Hey, look! It's Mysterio!
STRONGER, MORE INTIMIDATING VILLAINS FOR SPIDER-MAN TO FACE
With more villains added to the mix early on for this already planned trilogy, my personal favourite being the high probability of seeing Mysterio on the big screen, the filmmakers have the potential to create a rich, vibrant storyline by having the villains craft an even more dangerous atmosphere for the webslinger to endure; that of course being fronted by none other than the puppeteer himself, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, who'll be played by the always decent Chris Cooper.
The Lizard in
The Amazing Spider-Man was weak at best, and this was due to either (more often than not) terrible visual effects on the creature, that made him look a bit like Venom from
Spider-Man 3 in certain shots, or for the fact that the film was basically an exact retelling of 2002's
Spider-Man, The Lizard and Green Goblin both have the EXACT same
Jekyll and Hyde type turn.
That plot would have worked, if only the film had been a little bit more lighter and laid back in tone, but it wasn't, and so it mixes up the unnecessary seriousness from the first-half with the Golden Age spirit of the Spider-Man that they try too hard to convey in the last-half of the movie but fall flat because of an unrealistic, underdeveloped villain.
[To clear it up though, The Amazing Spider-Man is not a bad film (at all), it's a solid film turned into a bad one because of a bad editing job. The film just makes some lazy decisions thanks to having an editor who wasn't paying closer attention to his job of trying to tell a coherent and original Spider-Man story, it felt like it jerked around too much, and too sloppily at that. All the little fossils that they missed are in the deleted scenes, even the trailer, which makes Irrfan Khan's character out to be a little bit more threatening than he comes across as in the actual movie; like hinting more at Norman Osborn and the threat that he poses to Peter. More focus on The Lizard/Curt Connors would have been great and some of the cheesier moments (like the basketball net, and the balcony scene with Gwen, for example) just need to go, but with that aside, it's a movie I could see myself trying out again if the sequel expands a bit more on most of the things it left unanswered.]
With
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, there's drastic room for improvement with
the potential for about four or five classic villains to make appearance and that's pretty massive. Electro is apparently the main villain in this one. But the Green Goblin should definitely come into play as well, at least by the end of it because if they really continued with the Gwen/Peter relationship for yet another movie, that would be ridiculous, as this one should be their final nail in the coffin. Seriously, Peter made an obvious mistake at the end of
The Amazing Spider-Man, he broke his promise to Capt. Stacy about staying away from Gwen.
Ring any bells? Rhino is said to be called into the action as well, and he'll be played by none other than Paul Giamatti; in what is a surprising, but inspiring casting choice. And add to that the potential for Mysterio to finally make his first appearance on the big-screen and you have all the more reason to be excited (the newest set photo potentially reveals the actor who'll be playing Quentin Beck, maybe even Chameleon, or maybe even Alistair Smythe).
But I'm putting my money on it that he's Quentin Beck though, I've been wanting to see Mysterio on the big-screen for quite some time now and I think he'd pose a perfect threat to The Amazing Spider-Man.
MORE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, LESS ROMANCE, REAL STAKES
More supporting characters added to the mix makes this new instalment an attention grabber because it allows more time to develop characters we don't already know, all the while, at the same time, building on ones that we are already familiar with from the previous trilogy (like Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn).
Shailene Woodley will do just fine as Mary Jane.
This is definitely more of a supporting role for her character as opposed to a part-lead role (like her character was in the previous trilogy), the newly cast actress has finished shooting on the movie and it looks as if she's not going to overstay her welcome; which is spectacular considering many, including myself, thought that Kirsten Dunst overstayed her welcome as Mary Jane before. It's nice to see the filmmakers are now, literally, trying their best to stray away from the original two movies by introducing new villains and supporting characters faster. The faster the characters come in, the better chances for better, more action-oriented stories for what will probably be the final two entries in the series. Hopefully they don't have too much Aunt May in it this time either, I didn't mind Sally Field but she did have a lot of cheesy lines ("If there's one thing you are, it's good.") and there was enough Aunt May to last a lifetime in the previous instalments, so keep it focused on the new players rather than the old ones and give everyone their own moment in the spotlight (especially the villains of the show).
Plus expect Jamie Foxx to be really great as Electro in this, especially if he puts in the same amount of energy as he did during his previous couple of movies (which he has very much indeed, so have no fear).
SPIDER-MAN MUST BE DEFEATED BY THE END OF THE MOVIE
With the set-up for Gwen Stacy's downfall already in the works, because of the promise Peter broke to Captain Stacy by the end of the first film, this should definitely be Spider-Man's darkest, most devastating chapter told on the big-screen yet.
If the filmmakers are smart and are actually going in the direction that they teased at with the first film, then this sequel should end by leaving Spider-Man in his most vulnerable state on-screen yet. For one, he has Harry Osborn come back into his life, who could either be Peter's friend or foe at this point, and he hasn't seen him since he was a kid, so there should be a lot of good drama brewing from their fractured relationship. Add to that a handful of villains, not too mention Norman Osborn at the top of it all (literally, either chilling in his tower/suite or prowling around as the Green Goblin), and Peter should definitely have genuine reason to be afraid in this instalment. If they choose to have Gwen Stacy's death in this one, which would be wise, I do hope that they make it as close to the comics as humanly possible because it's a sequence that I've never been able to forget about from the stories that I've read of Spider-Man and it would make the grittiness that they developed in the first one seem a lot more suitable since horrible stuff will be happening more often.
So, therefore, the final instalment in this trilogy should be Spider-Man getting his revenge against the Green Goblin for the murder of who is arguably his greatest lover, Gwen Stacy. If they could pull off her death, and make it as devastating as it should be to the hero, then it could very well be the most tragic climax to a comic book movie to date.
ALSO SPIDEY'S SUIT LOOKS BETTER THAN EVER (AND THEY'RE STILL DOING A LOT OF REAL STUNTS FOR THE WEBSWINGING AND STUFF)!
Spider-Man's new suit is very striking on the eyes this time around, especially compared to the last one because of how much was shot at night and the weird looking eye lenses. These new ones look slick and have a nice pop to them, very cool to see. It may be the best Spidey costume yet, but I'll have to see it on the big-screen before I judge fully.