The Amazing Spider-Man 2 fails to live up to the promise of the original

Two years ago, Sony Pictures rebooted what had been a massively successful franchise just five years after the last installment. New stars, a new director, new(ish) story, but The Amazing Spider-Man’s $752m worldwide box office gross – while phenomenal – failed to best the first trilogy’s worst performer (Spider-Man 2’s $783) and that’s not factoring in inflation.

While The Amazing Spider-Man might not have lived up to Sam Rami’s success, it still made Sony a metric crap-ton of money, and I’d argue the “parts” of the film were better than anything we saw in the original trilogy. Andrew Garfield’s take on the Webbed Wonder was streets ahead of Toby Maguire. As much as I like Kirsten Dunst, Mary Jane Watson she was not (and inserting Emma Stone into the mix is an instant upgrade). The film had its problems, but it created a world I couldn’t wait to see followed up on.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, opening this week, is the next step in Sony’s grand Spider-Man plan. The sequel greatly expands the universe, adding several new major characters and seeding in several more for future movies. Dane DeHaan joins the cast as Peter Parker’s childhood friend Harry Osborn and Jamie Foxx is Electro (one of the six – or more … who knows – villains introduced). The studio already has a third movie in the works, plus – taking advantage of all of those new villains – both The Sinister Six and Venom are in the pipeline as well.

Before Sony gets too crazy, step two the plan of world domination needs to be successful before any of us can be sure steps three through seventeen will come to pass (a problem Marvel Studios doesn’t have anymore), and I’m not sure The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is going to set the world on fire. The movie is just missing that “it,” trying to be many things at once and excelling at none.

Sure, Garfield still embodies your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man better than anyone I’ve seen on screen, Emma Stone is still Emma Stone and DeHaan brings to Harry Osborn the nuanced, dynamic performance we knew he would be capable after his star-making turn in Chronicle. Plus Sally fricking Field is still playing Aunt May. Norma Rae is Aunt May!

Unfortunately the good – and the goodwill the first movie established – can’t overcome some fundamental problems. Jamie Foxx is an incredibly talented actor, but some of the lines he was asked to perform as Electro were downright embarrassing. The flick suffered from horrible pacing, especially in the first act as the story saw the Peter/Gwen relationship go through the same cartwheels we experienced the first go around. The score, a collaboration between titans of their industries Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams, felt disjointed and at times and a nightmare at others. And in trying to tackle one of the most iconic stories in Spider-Man lore, Marc Webb shifted to a tone that the comic books can take on, but which casual fans – the ones buying the lion’s share of the movie tickets – will find unsettling.

It’s hard – and probably unfair – to not judge comic book franchises in the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But looking at where Sony looks to be taking Spider-Man (and what Warner Bros. is looking to set up with the DC properties) it is difficult to have faith in their ability to make an interesting, interwoven movie series, let alone individual flicks.