Sony has invested a lot in the Spider-Man franchise, but the most recent installment, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was both the worst reviewed and worst performing film in the entire series so far. Now, actor Andrew Garfield is opening up about why this might be.
While promoting his new movie 99 Homes at the Toronto International Film Festival, Andrew Garfield told The Daily Beast that while he loved the Amazing Spider-Man 2 script written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, he felt that some studio changes caused problems for the movie.
"Certain people at the studio had problems with certain parts of it, and ultimately the studio is the final say in those movies because they’re the tentpoles, so you have to answer to those people," Garfield said.
Garfield wasn't very specific about what the studio cut from the movie, but he did say that there was a thread running through the film that the studio slowly removed portions of until it messed with the story.
This removed thread may be what Garfield later identified as scenes exploring Spider-Man as an orphan boy, which he said were taken out but were scenes not normally seen in a comic book film that he would have loved to explore more.
According to Box Office Mojo, every single Spider-Man film so far has performed worse at the box office than the previous film, with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 making only $202 million compared to the original Spider-Man's $403 million. Adjusted for inflation, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 made nearly three times less than the original 2002 film.
In addition to being a financial disappointment, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was also a disappointment with critics, receiving a 53 perccent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Garfield addressed this critical disappointment by saying he hopes the crew can take a look at the constructive criticism and apply it to future films. He speculated that the disappointment could have been due to fatigue at so many Spider-Man movies, tonal issues, or the movie just being too crowded with characters and plot threads.
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