Is Jamie Foxx's Electro really the main villain of The Amazing Spider-Man 2[2] ? While Foxx was front and centre in that leaked Comic Con trailer from July[3] , there has been a sense ever since that the villain in the piece might really be Chris Carter's Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin of the Marvel[4] comics.
First there was that leaked poster, which appeared to show the impish, emerald-skinned bomb chucker flying through the skies of Manhattan on his trademark glider. Now comes the first full trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, in which Electro is almost an afterthought. The main focus is on Norman, who we get to see properly for the first time in the rebooted saga, and there's also plenty of Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn (his son) to chew over.
It was clear from the start of last year's The Amazing Spider-Man that director Marc Webb and his team wanted a more complex back story for the character than we saw in the breezy Tobey Maguire iteration. Instead of being a geeky orphan with money problems, the new Peter Parker (played by Andrew Garfield[6] ) was set up as a brooding teen (still with money problems) whose lack of mum and dad is linked in some mysterious manner to the seemingly omnipotent Oscorp and its shadowy overlord. In fact, as I pointed out in a recent post[7] , everything interesting in this new universe seems to be connected to old Norm and his maniacal tinkerings with biotechnology.
Swinging back in ... Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Photograph: Columbia Pictures/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar We see a little more of Parker's missing-presumed-dead father (who rather amusingly shares a moniker with the tiger from Life of Pi) as he's about to expose some terrible Osborn secret. But what could the old rogue have been up to that's any worse than the disastrous results of Dr Curt Conner's Oscorp-funded experiments last time around?
Norman is shown on his sickbed, so who's the green-haired ogreish type seen from behind and walking tall with confidence? Is it the regenerated father, or the tortured son doing his best to obey dad's wishes? The new trailer hints that DeHaan's Harry is already far more angst ridden than James Franco[8] 's (initially) cheery playboy type. Here, he's a quirky oddball character with a mix of preppy brat confidence and outsider angst, even before he finds himself confronted with the enormity of his father's machinations. Sending the younger Osborn out first as the Green Goblin would be a serious departure from the canon[9] , but it at least means curmudgeonly fans of the Willem Dafoe version (such as myself) will be slightly hamstrung in our efforts to compare old and new. Garfield is somehow more whiney than his predecessor, even in a trailer, and despite the fact that the old Peter Parker had more than his fair share of life issues. Tobey Maguire played the character as a wide-eyed innocent thrust into a world he never expected to be a part of. The Garfield version again has a little more steely confidence to him.
We get a glimpse of a quadrupedal Rhino, played by a barely seen Paul Giamatti, and then it's onto Foxx's Electro to round things up. Let's hope Webb hasn't made the mistake Raimi made with Spider-Man 3, which introduced too many villains and found itself dancing all the way to the superhero graveyard in the footsteps of Maguire's appallingly floppy-fringed emo Peter Parker. We should be safe: something about this new saga feels more carefully plotted.
And yet, as the Screen Rant blog has pointed out[10] , there are "Easter eggs" for the keen-eyed viewer in the trailer that point to the future arrival of Spidey's old enemies Doctor Octopus and the Vulture. Does their existence in this universe hint at a debut for super-villain combo the Sinister Six in future instalments? And does Spidey really need all those bad guys to take him down?
Your thoughts, please. Does the new trailer make you want to swing through New York skyscrapers with the wind at your scarlet heels? Or are you expecting the sequel to plummet down to earth once we all come to the horrible realisation that Sony's Spider senses are seriously off-radar?
More on The Amazing Spider-Man
• The Amazing Spider-Man - review
• Blog: Spider-Man 2 - are your spidey senses tingling? [11] [12]
References
- ^ Video will start automatically on this page (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ More from the Guardian on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ leaked Comic Con trailer from July (www.youtube.com)
- ^ More from the Guardian on Marvel (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ More on this film (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ More from the Guardian on Andrew Garfield (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ pointed out in a recent post (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ More from the Guardian on James Franco (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ a serious departure from the canon (marvel.wikia.com)
- ^ as the Screen Rant blog has pointed out (screenrant.com)
- ^ The Amazing Spider-Man - review (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ Spider-Man 2 - are your spidey senses tingling? (www.theguardian.com)
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