"Amazing Spider-man 2" discussion

[Turtletrekker]

Rumor-- Sony has signed Andrew Garfield for FOUR MORE Spidey films until 2020!

My question (if true) is-- are these all Spidey solo movies, or does this include the otherwise iffy Sinister Six and Venom movies?

 

[Mr Light]

I think it would be really cool if they do do a Sinister Six or Venom movie to have it be from the POV of the villain and then Spider-Man is the "villain" they fight at the end of the movie.

 

[TheSeeker]

Please do us all a favour and just give the Spider-Man rights back to Marvel. They know how to handle their characters/universe. You do not.

Actually I think this movie handled Spider-Man himself better than any previous live-action movie ever has. The action, the banter, the personality, the fact that they let him keep his mask on -- it was perfect. And it handled Gwen fantastically (except that the climax wasn't as good as the version Gerry Conway wrote). It just didn't handle the villains well.

I think you hit the nail on the head there. I think Garfield is a fantastic Spider-Man.

 

[Servo]

Please do us all a favour and just give the Spider-Man rights back to Marvel. They know how to handle their characters/universe. You do not.

Actually I think this movie handled Spider-Man himself better than any previous live-action movie ever has. The action, the banter, the personality, the fact that they let him keep his mask on -- it was perfect. And it handled Gwen fantastically (except that the climax wasn't as good as the version Gerry Conway wrote). It just didn't handle the villains well.

I think you hit the nail on the head there. I think Garfield is a fantastic Spider-Man.

Ok, sure, I can't argue with you guys about Garfield. His Spidey/Peter Parker, and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey, were by far the best things about this film. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough.

Everything else seemed too forced and contrived. The relationship and conflict between Peter and Harry was completely unbelievable, and paled in comparison to their Raimi-verse counterparts. The performances from Garfield and DeHaan were as good as they could be, given the material, but it was too rushed. In what felt like 10 minutes they'd gone from not having spoken for years, to best buds skipping stones down by the river. As a consequence, I felt there was no emotional impact at all from the conflict that arose between them.

And staying on the topic of Harry, I thought the whole journey of being told about the disease, searching for a cure, and becoming the Goblin escalated far too quickly. This should have been something that progressed over a couple of films, rather than being crammed into one.

Electro was just poor. Which was a massive shame, since I was really looking forward to seeing what Foxx could do with a villain in a Superhero film.

All in all, it felt like Spider-Man 3 all over again. Poorly executed villains, and too much happening too quickly. At least that film had the luxury of the character groundwork done by the previous two films to fall back on.

Columbia and Sony have had their shot now. I'd like to see what Marvel can do with the character, given the stellar job they've done with their other properties.

 

[Christopher]

By the way, I recall that there was an attempt made by the makers of The Avengers to include ASM's Oscorp Tower in their digital Manhattan, but the timing didn't work out so the implied crossover couldn't happen. And now it seems that the makers of ASM2 have abandoned any possibility of such a stealth crossover, because there was a shot of Oscorp Tower just a few blocks to the northwest of the MetLife Building -- which in the MCU has been rebuilt into Stark/Avengers Tower, but is clearly its old self in the Sony Spideyverse.

 

[Dream]

Writer Roberto Orci No Longer Involved With ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Franchise

So no ASM3, Venom, or Sinister Six spinoff films for Orci. Are those spinoff films effectively canceled?

 

[Gaith]

^ What, because one writer, who didn't even help write ASM1, moved on to direct Trek instead of staying a writer (a lower-paying gig)? Is that an honest question, or wishful thinking? Because if you think Sony's going to scrap a profitable franchise because one writer's moving on... you'd be very, very mistaken.

 

[Dream]

^ What, because one writer, who didn't even help write ASM1, moved on to direct Trek instead of staying a writer (a lower-paying gig)? Is that an honest question, or wishful thinking? Because if you think Sony's going to scrap a profitable franchise because one writer's moving on... you'd be very, very mistaken.

Calm down. I never said anything about scrapping the franchise, we all know that ASM3 is going to happen regardless of how ASM2 did, just that they might be changing their mind on doing spinoffs.

 

[Gaith]

If you read the linked article (not the silly blog post, but the IGN article it links to), you'll see that Kurtzman is set to direct Venom, and Drew Goddard the Sinister Six project. Orci is out of the picture because he'll be busy writing and directing Trek for the next two years. And yes, that means he's now fully out of the loop. It's kinda weird, granted, but it happens.

It should be clear to anyone who's seen and followed the BTS drama of ASM2 (not to mention 1) that Sony hasn't exactly been following an orderly plan for this rebooted franchise, they're very much making up each step as they go along. So, yes, it's entirely possible that one or both of the spin-off movies won't actually happen.

That said, your proposed scenario of a Sony exec considering scrapping Venom and/or Sinister Six solely because Orci just got promoted to Trek director makes no sense at all.

 

[Gaith]

Devin Faraci writes about changes made from an earlier draft of the movie's script.

#10... wtf!

#1... can MJ not be Peter's neighbor? Please?

#2... that sounds a bit better, but really, do we need a whole backstory on Electro? No. No, we do not. Just another day in the life of a superhero.

... Here, lemme fix the movie for Sony: in the legal chaos following the events of ASM1, Norman Osborn passes away, causing his genius son Harry to return from Europe, vowing revenge. Electro isn't connected to OsCorp, and is just a random headache Spidey has to deal with, and that gets resolved around the halfway mark. Being an impulsive risk-taker, Harry doses himself with a serum in order to be able to confront Spidey. Goblin/Spidey fight, involving Gwen, but in a twist!, Gwen survives... only to dump Peter, saying she loves him as a guy but just doesn't want anything to do with all his battles. He offers to go with her; she turns him down, saying she knows how much Spidey is a part of him now, and saying that someday, some gal out there will embrace both parts of him. She goes to England, and Peter now hates Goblin for taking her from him. Running time: 100 minutes.

