‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Trailer Makes More Enemies

By  · Published on December 5th, 2013

The clearest thing about the Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer (and its entire production history) is how thoroughly Marc Webb and company ignored complaints about having too many villains in a single movie. Not only have they dropped three into the mix here, they’ve also made the overwhelming nature of that reality part of the thematic challenge Peter Parker must face.

That dramatic turn may help transform the juggling act of multiple baddies (with multiple origin stories) into a usable energy, but they’re going to have to do a far better job of balancing the story than they did with the messy first outing of the rebooted hero.

On that front, it looks like the all-but-erased-by-the-studio “secret origin” is back in the mix as Peter delves deeper into what his father was working on at Oscorp. Again, that’s fertile ground, but it adds another layer to the dip.

Check out the trailer for yourself:

Another thing that stands out about this trailer is how little Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone stand out. Meanwhile, Jamie Foxx looks like he’s turned his character from The Soloist into a supervillain by way of Jim Carrey’s Riddler; Paul Giamatti apparently gets a personal tank as Rhino; and Dane DeHaan looks insanely slick as Harry. Where James Franco felt broody in his James Dean way, DeHaan looks broody in that We Need To Talk About Kevin way. Far, far more effective.

There are a lot of elements to be optimistic about, but there are also a lot of elements period. Hope springs eternal that they’ve managed to cobble all of them into something cohesive.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits theaters May 2, 2014.

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