10 Movie Moments We Waited Years For (That Didn't Live Up To Expectations)

9. Gwen Stacy's Death - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

There are some pretty key moments in Spider-Man history that we've been lucky enough to see on screen now - from Miles Morales' alternate universe birth as Spider-Man to Venom saying that thing about being a turd on the wind - and there are some we won't ever see. Like the real unmasking in Civil War.

One moment from the comics that looked impossible when Sam Raimi started his Spidey-trilogy with Peter meeting MJ Watson as his first love, though, was The Night Gwen Stacy Died, a touchstone moment that imprinted on all Spider-Man fans. Even when Gwen appeared in Spider-Man 3, she was all wrong and killing her wouldn't have mattered let alone worked.

But then Raimi scarpered and Sony rebooted and we got a new Gwen Stacy, introduced as Peter's first love and it looked very much like we were hurtling towards that fateful night. With Emma Stone in the key role as well! How exciting!!

But Then...

As a wider symptom of The Amazing Spider-Man 2's weird battle with tone and balance, Gwen's death ends up feeling flat, ironically. There's some artistic merit to how it's shot, but in the end, even the insistent drama of the visual approach feels like it's trying (and failing) to over-compensate.