Of all the big summer releases, the one that actually let me down was The Amazing Spider-Man 2. After coming off what I felt was a successful reboot, full of great action and wonderful chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, the second instalment sadly just seemed to revel in getting things wrong. Having gone back and watched it a second time on Blu-ray, the things that bothered me (Jamie Foxx, the sloppy writing) haven’t gone away.
However, what the new home release does demonstrate is that there was if not a good movie, at least a better one that was filmed and left on the cutting room floor. Never have I enjoyed super-hero deleted scenes more than when I watched those that belong to The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
The most powerful of these scenes is a meeting between Peter Parker and his long thought dead father, Richard (Campbell Scott). Had it been included in the final film, it would have occurred oat the tail end of the movie, as Peter is visiting someone special at a graveyard. Both actors put in emotional performances, as Richard explains to his son why he had to pretend he was dead, and Peter struggles as to whether he can actually be Spider-Man. In a shift from canon, it’s Richard who blatantly speaks “with great power comes great responsibility”, not Uncle Ben. Since Richard clearly dies in a flaming plane crash at the beginning of the film, the scene was cut, but this certainly would have added a little more gravitas had it been included and Richard had lived.
Another scene worth checking out finds Aunt May informing Peter that Gwen has been accepted to Oxford and that she’s leaving right away. Informed of this, Peter laughs and says, “she just had her interview yesterday!” EXACTLY. Clearly, the filmmakers knew how ridiculous the idea that Gwen would have an interview for Oxford, get accepted and then be on her way in 24 hours was; unfortunately, in the finished film they chose not to acknowledge it, which is I wish they would have kept this moment in as well.
One scene that wouldn’t have helped the film at all is between a pre-Electro Max Dillon and his bed-ridden, over the top obnoxious mother. The scene is utterly horrible, and it still boggles my mind that director Mark Webb thought portraying Max as an utter, exaggerated loser was a smart move.
If you’re a Spider-Man fan like me, you’ll have The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in your collection, regardless of its very obvious issues. The deleted scenes help make the purchase more appealing, and to be fair, the film still plays well on the small screen. Hopefully, with the third instalment delayed until 2018, much thought will be put into righting some of the current iterations perceived faults.
