together.
Finally, while I think any of The Spectacular/Sensational/Ultimate Spider-Man would have been a much better title, at least we didn’t end up with The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Age of Electro’s Dark Rising or whatever crap they were going to change it to.
All you cynics, don’t worry, I’m also going to analyze the trailer from a much more concerned perspective, but until I post that, you guys saw the trailer, what do you think? What’s got you excited? Am I being too optimistic? Let me know in the comments.