The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) Film Review

Sony Pictures

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

Starring Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker / Spider-Man), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Jamie Fox (Max Dillon / Electro), Dane DeHaan (Harry Osborn / The Green Goblin), Colm Feore (Donald Menken), Felicity Jones (Felicia Hardy), Paul Giamatti (Aleksei Systevich / The Rhino), and Sally Field (Aunt May), with Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn and a special appearance by Stan Lee

Directed by Marc Webb

Produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach

Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, and James Vanderbilt

Music by Hans Zimmer with Pharrell Williams, Johnny Marr, Mike Einziger, Junkie XL, Steve Mazzaro, and Andrew Kawczynski

Distributed by Sony Pictures

Run Time: 2 hours and 21 minutes

World Premier: April 18, 2014, in Mexico

Opening Weekend Box Office: $91 million (North America)

Worldwide Box Office: $709 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 51%

Sony Pictures

Fun The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Facts

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was heavily inspired by 1973’s The Amazing Spider-Man # 122 written by Gerry Conway. This was the groundbreaking storyline The Night Gwen Stacy Died. This story is widely regarded as one of Marvel Comics’ all-time great tales and was one that sent shockwaves throughout the comic book industry for its killing-off of such a high-profile character in such a tragic way. Gwen’s death would have a lasting impact on Peter Parker as a comic book character and on Spider-Man as a superhero.

Emma Stone personally wrote Gwen Stacy’s graduation speech in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

After going unmentioned in The Amazing Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson is mentioned during this film and even acknowledged as Peter Parker’s boss at the Spider-Man-bashing Daily Bugle. However, Jameson never actually appears on camera during the film.

Actress Shailene Woodley was cast to portray Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and even filmed several scenes for the movie, but her character was ultimately cut from the film.

Several scenes involving Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn / The Green Goblin were omitted from the final cut of the film, as the producers deemed the scenes too disturbing and too frightening.

Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as a spectator at the Gwen Stacy / Peter Parker graduation ceremony.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was intended by Sony Pictures to set-up The Sinister Six in the planned next film. Amongst the characters teased were Doctor Otto Octavius, The Vulture, and Kraven the Hunter, while The Rhino actually does appear at the end of the film.

The mid-credits scene for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a trailer for 20^th Century Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was one of four Marvel films that were produced in 2014, but The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was made without any input from Marvel Studios, as the working relationship between Marvel and Sony ended with 2007’s Spider-Man 3, with Marvel Entertainment promoting Kevin Feige to lead the Marvel Studios team that would birth the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios produced both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. Guardians of the Galaxy ($773 million and the third highest-grossing film of the year) and The Winter Soldier ($714 million and the seventh highest-grossing film of the year) both outperformed The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($708 million and the ninth highest-grossing film of the year), as did Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past ($746-million and the sixth highest-grossing film of the year). Having four different movies all cross the $700 million mark and place within the Top 10 highest grossing films of the year was a huge testament to the popularity and appeal of Marvel characters, however! It should also be noted that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the lowest-grossing Spider-Man film ever produced by Sony Pictures.

On February 9, 2015, following a crippling e-mail hack and the critical failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures reached an agreement to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with 2016’s Captain America: Civil War after which Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures would co-produce a new Spider-Man film, which would serve as another reboot. In the Summer of 2015, Tom Holland was cast to portray Peter Parker / Spider-Man within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

From 2016-2019, Tom Holland appeared as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in 5 Marvel Studios / Sony Pictures projects including Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

In the 2021 Marvel Studios / Sony Pictures co-production Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel Studios’ yet-to-be titled Multiverse Saga was kicked into high gear when the events of that film saw Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man enter the MCU 9-years removed from the 2012 Amazing Spider-Man film. Garfield’s Parker was brought into the MCU’s 616-Universe due to a Multiversal breach triggered by an errant magical spell that was cast by Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Stephen Strange, which involved Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. The botched spell allowed Jamie Fox’s Max Dillon / Elektro to crossover into the MCU 616-Universe as well and Spider-Man: No Way Home made both The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 MCU canon via the Multiverse.

A careful study of the information given in No Way Home reveals that Electro was transported from the world of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 into the MCU the instant before his death while fighting Spider-Man and that Electro was caught-up in Doctor Strange’s spell because he died fighting Spider-Man and knew Spider-Man’s secret identity as Peter Parker. We never actually see Electro learn Spider-Man’s identity in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but is possible that Electro digitally absorbed this information when he plugged into New York City’s electrical grid and database, as in No Way Home, Electro admits that he only knows Peter Parker’s name and does not know what Spider-Man actually looks like under the mask.

