If you’re like me, you saw The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and left it quite frustrated. On one hand, it was the probably the best depiction of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, his personality, and his abilities to date on celluloid. On the other hand, everything having to do with the villains and plotting of the film felt like a total misfire. If you’re like everyone else, you flat out hated it. Well, our brother Devin Faraci- over at BadAssDigest- has published an interesting breakdown of how the script for TASM 2 evolved over time.

Taking a look at an earlier draft, Faraci noted 10 ways in which the final product greatly differed from some of the early concepts of the script, and how the film suffered because of it.

It’s hard to do his analysis justice, since he read the whole thing and expertly breaks it down, but here’s a summary:

1. Mary Jane had a small, but meaningful role, and Gwen Stacy- in essence- gives her “permission” to date Peter when she leaves for Oxford
2. Electro’s motivations are more fleshed out, and the character’s tragic arc hits its saddest point when he realizes his own mother is happy to profit off of her loyal son’s death
3. J. Jonah Jameson was featured in the script, giving Peter a tour of the Daily Bugle offices after Peter delivers a few particularly awesome pictures. He’s old school and believes that the internet is destroying the newspaper business
4. Peter actually grants Harry his request and gives him his blood. That, and the origins of Goblin’s suit are drastically different in the earlier draft. It’s not a military design, it’s actually a suit that was specially designed for ailing Norman- but without Parker’s DNA, it became useless until Harry discovers it buried in his father’s boathouse
5. There was a pronounced year of time between Peter’s high school graduation, and subsequent break-up with Gwen, and the point in time where they reunite. The passage of time in the final film was much more ambiguous and made Peter seem sort of pathetic and stalkerish
6. We actually were going to finally get the iconic “With great power, comes great responsibility” line. And here’s the kicker, it was going to be delivered by Peter’s father, Richard Parker! In the earlier draft, Peter actually meets his father during his low-point after Gwen’s death. It’s Richard who convinces Peter to take up the mantle of Spider-Man again

If this stuff interests you, Faraci actually has an additional 4 key differences in his report, which can be read here.

Interesting to see how many things got changed, and how the film might’ve actually been better without all the tinkering. Gotta love the business of big, blockbuster filmmaking where- all too often- studios don’t think there’s such a thing as too many cooks in the kitchen.

SOURCE: BadAssDigest