Despite the financial success of Spiderman 3, the sequel was canceled due to creative differences. Instead, Sony opted to start from scratch and five years later, The Amazing Spiderman was born. This time, Andrew Garfield played the role of Peter Parker, with Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and Sally Field as Aunt May. The reboot made a solid return of $757.9 million, though the reviews of the popular web-slinger were a far cry from the high praise that both Spiderman and Spiderman 2 received. Two years later, The Amazing Spiderman 2 came out, with Dan DeHaan as the new Green Goblin, Jamie Foxx as Electro, and Paul Giamatti as Rhino.
Unfortunately, the sequel received the first rotten tomatoes of the Spiderman films and made only $709 million worldwide. It was reported that Sony had plans to expand the Spiderman universe; however, due to the sequel drawing its lowest financial number yet, the studio canceled any further plans for The Amazing Spiderman. So, what happened? The Sam Raimi Spiderman trilogy made the comic book hero the hottest superhero property in the mainstream and suddenly, fans lost interest in the web-slinger. Let’s dive into several theories on why The Amazing Spiderman movies failed to truly connect with most audiences.
The Series Failed To Differentiate Itself From Sam Raimi’s Superior Movies
Here’s the thing, I don’t know the whole behind-the-scenes reason that Sony couldn’t have just kept Tobey McGuire and hire a new director instead. Based on various reports and Sam Raimi himself, the split between the director and Sony was amicable; however, the studio was clearly planning for a reboot even before Spiderman 4 was announced (and then canceled). The issue isn’t that there wasn’t a conclusion to the Tobey McGuire vehicle. It’s the fact that the writers failed to separate The Amazing Spiderman from the Sam Raimi series. The 2012 reboot was essentially a carbon copy of the 2002 original. Uncle Ben dies. Check. Living with his great Aunt May. Check. Bitten by a radioactive spider. Check. You get my point.
Granted, not everything is the same as the Lizard is a brand new villain; however, he barely competes with Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Sandman. All the 2012 reboot did was remind fans how great the Tobey Maguire series was. Don’t get me wrong, Andrew Garfield was a fantastic choice as the new Peter Parker, but there’s only so much the actor can do with such average material. There are numerous different versions of Spiderman, namely Spidergirl, Spider-Cyborg, Spiderman Noir, Spiderman 2099, or Miles Morales. Sony should’ve taken a risk by using one of the many variations of the web-slinger. Instead, The Amazing Spiderman felt like an unnecessary cash cow because the Peter Parker name is familiar to mainstream audiences. The Amazing Spiderman isn’t a bad movie. It’s just an unnecessary one. Sony was wise for skipping an origin story for Tom Holland’s version of Spiderman.
The Movies Just Couldn’t Recapture The Magic That The Sami Rami Films Had
None of The Amazing Spiderman movies are bad. They’re just…average. The sequel fell into the same trappings that Spiderman 3 did. There was too much going on. Electro, Rhino, and Green Goblin 2.0 felt like a rushed attempt to get to the planned Sinister Six movie. Electro is the one who gets the most character development, but there’s nothing particularly memorable about him. He doesn’t have the strong emotional depth that Alfred Molina‘s Doc. Ock had nor was their fun and wild energy coming from him like Green Goblin. Speaking of Green Goblin, the story we got in the film felt like cliff notes to get to the shocking ending of Gwen Stacy’s death. William Dafoe’s Green Goblin was fun because his story was given time to build up due to him being the focal point of Spiderman.
Add in the campy and over-the-top awesomeness of Dafoe’s performance under the Goblin costume and he made for a good Spiderman antagonist. Dane DeHaan does what he can with the character, but he’s let down by the script. Rhino’s sole purpose was to build the Sinister Six film, nothing more. You can easily cut out his scenes and it wouldn’t have changed the plot of The Amazing Spiderman 2. Spiderman 3 was a chaotic and unfocused mess. There were great ideas throughout the movie, but its overabundance of characters really damaged the movie. This is the same problem that The Amazing Spiderman 2 deals with. The good news is that the sequel deviates from any of Raimi’s sequels. The bad news? It clearly didn’t learn the lesson that made Spiderman 3 a hated film. On the bright side, Peter Parker isn’t dancing like a dork.Spiderman 3
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