CHAPTER 7:
NOT ANOTHER BAD CBM
A bit of a warning. This chapter may end with me getting very, very, very upset. So to balance that out, here's three more 60s Spider-Man memes!
Anyway, there was a lot of talk for an Amazing Spider-Man sequel, even before the film was released. This was most likely because Spidey was a popular character, and when you do a movie reboot of a popular character, a sequel is guaranteed.
Uh.....
When you do a movie reboot of a popular character whose first films did well at the box office.
Uh...
When you do a movie reboot of a character whose first films were GOOD.
Finally.
But I digress. The point is a sequel was confirmed. The film was set for the usual Marvel date: The first weekend of May, leaving Captain America to move to April. Marc Webb teased two things about the movie: A) The villain; B) They would go deeper into the origin. They did. And they did. Except they...
But, we'll talk about that later.
In October 2012, Electro was confirmed as the villain. Two months later, The Osborns were confirmed. Two MORE months later, another villain, Rhino, was confirmed. Then Felicity Jones and Sarah Gordon were cast and they were both rumoured to be Black Cat...
Okay, Black Cat was the only role Gordon was rumoured for. Many fans thought she was going to play Mary Jane. However, she was just playing some random holigram. Speaking of Mary Jane, she was in this movie and she was played by Shailene Woodley. However, even after they filmed all her scenes, she was cut from the movie. Now, I think Woodley is a fantastic actress and I look forward to where her career will go in the future. Plus, the description of the character's scenes make her seem like a much better depiction of the character than the unlikeable and ungrateful airhead from the Raimi films. But there were already too many characters and from the sound of things,she would have been pointless. Oh wait. I forgot. They killed Gwen so Peter could bone MJ. I guess she did have a point.
Now for casting. Jane Levy and Kristen Stewart (Who is a good actress outside of Twilight, just letting you all know) both auditioned to play Mary Jane before the character was cut. Eddie Redmayne, Sam Claflin, and Douglas Booth were considered to play Harry before Dane DeHaan got the part. As for Electro, they had some weird choices. Well, at least for an over-the-top villain. They wanted to get Mads Mikkelsen, Damian Lewis, and Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin. They wanted these guys for the guy who said "It's my birthday. Time to light the candles".
When the movie came out, it did okay. It made $200 million stateside. By by Spider-Man standards, this was not that great. As for the critics, it got mixed revies. Some liked the action scenes, the effects, the acting, and the romance. Others disliked the overstuffeed plot and over-the-top villains. As for fans, they HATED this movie, some claiming it to be the Batman & Robin of the Spider-Man movies. As for myself, I loved this movie... when I first saw it. After repeat viewings, I saw how bad it was.
Now some people try to defend this movie by saying it's not as overstuffed as Spider-Man 3. Now while Spider-Man 3 may have more characters, it still told a cohereant story and most (if not all) of the subplots connected, most with Peter's symbiote problem. They all had a point. In this, when every single one of your villains feel tacked on and pointless, you did something wrong.
Okay, let's review. The main plot puts focus on Peter and Gwen's romance. What does Electro, the film's main villain, have to do with this? Nothing. The subplot about Peter's family is there to reveal how what we already know. Harry's subplot only exists so Gwen can die. Gwen dies so they can introduce MJ in the next film. The Rhino shows up because they need to set up for Sinister Six. The few subplots that connect are Harry's subplot and the main plot, but they hardly connect.
Let's talk about Gwen's death. Okay, first of all, the foreshadowing was as subtle as a hammer to your ballsack. From the speech to Peter's warnings, you know what will happen. Second, the movie put their entire focus on this, and that was a terrible idea, because you're just waiting for her to croak. Third, it comes out of nowhere. Fourth, Harry's subplot and the Goblin were so forced in. Why put these in? Oh yeah, because of the comics. Ugh.
After this drek came out, better CBMs showed that changes to a storyline are sometimes needed.
One of these came out three weeks after Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Okay, there were some good things. Peter's relationships with Gwen and Aunt May are perfect. There's a touching scene with Peter and May that was very tear-jerking. Whenever Spidey interacts with civilians, it's great. I just wish there were more scenes like that.
Oh yeah, this is about the production and crap. Sorry. Uh... Gwen's speech was written by Emma Stone herself. Which teaches us something very important: Emma Stone is a great actress, just don't ask her to write dialouge.
So with Spidey doing "okay" and huge backlash from fans, no one knew what Sony would do next. The fans said that Spidey belongs with Marvel.
However, while the fans said that, Sony said this:
TO BE CONTINUED...