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The 2014 film

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: As with the first film, is Peter a sympathetic Woobie or a self-centered asshole? The movie does a better job proving that he's a heroic Nice Guy than the original movie, but certain actions of his, mainly showing up as Spider-Man in front of Harry Osborn just to tell him that he won't give him his blood, even though attempting to get help for Harry would be the sensible thing to do regardless of what happened with Curt Connors, make him look Unintentionally Unsympathetic. However, others argue that Spider-Man is extremely likable and sympathetic, there being no clear solution he could have chosen. He didn't want to give Harry his blood because the last time he tried to help someone by giving them a piece of his father's research, he accidentally created a supervillain that killed at least two people, and endangered several more. Peter also told Harry that he was willing to help him find another way to cure the disease, but Harry proves he's not so innocent himself, as he shows his true colors by losing his temper and after trying to bribe out a solution, he resorted to attacking Spider-Man. In short, it was a lose-lose situation for Peter: Use his DNA that could very well produce a monster based on seeing hints of Harry's ruthless pragmatism, or let his best friend die while feeling the guilt.
  • Awesome Music:
    • "Gone Gone Gone" by Phillip Phillips, which serves as the musical expression of Peter's grief over Gwen's death.
    • "It's On Again" by Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar is a fire track that perfectly encapsulates the tone of the film.
  • Base-Breaking Character: All of the villains are incredibly divisive and tend to be one of the most criticized things about the film, with many finding them entertaining or poorly written and unintentionally goofy
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • The trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past in the theatrical credits. In fairness, this free advertising was the only way Fox would let Marc Webb out of his contract so he could direct the film. Though the agreement only covered the theatrical run, so the DVD and Blu-ray releases got to leave it out.
    • Peter's manifestation of his promise to Gwen's father as the man himself silently judging him. There's no dialogue or much attention given to these moments, ultimately don't amount to much of an impact on his choices from what was already implied, and aren't referenced outside of those scenes. In total, there's about five minutes of material that seems to have been added at the last minute to satisfy criticism, and could have been cut with little to nothing lost.
    • The scenes foreshadowing the Sinister Six spinoff are now this due to the movie being cancelled.
    • There's a big close-up of the electricity fixing the gap in Max's front teeth when he's getting turned into Electro.
  • Broken Base:
    • Electro's casting of Jamie Foxx. Considering Foxx hasn't ever played a character like Electro before, many felt he wasn't suited for the role while others thought he had the necessary acting ability.
    • Spidey's reason for not giving his blood to Harry to find a cure for his disease, fearing that it could do something "worse than killing him". Was it a legitimate and understandable reason, or just a jerk move on Spidey's part to create contrived drama? There are arguments for both sides.
    • Gwen being explicitly smarter than Peter (even Emma Stone says "he's the muscle, she's the brains") has also proven divisive; some fans are delighted that it turns her into a stronger, more capable character who knows her own mind and is a genuine asset to Spider-Man. Other fans feel her upgrade came at the expense of Peter who Took a Level in Dumbass compared with the comics or even the first film where he was portrayed as a genius, and turns Gwen into overly perfect (but then, that's always been an accusation thrown Gwen's way ever since the comics); although all things considered, Peter is still portrayed as highly intelligent in this movie, performing scientific experiments and conducting an investigation into the deaths of his parents.
    • Gwen's death. Even though it was in the comics, she's survived in other recent adaptations (such as the original Raimi trilogy, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and The Spectacular Spider-Man, and even the Ultimate Spider-Man comics resurrected her after her initial death) and some viewers think it's too predictable to kill her off (and would make an effective Not His Sled moment). Others think her death is too big a part of the Spider-Man mythos to let her live. Many fans also considered the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone to be the best thing the Spidey reboot had going for it and were hoping for a Not His Sled moment.
    • The very last scene with Rhino. Even with the five month Time Skip, it can still feel jarring to have Spidey acting like his old quippy self mere minutes of screentime after Gwen's death, and there have been accusations that the scene only exists because the crew chickened out of giving the film the Downer Ending it should have had. Others argue that this is a very core concept of Spider-Man, no matter how much tragedy he faces, he always picks himself up, dusts himself off, and gets right back to saving the world one person at a time. Because of that whole power and responsibility thing Spidey does.
  • Critical Dissonance: This movie has had the least warm reception from critics out of both Spider-Man series, but audiences seem to at least like the movie, though not unanimously (just like the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels).
  • Ending Fatigue: Just when it seems like the film's reached its climax with Peter defeating Electro, there's the entire section after with Harry showing up as the Green Goblin and Gwen's death. And even then there's one more bit after with Spider-Man facing the Rhino at the very end. In fairness, the last one was just under ten minutes long.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Felicia Hardy, mostly due to her being drop-dead gorgeous, her interactions with Harry and her actress, Felicity Jones. Many were hoping she would become Black Cat in the future, though it sadly didn't happen.
  • Evil Is Cool: Electro is a being made of pure energy with an awesome theme and a chillingly deep voice. He certainly fairs better than this version of Green Goblin.
  • Fan-Disliked Explanation: A lot of people, including fans of the movie, didn't like the bit where it is explained that only someone who shares DNA with Richard Parker can become Spider-Man. This completely negates the idea that anyone could be Spider-Man had they been bitten by the spider, something Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse later also confirmed with the "anyone can wear the mask" moral. Apparently, one of the points made in Kevin Feige's notes (which went largely ignored) also pointed this out.
  • Fan-Preferred Cut Content: An fully complete alternate ending featured The Reveal that Richard was actually alive the whole time. This ending is near-unanimously preferred by fans for being a much stronger conclusion and showing off some of Andrew Garfield's best acting. Some even go as far as to say it would have saved the movie.
