Amazing Spider-Man 2: Too Many Plot Lines?

Spider-Man to Face a Growing Army of Villains?

Electro. Rhino. Harry Osborn. Norman Osborn. Green Goblin. Gwen Stacy. Has the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie bitten off more than it can chew? Both audiences and the studio execs will agree that
the first installment of the franchise was adequate, giving a mild boost to the reboot. So it was imperative that the sequel be bigger and grander. Is this why director Marc Webb and co have decided to include an assortment of characters in the movie to give Andrew Garfield a hard time?

An underlying theme in the first film was the nature of Parker’s parents’ deaths. We saw a potential Norman Osborn talk to the Lizard at the end, trying to hush things up. Naturally, this will have to be a prominent component of this outing since it received relatively little priority in the last film. But then where do the other villains fit in? The chief antagonist is Electro this time round, but how is he going to be included in the aforementioned plot? He works for Oscorp but his motives are somewhat stalker-like, putting him at odds with Norman Osborn. Common ground will have to be found between the two to take on Spider-Man.  What about Rhino? Marc Webb assures us that Rhino will be featured in a cameo of sorts, probably as an opening sequence to show Spider-Man’s world-saving chores. Then there is the case of Parker’s romance with Gwen Stacy. The comic book universe will allow Stacy and the Osborn plot to be intertwined, but I still feel that the movie is being pulled in different directions.

Marvel is trying to expand Spider-Man’s universe and one way to do this and benefit later on is to incorporate, or at least introduce as many villains as possible. This may be because of the Sinister Six. The original six villains included Doctor Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Sandman, Mysterio and Vulture. This is an ambitious plan for the studio to undertake, so naturally, the entrance of some of the characters will be in this film (Electro). This quest for expanding the universe will, undoubtedly create several fresh characters, many villains among them, but many plot lines as well. Some will be left halfway through to be picked up in a later movie I fear, giving the movie the feel of a disjointed production. The writers will have to tie up these ends and in some cases merge plots and sub-plots, but for now, I remain skeptical about the future of the Spider-Man universe.