EDITORIAL: How The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Could Have Been a Better Movie

Like many, I have been quite critical of Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Although it offers some of the best and truest character development in the franchise’s history, and has some decent action to boot, the film is still intensely flawed. Yet upon further pondering, I have come to the realization that the filmmakers could have avoided this and delivered a far better experience, by simply doing two big things differently.  But of course, in order to see how the film could have been better, we must first look at what went wrong.



What’s Wrong With It?

As everybody has seemingly pointed out by now, the film is simply packed with different story points and subplots. It doesn’t seem to tell a story so much as it tries to tell six stories. If you were to ask me what the film is about, I’m not sure I could answer you very well.

First of all, there is the love story, that of Peter having to decide to be with Gwen or not, which ends in tragedy. Then, of course, is the villainous plotline. Except in this case, we have two. Electro is billed as the main villain of the piece, and gets the most screentime. But we also have Harry’s story, of him seeking Peter’s blood to save his life, and his father’s secreats which he unearths. And on top of it all, we have Peter’s search for the truth about his parents.

The main problem with the film is that there is no singular antagonist, no moving force that keeps the entire, single story moving along. Instead, all of these different plotlines seem to be spliced together randomly. By the time Harry shows up as the Goblin, I did not feel as if I was watching a story come to a climax. Rather, I felt I was watching the latest in a jumbled, unrelated series of events.

So why exactly did the film end up so jumbled, and just what was the base storyline that the filmmakers were trying to tell? Well, buckle up kids! It’s time talk about structure!

Almost every good action movie essentially has an A and a B story, essentially the adventure story and the love story. These, of course, start out separate, but eventually tie in together at the end, to bring the character the required conclusion. This is especially prevalent in the Sam Raimi’s trilogy, in which everything essentially exists to affect Peter’s relationship with Mary Jane.
Here, there is a very clear love story, which seems to be at the film’s forefront. At it's heart, it is a tragedy of Peter needing to decide if being with Gwen is worth the risk to her. He decides it is, and she dies. This tragedy seems to be the first and foremost story the writers desired to tell.


But in order to make that happen, we need to have a villainous plotline as well! As stated, we have two. But despite him getting more screentime and advertisement, I believe Electro’s story is very much second in importance. The main story of the entire series seems to be the Oscorp experiments that Richard Parker began, which culminated in the creation of Spider-Man and the Lizard, and here end up creating the Green Goblin, and apparently all future villains. It is Harry’s search for a cure, what he discovers, and what he becomes, that is important for the story as a whole.  So why have Electro at all?
The simple fact of the matter is that Electro seems to simply exist solely to give Spider-Man someone to fight in the meantime. The whole film may lead to Harry becoming the Goblin and killing Gwen, but it’s still a superhero movie, and there has to be hero-on-villain action prior to that. Hence, the character of Electro is created for a single action scene, although he gets a bonus one before Goblin at the end.

The problem, therefore, becomes that the writers try to give the character such a big story. They weave an intricate tale of a tragic figure just to get an action beat midway through the film. The themes of Max’s loneliness, of people not noticing other people, may have done well in any other film. But they have nothing to do with the other themes presented in here, and thus feel completely out of place. It also stands that he is the only superpowered character in the series thus far not to receive his power from Richard Parker’s experiments, which makes him all the more random and out of place.


Next, let’s look at the plotline having to do with Peter’s parents. Midway through the film, amidst everything else that is happening, Peter decides to also go on a search for the truth about his parents. This had to be gotten out of the way at some point in the series, but was not ultimately folded well into the existing story.  He goes on a little mini-adventure, and discovers the truth: Oscorp was planning to use his father’s research to create weapons, and he ran away because of that.  That’s it. This plotline has begun, and is now over, and like Max Dillon, it doesn’t affect anything else in the film. True, said research is what Harry ultimately uncovers, but Peter’s discovering of all of this seems to have had no bearing on those events, and this little episode feels entirely isolated from the rest of the film.

So at the film’s heart, there are really only two stories: Peter and Gwen’s relationship, and Harry becoming the Green Goblin. This is our A and B story, which are synthesized at the end of the film. The other two plotlines were added in for their own  reasons, but in the end, harm the pace of the film.  

What Else is Wrong With It?

