Watching the trailer for the second Andrew Garfield vehicle is as bizarre as it is dull. The intended excitement of seeing a teaser for a major new franchise release is weakened by the fact that the previous installments are all still perfectly vivid in the viewer’s mind. It’s like watching the trailer for a new Lord of The Rings feature – it’s not an exciting new thing anymore. Even The Hobbit’s share of the hype has been lackluster for the same reasons (that and a pretty lackluster film to open an unnecessary trilogy). It seems to have been tweaked and polished rather than rebranded, a redraft of the original Macguire version - an odd choice after the full original production has been completed, released and followed up with two sequels.
As for the dullness, the problem is a familiar one for grumpy cinema-goers everywhere: almost the entire trailer consists of ramped (slowed down and sped up again) or old-time slow motion shots of people falling, things breaking, and the titular amazement firing webs at things in mid-air. We know he can do this, we’ve seen it before. The CGI that drenches the production is nothing new or impressive. How many people fall through things in this film? Are we watching Spiderman’s daily commute via 90s surfer-whooping web adventures across New York (complete with as many backflips as humanly possible, of course)?
Again, all of this might grab our attention more effectively if there was anything new about it. It’s too late for that redraft, guys. On the plus side, Tobey Macguire, James Franco and Kirsten Dunst are all gone and have been replaced by adequate performers. On the downside, at least from their perspective, there’s really no reason for anyone to take any notice. If they’d just used them the first time around, the series would have been good. For fans of the original series, it should be added that had it then followed as the reboot, it would have been equally uninteresting.