10 Changes That Would Have Improved The Amazing Spider-Man 2

7. Tonally Jarring Moments

Not every film needs to be Batman. Indeed, Spider-Man is pretty much the antithesis of this. He's a wise-cracking, irreverent sort of a bloke, understandably having an absolute ball with his superpowers. And frankly, who wouldn't? It's great to see a film show exactly how an everyman would react when given the equivalent of a high-five by fate. The humour also has the added benefit of exacerbating any tonal gut-punches the film might throw at you. After all, if someone in Batman's world dies, it's just a Tuesday for him. If someone in Spider-Man's carks it, it's a far more brutal affair. But at times, perhaps the film is too irreverent. This probably comes with the territory €“ if your hero fires off wisecracks at the drop of a hat, you can take it as a given that there's going to be the occasional clunker. But sometimes, the clunker is just so glaring that you're left wincing. The worst offenders are probably during Electro-Spider-Man showdown at the power grid, and that godawful 'there's a god named Sparkles?' crack. There was a palpable sense of tumbleweed rolling during the screening, and this was made even more cringeworthy when Electro played Incy Wincy Spider on the power rods while attempting to zap Webhead out of the air. Seriously, that happened. Add that to the weird Dr. Kafka interlude and Max Dillon's almost cartoony pre-superpowers personality, and you're tonally all over the place. In the sequel, it'd probably be best to rein it in a bit €“ everyone loves a joke and this is obviously a more comic-book-style heightened reality than Raimi's universe, but when you're offering Dad-humour wisecracks with the fate of New York on the line, eyebrows are going to get raised. The end of the film showed a slightly more mature tone €“ including one excellent passing-of-the-seasons montage €“ and it'd be great to see more of this. If anything, it made Parker's comment about Rhino not being a real Rhino even funnier, precisely because you weren't expecting it.