Now all of that had to do with problems of objective structure. In addition also the issue of comic book fans relating to the film’s faithfulness ot the comic, specifically, with the character of Harry Osborne. Although Harry did, at one point, become the new Green Goblin, he has hardly been a mainstay villain in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. It is surprising, therefore, that he is the only “villain” to actually be adapted twice onscreen.
The defining moment of the film is certainly the death of Gwen Stacey, which any comic book fan knows was at the hands of Norman Osborne. It is a pivotal and iconic moment in the web-slinger’s career, and it was rather odd to see it put in the hands of Harry. It also seems out of place for Peter’s greatest enemy  to be introduced only to die in bed, and for his pal Harry to now be this scheming criminal mastermind, maneuvering the creation of all of Peter’s future enemies.
Why was this done? It seems obvious. The filmmakers were afraid of retreading old territory. Norman Osborne’s Green Goblin has already been done, very memorably, onscreen. In fact, the death of Gwen Stacey was imitated, to an extent, in that first film. To make him a main villain again would bear the risk of seeming repetitive (such also seems to be the reason why the place of Gwen’s death is moved from a bridge to a tower).

Here is the problem with this reasoning: If you didn’t want to risk retreading old ground, you shouldn’t have reobooted the series five years after the fact. Such was always a critisicm of this series, and it always will be. There are plenty of other ways one could have freshened the character of the Green Goblin up, not the least of which being putting him in his classic costume. In the end, this proves to be a bad move, not only from a fan’s perspective, but also to an objective storytelling eye.

                The machinations of Norman Osborne have clearly been what has caused most of the trouble in this series thus far, and he certainly seemed to be the unseen ominous villain in the first film (i.e., the Emperor in Star Wars). It makes sense for him to continue to be an evil presence in the films. But instead, he is killed off shortly in, and that job is then delegated to his son.  


 
How it could Have Been Better.

We come to it at last. It is my personal conclusion that this film would have been inexorably improved if the filmmakers had done two things very differently.

1. Make Norman Osborne the main villain.
2. Give less development on Electro.

                Imagine if the film had gone this way: Norman Osborne, not Harry, continues to search for a cure for his illness. This time,  it leads to the creation of Electro, a fairly simple, hired thug (which is what Max Dillon is in the comics anyway), whom Norman Osborne will use to do his bidding.
                This immediately solves the problem of not having a central antagonist. It is Norman. Even if Electro gets to fight Spider-Man first, even if Norman doesn’t become the Green Goblin until the end of the film, his is the evil hand that is making everything move. It also removes the random character story given to Electro, and just makes him merely a henchmen, like so many other film henchmen, to be fought and disposed of before the real villain.
                Much of Harry's story could actually remain much the same. What if Norman’s explaining of his illness, of the real reason he has been absent for so much of Harry’s life, to save both of them, effects Harry, and despite his previous hatred of his father, he now wants to save him? He would still be despearate for hielp,  appeal to Spider-Man, much like he does in the film.

                This change in plotline would actually give a great way for the revelation about Peter’s parents, although unchanged, to actually play a part in the greater story of the film. Perhaps Peter actually does decide to give Harry’s father his blood. But right around that time is when he discovers his father’s message. Here is when he realizes how evil Norman really is, and what he will use the research for. And so he returns to Harry, as Spider-Man, and refuses, leading to a similar scene.
                Finally, Norman can wait no longer, and uses the serum on himself. Spider-Man defeats his henchemen Electro, but then has to fight the Green Goblin, much as seen in the film. After killing Gwen, the Goblin, in this scenario, would get away.  In the end, Peter would still has no idea who the Green Goblin is, just that there is a new villain out there, and more to come. The film would still end much the same way, only with new villains being created, and an Osborne the mastermind behind it all.

In terms of the Goblin's arc, it almost seems this would have been the natural plotline the filmmakers would have thought of first. The purpose of Norman's presence in the first film seems to be to tease his eventual rise as the Goblin, and it makes sense for him to do so in the second chapter, in which Gwen Stacey would be killed. Replacing him with Harry seems to be a secondary decision. The above summary might actually be a somwhat accurate description of the film we would have, if the filmmakers were not so afraid of retreading the past.

It is my opinion that, with these things changed, we would have a better, stronger film.



But what do you think? Be sure to sound off in the comments section below.