Sony Pictures

My The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

Flashback 8-years, and the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came at a time when Marvel Studios had established their dominance in Hollywood with their Shared Cinematic Universe becoming all the rage. Sony Pictures was just one company who set out to emulate Marvel Studios’ success by following a similar formula. Sony had plenty of Marvel characters at their disposal thanks to lingering remnants of past licensing deal, the most prominent of which was Spider-Man; traditionally, Marvel’s most popular superhero.

Sony had visions of a Spider-Man Cinematic Universe that could lead to spin-offs and team-ups, and most importantly, billions of dollars … just like The Avengers! By the end of 2014 however, Sony realized that accomplishing this was not as easy as it may have seemed. It’s not so simple as to just decide to create a shared world. That world has to be emotionally invested in by viewers and that is only accomplished through strong characters and good movies. And The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was not a very good movie.

I watched this film for the first time in a long while to prepare myself for this review, and my goodness, it was a tough watch. I went into this movie back in 2014, super stoked because I genuinely enjoyed the first Amazing Spider-Man film and really liked what Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone did with the Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy characters. I had a pretty good feeling that this sequel was going to adapt the Night That Gwen Stacy Died comic book arc, and with that being one of my most favorite comic book stories, I was excited about that. And in the end, I think the film got that part pretty right! I thought it was a daring move for Sony to decide to do this story, given its emotional weight, and yes, they changed some major details of the original plot, but they got the spirit of it right! In the end, The Green Goblin tosses Peter’s beloved Gwen to her death and Peter tries to save her with his webbing, but the force and whiplash of his shot actually causes her to smash the back of her head on the concrete with a sickening thud that kills her instantly. And before I tear this movie apart, I have to say how great Andrew Garfield was in Gwen’s death scene. You watch that scene, and you can feel his pain, his agony, and his torment. It hits you right in the chest and tugs at your heart. It is a beautifully tragic and haunting sequence and if nothing else, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 gave fans that moment in live-action, and I’ll always appreciate it for that.

Sadly, this film got so many other things wrong. Right from the top, the very best part of the first Amazing Spider-Man film was Peter and Gwen’s chemistry. Every time Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were on screen together in that first film, the movie worked. So, how does Sony decide to follow up on that? By pretty much keeping Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone away from each other throughout this movie!

Peter and Gwen are written this time around to be a stressed-out, bickering couple that are still wrapped-up in the promise that Gwen’s dad made Peter give him upon his death. Peter is still tormented by that whole thing, and hey, I get that, it should still be impacting him, but it comes across as sort of petty and stubborn on his part, because Gwen is all-in, and he can’t allow himself to allow her to move on. He just keeps her dangling by a thread and it’s a weird sort of way to make her dad’s death even worse for her, and I just don’t think it works. Maybe it looked good on paper, I don’t know, but the execution of it was flawed, especially the weird ghost of Captain Stacy cameos throughout the film. It just didn’t work for me, and in its first act, this film breaks Peter and Gwen up and that was a poor choice too. Peter and Gwen would continue to go back-and-forth throughout most of the rest of the movie as she tries to make the best decisions for her future.

Sony Pictures

My next complaint involves the entire Peter’s secret scientist dad thing. This was set-up in the first film and gets readdressed here throughout the movie as Peter tries to figure out what really happened with his mom and dad and why they left him all those years ago. As it turns out, Peter’s dad was an associate of Norman Osborn’s, and had worked with Norman in years past to help Norman cure his genetic condition (which was apparently turning him into a Goblin and slowly killing him). Well, Peter’s dad broke the code through genetic research (with spiders of course) but then refused to share the full extent of his work with Oscorp over fears of his work being weaponized and blah, blah, blah … just, none of it mattered. It had very little to do with much of anything and would have had very little impact on this film had it been ignored altogether.

Next, there is the entire Oscorp staff or board members or whatever; an assembly of the most bland, boring, and one-dimensional characters in the history of any Spider-Man movie. These guys do at least serve a purpose to the plot as it pertains to Harry, but it’s just a bunch of jerks in suits at the end of the day and it was just bad acting and going through the motions for the lot of them, including Colm Feore (King Laufey in Marvel Studios’ Thor) and BJ Novak (of America’s The Office fame).

As bad as those guys were though, the Doctor at the Ravencroft Institute (Martin Csokas) was beyond bad. His character was hammy and awful and embarrassing … words I would also use to describe Paul Giamatti as The Rhino. Giamatti was BAD and over the top in all the wrong ways. He wasn’t funny and he wasn’t scary, and he wasn’t interesting – he was loud and dumb and annoying! I hated everything about his performance in this film.

