The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Some absolutely hated it. Some loved it. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the sequel myself. The aspects of the movie that worked for me were the action sequences, the chemistry between Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, a Goblin without a mask, and just Garfield as both Peter Parker and Spidey. With that though, there are many problems with the story of Spider-Man 2, and it almost seemed it was due to Sony acting a little skid-ish when it came to their franchise. Turns out, the movie could’ve been entirely different, and I mean for the good.
It seems that an early draft of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 script fell into the hands of Badass Digest, and they decided to share certain plot points within this early draft to the world. Get ready to read about a Spidey film that almost was, but instead was a dissected mess that I am now starting to loathe after reading what was removed from the script. All these listed plot descriptions are from Badass Digest which I will link their page below.
1) Mary Jane. As we all know Shailene Woodley was cast as Mary Jane Watson, shot some days and then was cut from the movie. The original script includes all of the MJ scenes, and she’s introduced as the Parker’s new next door neighbor. Her dad is an abusive drunk and she’s a waitress who builds motorcycles in her spare time. She has a Spider-Man tattoo on her wrist, and she’s clearly interested in Peter, who is totally hung up on Gwen. At one point Spider-Man confronts MJ’s dad, telling him to lay off the girl. At the end of the script Gwen comes to Peter’s house before heading to London; he’s gone but she meets the new neighbor. They have a friendly exchange and MJ says that she always attracts dickheads and asks Gwen what her advice is to get a guy like Peter. “Date a nerd,” Gwen says before heading off to die, basically giving MJ the okay to get with Peter.
2) Electro’s mom. In the script Max Dillon lives at home with his wheelchair-bound mom, who doesn’t think much of him. He has to take care of her, and after he ‘dies’ in the accident that gives him powers he comes home to find his mom standing up and getting a big payout from Oscorp. He gets angry and begins using his powers, which is what sets off his confrontation with the police in Times Square, not a weird moment where he just starts sucking on electrical wires for no reason.
3) J Jonah Jameson. JJJ’s in the original script, as is Robbie Robertson. We see Peter, who is a student at Empire State University, bring his first Spider-Man pictures to JJJ, who gives him a tour of the Daily Bugle. JJJ complains that the internet is killing the newspaper business; later, Spidey and Electro’s first fight send them crashing through the Daily Bugle offices and the printing presses.
4) Peter’s blood. In the original script Peter actually gives his blood to Harry Osborn. This is a huge improvement over the finished film, where Harry just injects himself with spider venom. In the original script the Goblin suit is better explained – it isn’t for military use but was specifically built in secret for Norman Osborn. When Richard Parker wouldn’t give his blood to Osborn (the Parker DNA still being the key to it all), the suit went into Norman’s boathouse where Harry finds it.
5) Dr. Kafka and Electro’s escape. In the finished film Dr. Kafka, the scientist torturing Electro at the Ravenscroft Institute, is a man. This is a genderswap, as Dr. Kafka is a woman in the comics – and in the original script. She is absolutely specified as a female character; why Webb chose to change this detail is beyond me. Also, Electro breaks himself out of Ravenscroft, and he approaches Harry Osborn at Norman’s grave in an attempt to kill him. When he sees that Harry is now The Goblin the two team up.
6) One year later. In the original script there’s an entire year gap between the high school graduation and most of the rest of the film. This year gap makes Peter’s forlorn attitude towards Gwen cute instead of creepy, and it establishes that they’re college students. This makes Gwen’s application to Oxford make more sense – in the finished film it’s like she decided to go to college at the last minute.
7) Dr. Ratha. In The Amazing Spider-Man the character of Dr. Ratha seems to have been killed in deleted scenes, but the actual movie leaves him alive at the end. He shows up in the script for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, filling the same role as Donald Mencken, the Colm Feore character. Basically having Ratha appear as the Oscorp stooge who engineers Harry’s dismissal from the company lends a nice continuity to the film, which in many ways feels like a reboot of the reboot in the first place. All of the basic elements of Ratha’s role are in the finished movie, there’s just a different name attached to the character.
8) Little Spider-Man. One of the best sequences in the movie has Spidey helping a nerdy little kid who is getting picked on by bullies. That kid shows up at the end, in a Spider-Man costume, to confront the rampaging Rhino. That kid isn’t in this script! And the Rhino barely is either; he’s just a cameo at the end, with no connection to the truck heist at the beginning of the film.
9) The death of Gwen Stacy. It plays out mostly the same in the original script… but Gwen, back broken, hangs on to life long enough to demand that Peter never give up. Because this is the same character who promptly broke his promise to Captain Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter quits being Spider-Man in the next scene.
10) “With great power…” The finished film has a terrible bit at the end where Peter quits Spider-Man for a bunch of months, and this time passes by in a montage. The same thing happens here! But instead of finding a tape of Gwen’s super on-the-nose graduation speech, Peter is approached by… his dad! Yes, Richard Parker shows back up at the end of the script, and he tells Peter he’s been watching him for years. He’s seen him become Spider-Man and everything. It’s Richard who convinces Peter to become Spider-Man again, and in his last scene in the movie he tells Pete “With great power comes great responsibility,” FINALLY working the famous phrase into this new series.
There you go my friends. All I can say is: what the FUCK were they thinking?! They could have fin-tuned this early draft, and gave us such a better movie. If you want o hear me rant more about this Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie that almost was, check out my video below. Let me know your thoughts about all this.
Source: Badass Digest