'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' Super Bowl Trailer Lights Up Electro's Origins
So the wallcrawler’s latest enemy was born of… electric eels?
Sony has unveiled a pretty sweet extended look at the film that kicks off (or, rather, “swings in”) the 2014 summer movie season: “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which looks to make director Marc Webb’s Spidey reboot into its own entity rather than something to be constantly compared to Sam Raimi’s original trilogy, which so far has had its comparative installments released exactly ten years prior to that of the new series.
Having new-to-the-big-screen Electro as what appears to be the “main villain” of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” goes a long way in having this new Spidey establish its own identity, and the extended look sheds some (electrical) light on where this guy comes from.
The extended look opens on a (very welcome) light note with a seemingly ad-libbed argument between Peter and Aunt May regarding Peter’s knack for turning everything in the laundry red and blue. We also get to see Peter genuinely enjoying being Spider-Man, particularly in a sequence in which he rescues Oscorp employee Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx).
From there, we see where Dillon’s alter ego comes from, a villain born of Dillon wanting to “be like” Spider-Man and experimenting with high voltage… and falling into a tank of electric eels (in the same Oscorp animal testing laboratory that gave Peter Parker his powers). Geez, who lets these future bad guys into labs after-hours, anyway?
Sony’s extended look at the sequel came hot on the heels of tonight’s Super Bowl spot for the film, which added further fuel to our theory that Gwen Stacy might not live to see the closing credits of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
We pointed out last summer that Peter Parker’s ladyfriend might be killed off in the sequel, based on set pics revealing Emma Stone in an outfit that looks like the one her comic book counterpart was wearing when she fell (and we do mean ‘fell’) victim to the villainy of the Green Goblin: a purple skirt, green overcoat and black boots.
Funeral clothes if there ever were any.
The Super Bowl spot wasted no time in following through on our suspicions, as the very first image had poor Gwen falling from a very great height … with a look on her face that suggests Spidey might not be able to do anything to alter her fate.
The sequence would appear to be drawing from “The Amazing Spider-Man” No. 121 (June 1973), in which the Green Goblin discovers Spider-Man’s true identity and kidnaps Gwen. When the Goblin throws her off the George Washington Bridge, Spidey catches her leg with a string of web but later discovers that she’s dead.
Sheesh. Remember when summer movies used to be “fun”?
Whether Sony actually wants to let go of Gwen (and Emma Stone) this early in the game remains to be seen, but most of the rest of the Super Bowl spot maintained the grim tone as Chris Cooper’s Norman Osborn growls “We have plans for you” and Jamie Foxx’s Electro exclaims “Let’s go catch us a spider.” There was a glimpse of a URL: “EnemiesUnite.com,” which implies the triple threat of Electro, the Goblin (whose identity still isn’t revealed, though we expect it’s Dane DeHaan’s Harry Osborn) and Paul Giamatti’s Rhino is just one half of an upcoming Sinister Six supervillain team-up.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though — the Big Game ad closed with a bedridden Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) claiming to Aunt May that the dirt on his face came from his attempt to clean the chimney, a sequence also featured in the extended look. Everyone knows Forest Hills, Queens isn’t known for its chimneys, so… nice try, Peter.
We have to admit — this looks good. Much, much better than the decent though frustratingly vanilla and by-the-numbers first installment in this rebooted Spidey universe.
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2" opens May 2.