Spider-Man 2 The Worst One Yet?
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had a decent release in its opening week, pulling in over $92 million according to Rentrak and topping the box office. So far, the Spider-Man sequel has yet to stand up to its superhero competitor, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which earned $95 million during its launch, according to the LA Times.
But regardless of earnings, people will want to know if the new Spider-Man flick is worth their time. Critics seem to be divided on the quality of Spider-Man 2, but generally leaning toward the negative. The Amazing Spider-Man 2?s cumulative score on Rotten Tomatoes is 55%, based on 238 reviews written by top critics from sources like The New Yorker and The Atlantic.
It may not be surprising that critics were disappointed with a comic book film, but a score of 55% is lower than every blockbuster Spider-Man film to date. The original 2002 Tobey Maguire release, Spider-Man, earned an impressive 89% among critics. It’s 2004 sequel, Spider-Man 2, earned an even higher ranking of 94%. The third installment of the Maguire series, Spider-Man 3, earned a 63%, which is a moderately high score considering it was ridiculed as one of the worst superhero movies of the decade.
Then the reboot happened. The story started all over again with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. The first Amazing Spider-Man installment earned an honorable 73%, which means its sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, simply doesn’t hold up to its predecessors–even the initial trilogy. If a franchise receives a do-over, shouldn’t it be done better the second time?
The argument could be made that the Spider-Man films were rebooted due to the failings of the third feature film, Spider-Man 3. According to Screen Rant, Tobey Maguire was originally expected to release a fourth installment, but the films never followed through. The fact that the Andrew Garfield reboot has already reached an all-time low will surely leave viewers wondering why Hollywood ever bothered to start the series over.
Spider-Man isn’t the only character getting the remake treatment. It’s no secret that fans of superheroes and cinema alike are fed up with the constant reboots. The Hulk films, for example, have yet to feature the same actor twice and seem to pretend each time that no previous incarnations of the Hulk ever happened. Another example is the Godzilla franchise, which has seen tens of films over the past few decades, and yet filmmakers are trying once again to make a massive hit with the May 16 release of Godzilla. You can see a sneak peak of that film here.
What do you think about The Amazing Spider-Man 2? What about Hollywood’s obsession with rebooting? Is this a contagious trend in the film industry? The second a franchise stops paying out, should someone new come along and try again with the same story and characters?
