The rumors were true. Sony confirmed that yes indeed The Amazing Spider-Man is now an official “universe.” There will be two spin-off films – Venom and The Sinister Six. After this big announcement Sony pictures surprised the crowd at CinemaCon by giving the audience a 30-minute taste of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The three clips showcased an arc in the film.
First clip featured an extended look at the mystery surrounding Peter’s Parents. We open with Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) discovering that his research wasn’t going to be used the way he wants to, so he removes al l of his files and leaves OSCORP. After that we see a shot of Pete’s parents telling him they have to leave on an urgent business trip, the Parkers are attacked on the plane by an assassin. We get lots of shots of the plane plunging from the air while the fight is going on.
The film leaves it up in the air (pun intended) as to whether the Parkers really die or not; we assume they do and was always told they did, but this is comics. They are spending so much time on the Parkers in this new Universe that I will not be surprised if the pop up alive and well in either this film or the next.
The next clip showed Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) soaring through the air and having fun slinging his webs and looking for trouble. Trouble comes in the form of some Russians who stole an OSCORP truck that contained nuclear material. Spider-Man tries to stop it while stopping the vials from breaking. This action scene is inter-cut with Peter’s senior class graduating and Gwen (Emma Stone) giving her valedictorian speech. He saves a pre-Electro Max Dillon who is in awe of Spider-Man. The sequence ends after some time has passed and Gwen announces that she is moving to England. I really think they are going where we all think they are and I the audience is going to be in for an emotional kick in the gut.
Later we get an extended look at Electro, immediately after he gets his powers and encounters Spider-Man for the first time. A big battle in the middle of Times Square occurs. For some reason New Yorkers and tourist are just standing around and watching the action unfold in front of them. It seems so cheesy, when are people going to learn to RUN and not be canon fodder the hero has to save?
We then get a look at the beginnings of a partnership as Harry Osborn offers to break Electro out of prison if he helps him break into OSCORP (why, we don’t know, but I’m assuming it’s probably to steal Goblin stuff). Seems he blames Spider-Man for losing OSCORP.
Judging by audience reaction and conversations I had with folks at dinner, this is going to be a very polarizing film. Some people in the audience, who don’t know anything about Spider-Man thought he came across as an arrogant jerk and hated it. The action sequences look great, but the poorly done web swinging bits look really awful and took me out of the film. I love quippy, snarky Spider-Man.