 

[Christopher]

Devin Faraci writes about changes made from an earlier draft of the movie's script.

#10... wtf!

Yeah, that one goes to show why it's good that scripts go through multiple drafts. Although a number of the other elements of the early draft would've been good to keep.

#1... can MJ not be Peter's neighbor? Please?

That's kind of what she was in the comics, though. In her very first appearance (well, nearly -- we didn't see her face) in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 25 in 1965, she was described as ""the niece of Mrs. Watson, my next-door neighbor," although it was later established that she had her own apartment. Still, she evidently spent a lot of time at Aunt Anna's, and 1996's Untold Tales of Spider-Man #16 revealed that she was living there during the events of Spidey's origin story.

#2... that sounds a bit better, but really, do we need a whole backstory on Electro? No. No, we do not. Just another day in the life of a superhero.

Again, though, the backstory given in the script -- that he had a domineering mother who belittled him yet denied him his independence -- is rather faithful to the comics. And it might've made the movie's version less of a caricature if we'd gotten a sense of how his mother had beaten down his will and self-esteem.

... Here, lemme fix the movie for Sony: ...but in a twist!, Gwen survives... only to dump Peter, saying she loves him as a guy but just doesn't want anything to do with all his battles. He offers to go with her; she turns him down, saying she knows how much Spidey is a part of him now, and saying that someday, some gal out there will embrace both parts of him. She goes to England, and Peter now hates Goblin for taking her from him. Running time: 100 minutes.

What's the point of having her live if she's still written out? She's as effective a hero in this movie as Spidey is! She's awesome! I want to see them together as a permanent crimefighting team!

 

[Tosk]

but an early draft of the script by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman shows that the film's problematical plot elements were always in place.

No kiddin'? I never would have guessed that they were such a big part of the problem.

 

[Gaith]

That's kind of what she was in the comics, though. In her very first appearance...

I don't care. Not one tiny bit.

Again, though, the backstory given in the script -- that he had a domineering mother who belittled him yet denied him his independence -- is rather faithful to the comics. And it might've made the movie's version less of a caricature if we'd gotten a sense of how his mother had beaten down his will and self-esteem.

Again, don't care about the comics. I agree with your main point, but am also getting pretty tired of overly sympathetic villains in this series.

What's the point of having her live if she's still written out? She's as effective a hero in this movie as Spidey is! She's awesome! I want to see them together as a permanent crimefighting team!

Something new? We've seen Bourne, Batman, Bond, Wolverine, Dom and probably several others I'm forgetting dealing with the pathos of losing a SO in battle, and it could have been both novel and interesting to see a character we all really like genuinely and permanently choose to leave the whole "fight the good fight" path. Just an idea; I don't ask that other fans side with me on this one.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, but that's just my point -- it's not that great a departure from the format if she lives but still leaves the series anyway. Having her remain as the hero's ongoing partner would be a lot fresher.

 

[Gaith]

^ As great as her character is, I don't have a problem with her being written out - a happy relationship is tough to keep compelling in these sorts of epic movies. Offhand, I can only think of the Tony/Pepper one as an example that's still interesting in their fourth movie together, and I'd say that those characters' age and experience are key factors. Also, isn't a perpetually suffering Peter a key aspect of the comics to be faithful to?

 

[Christopher]

Well, the thing is, I'm not looking at Gwen as merely "Peter's relationship." My interest in her isn't about him, it's about her. She's a great protagonist in her own right in these movies. Heck, I'd watch a movie that was just about her.

 

[Ethros]

I enjoyed it, and I'll definitely be watching it again when it's out on Blu-ray. I just wish they had totally ruined the ending (ie the very last scene) with trailers and tv spots like this-
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haRujy86sMo[/yt]

That really sucked.

 

[Aldo]

That's kind of what she was in the comics, though. In her very first appearance...

I don't care. Not one tiny bit.

Again, though, the backstory given in the script -- that he had a domineering mother who belittled him yet denied him his independence -- is rather faithful to the comics. And it might've made the movie's version less of a caricature if we'd gotten a sense of how his mother had beaten down his will and self-esteem.

Again, don't care about the comics. I agree with your main point, but am also getting pretty tired of overly sympathetic villains in this series.

What's the point of having her live if she's still written out? She's as effective a hero in this movie as Spidey is! She's awesome! I want to see them together as a permanent crimefighting team!

Something new? We've seen Bourne, Batman, Bond, Wolverine, Dom and probably several others I'm forgetting dealing with the pathos of losing a SO in battle, and it could have been both novel and interesting to see a character we all really like genuinely and permanently choose to leave the whole "fight the good fight" path. Just an idea; I don't ask that other fans side with me on this one.

So if Spider-Man went around killing people you wouldn't mind because you don't care about the comics?

 

[Gaith]

Devin Faraci writes about changes made from an earlier draft of the movie's script.

#10... wtf!

Yeah, that one goes to show why it's good that scripts go through multiple drafts. Although a number of the other elements of the early draft would've been good to keep.

Good grief... they actually shot that scene (Richard Parker shows up, completely alive, and has a chat with Peter in the present.)

How the blue hell could anyone have thought that was a good idea? Maybe if Gwen were still alive, it could have been an interesting development, but to drop it on top of her death?! I'm starting to think the awesomeness of ASM1 was an accident!

 

[Doctorwhovian]

The parents actually did return in the comics during the early 90s.
However, they turned out to be evil robots created by the Chameleon & Green Goblin (Harry version). It was typical 90's excess though.