Jamie Fox as Electro was mostly a miss for me as well. My criticism of the character is linked to the time before he becomes Electro where he is a bumbling, mild-mannered Oscorp employee that has no self-esteem and feels all alone in a giant world. There is nothing wrong with a character like that on the surface, but every time he’s on the screen, there’s this goofy little melody playing in the background, and I don’t think the filmmakers could decide if they wanted this character to be sympathetic or annoying. I thought he was annoying, and in comic book movies especially, humor is a tricky thing to juggle. I mean, this is superheroes and radioactive spiders and wizards and robots – it’s sort of ridiculous going in, and any one thing can come off as lame or absurd if not approached from the right angle and executed in the right way. A perfect example of this was when Max Dillon falls into the vat of eels. This is a sequence that is supposed to come off as frightening and extreme, but it instead comes off as hilarious. And that’s a miss.

From there, I thought Jamie was good. I liked the look of Electro and how his powers were executed. I liked how his voice sounded too. The Dubstep music that was supposed to give us a peak into his mind came off bad, but he looked menacing and made for a great opponent for Spider-Man. After seeing Spider-Ma: No Way Home, I think Jamie Fox just did what he was told to do with the character in this film, for he certainly redeemed himself in No Way Home.

Sony Pictures

So, what was good about The Amazing Spider-Man 2? Well, that goes back to Andrew Garfield and Spider-Man as a character himself. The Spider-Man costume in this film was glorious! It had the perfect color scheme and web pattern, and I don’t think Spider-Man had ever looked as good in live action than he did in this film. Watching Spider-Man swing and flip through New York City is mesmerizing. It’s absolutely beautiful and the movements are fluid and natural. When Spider-Man is on the screen, you don’t want to turn away. Beyond that, Andrew Garfield (relationship struggles aside) remained a very likable Peter Parker. He was funny at times and always sincere. His eyes emit a deep soul and an honest kindness, and you just want Peter Parker to win. Even when he makes poor choices, you understand why he is making those choices and why those choices feel right to him, and that’s a testament to Andrew Garfield’s performance.

I also really liked Dane DeHaan in this film, and I wish we’d have gotten more of him! He had a solid story arc that while it could have been fleshed out a little more in a perfect world, made sense and was easy to understand. He and Peter used to be the best of friends and now Harry has returned home because his father Norman is dying. Harry’s going to inherit Oscorp and have the world at his fingers, but Harry has the same disease that killed his father, and this disease is going to kill Harry too if he doesn’t do something fast. This makes Harry desperate.

Dane DeHaan was extremely likable in the scenes that he was supposed to be likable in. He played his part with a calm sincerity and an underlying fear of his own mortality. He had great chemistry with Andrew Garfield, and I actually felt for Harry when he was trying to get that blood sample from Spider-Man. DeHaan perfectly presented his character as one with a pleasant smile, but with eyes that told how loosely he was clinging to his own sanity and when he finally flips out, DeHaan’s Harry Osborn is a joy to watch!

I thought Dane DeHaan was the best villain in this film and I loved his transformation into The Green Goblin. Again, this calls back to the monster movie elements of the first Amazing Spider-Man film that I enjoyed so much, and I would have loved to have seen the filmmakers go full-on horror here with The Green Goblin. As it stood, he was maniacal and creepy, and looked really great soaring around on his glider. And in the end, he killed Gwen Stacy, and that is one heck of a villainous moment!

One of my favorite things about Spider-Man: No Way Home was how it salvaged The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and redeemed some of the characters we were introduced to in this Universe, namely Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man, of course. I adore Tom Holland, but Andrew Garfield was never the problem with these films, and it was wonderful to see his story fleshed out in the MCU. We know that he went down a pretty dark path following the death of Gwen, becoming a rather ruthless and merciless Spider-Man. He alludes to not pulling his punches in No Way Home, which suggests that he might have beat more than one supervillain to death with his bare hands, which would obviously make him a very different kind of Spider-Man. O top of that, his redeeming moment of saving Zendaya’s MJ from falling to her death during an attack by Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin called back to this film in a major way and made for a wonderful MCU moment!

I have no idea where Sony is actually going to go with their Spider-Man Universe but watching these two Amazing Spider-Man films back has won me over to the idea that Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and probably Morbius do in fact take place in the same Universe as the Amazing Spider-Man films. Again, those are monster movies that aren’t shying away from being monster movies, and it’s very easy to imagine vampires and Symbiotes in a world that saw a man transform himself into a Lizard and another transform himself into a Goblin. Time will tell of course, but I do not think we’ve seen the last of Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, and we just might see him pop back up in the next Venom film.

Sony Pictures

Highlights of The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man

Chemistry Between Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield

Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy

The Death of Gwen Stacy

Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn / The Green Goblin

Sony Pictures

Notable MCU Concepts and Characters Introduced:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 serves as an origin story for the Max Dillon / Electro character that was formally introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film also furthers the story of Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man, who was also introduced in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.