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

6. More On Uncle Ben, Less On The Conspiracy

One person who was conspicuous by his absence throughout was Uncle Ben. Obviously, he's supposed to be absent €“ he's dead, and more so than any other character in comic book history, his death is retcon-proof. There's an obvious reason for this €“ his passing was a huge influence on Peter Parker, and inspired him toward civic-minded goodness. If he's dragged back in, then what's the point? But just because he's shuffled off the mortal coil, it doesn't mean that he shouldn't somehow be present in the film through flashbacks or voiceovers. Yet he's not heard and barely seen here, except for once out of focus, and another time where you get to see his shoulder in the same shot as Aunt May. Clearly his absence is because Martin Sheen couldn't be wrangled for a glorified cameo, and in his place, we got the Richard Parker conspiracy. It's nice to see the reboot team cut a different path to Raimi's trilogy where Peter's parents had extremely little bearing on the plot, but the conspiracy plotline seems to have hit troubled waters. Putting aside that it was now apparent Peter's destiny to become Spider-Man, it's unclear where this plot's going to go next €“ after all, Norman Osborn's now (presumably) dead and Peter can't rail against him, so he'll probably have to make do with Mr. Fiers for the nexr effort. Yet unusually for a film so keen to chuck reasons to stick around at you, the film doesn't spell this out. Sure, Osborn could come back, but it's all just unnecessarily convoluted, especially when compared to Uncle Ben's simple 'with great power comes great responsibility' maxim. It was beautiful in its simplicity, and they should probably return to it in the sequel.