    • Fans were also quite upset when it was revealed Mary Jane, played by Shailene Woodley would not appear in the film, despite that being one of the things announced when the sequel was greenlit.
  • Fan Nickname: The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Electro Boogaloo.
  • Fandom Rivalry:
    • With the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like with X-Men: Days of Future Past. Both Marc Webb and Andrew Garfield have, again, expressed a desire to do an MCU crossover one day. The film's mixed reviews have fueled this debate even further; some MCU fans believe that the reviews will detract from the film's success and possibly lead Sony to work out some deal with Marvel for help. Others believe that The Amazing Spider-Man will become a Cash Cow Franchise Zombie (see Broken Base above). The movie underperforming has led to Sony leasing out the character to Marvel Studios.
    • Heck, with X-Men: Days of Future Past as well, as it seems that so many people considering Marvel Studios' film franchise the best means the runner-ups owned by Sony and Fox must duke it out to determine which is second-best. Made especially odd in that this movie promoted that one (twice, if you count the trailer in addition to The Stinger), but fans still aren't content with one another.
    • And finally, the franchise's fans have expressed major frustration with both, feeling that whatever one's views on Sony as a company, the films deserve a chance to be judged on their own merits, and feeling Marvel fans bash the movie just because it's not a Marvel movie. Not to mention that a major source of criticism about Spidey in general is that his kind of down-to-earth, working-class hero stories don't crossover well with the Avengers and similar more adventure-founded heroes in comics, and are doubtful it would work much better on film.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In the United States, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 debuted to a $92 million opening weekend — just short of Captain America: The Winter Soldier's $95 million — and has had a much more mixed reception than the well-received Winter Soldier. Overseas, it's the other way around in terms of box office, and the movie's Rotten Tomatoes rating was in the mid-70s before the American reviews came in.
  • Ham and Cheese:
    • Dane DeHaan is clearly enjoying himself as the Green Goblin, but not taking the role as seriously as he did with his similar role in Chronicle. On the other hand, it's still the Green Goblin. If you're not going over the top with the role, you're doing it wrong.
    • Paul Giamatti is clearly thinking "I'm only in the movie for a few minutes, so I'm darn well going to make an impression."
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight:
    • The movie ends with a child dressing as Spider-Man to confront the Rhino and actually getting a villain to stop in his tracks long enough for the real Spider-Man to appear. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Holland confirmed that a young Peter Parker was the Heroic Bystander in Iron Man 2 who did something similar with an Iron Man costume, and earning some praise from Tony Stark.
    • The same scene sees the child telling Spider-Man that he always knew he'd come back after a lengthy hiatus. This became Harsher in Hindsight as this series was rebooted soon after, but Andrew Garfield indeed eventually came back for Spider-Man: No Way Home seven years after this series' cancellation.
    • After Spidey first defeats Electro, there's a brief bit where the news reports Spider-Man getting a sudden burst in popularity online. In the real world, Garfield's Spidey would later get a similar burst of popularity after the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
  • He's Just Hiding:
    • A number of people believed that the death of Norman Osborn was faked — given that his death is only announced, we never really see his dead body.
    • Even Jamie Foxx himself hinted at Electro's return, since in some interviews, he said that you can't "kill" electricity. His body is also nowhere to be found. Turns out he was right, as he comes back for Spider-Man: No Way Home alive and well, albeit after a magical spell is miscast and brings him into the MCU with a bunch of other villains.
  • He Really Can Act:
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Norman Osborn once trained a prize-winning racehorse... that belonged to the original Peter Parker.
    • Spider-Man is apparently planning to join with Gwen Stacy to England. Spider-Verse would later introduced William "Billy" Braddock, a British Spider-Man who observed Alternate Universe Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman in his first appearance.
    • This is a second installment in the Spider-man franchise, which features Electro as the main villain, and he can turn himself into an Energy Being. Hmm...
    • One of the villains teased for the Sinister Six movie that didn't happen was the Vulture... who would later go on to become the primary antagonist of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
    • Harry Osborn is not the only role both James Franco and Dane DeHaan shared (they’ve played James Dean in different movies).
    • Peter's last line in the movie, "There's no place like home!", given that he returns years later in Spider-Man: No Way Home... where part of the plot is that he and several other multi-versal characters are stuck in a different universe and trying to find their way back home.
  • Ho Yay: Peter and Harry, as usual. The scene with Harry and Gwen in the elevator makes Harry look like a jealous romantic rival. The whole plot, really-the affectionate jibes, the childhood-friends reunion, the tragic illness-none of it would be out of place in a romantic dramedy. At least, up until Harry goes full DIY trying to cure himself and attempts to kill Peter.
  • Iconic Sequel Outfit: The suit in the first movie has its fans, but was criticized for the many creative liberties taken with the design, especially the small yellow eyes. In response, the suit was redesigned with large, white eyes for what is arguably the most comic-accurate Spider-Man suit to date, to much warmer reception.
  • I Knew It!:
    • A dark example. Promptly after it was announced that Mary Jane Watson's scenes were going to be cut from the movie, fans began speculating that Gwen Stacy dying had something to do with this. Lo and behold, they were right.
    • Many fans had begun to correctly speculate the same thing after footage and set photos were shown of Emma Stone wearing Gwen's outfit from The Night Gwen Stacy Died.
  • Improved Second Attempt: A frequent criticism of many Spider-Man films was that Spidey removes/loses his mask way too often, in increasingly contrived ways. This is the first film to avoid that. Not only does Spidey very rarely remove his mask, the few times he does, it feels a lot more justified than in previous films.
  • It Was His Sled: Unless you know next to nothing about the basics of Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy's death will not be a shocker. Doesn't make it any less heartbreaking, though.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Electro. His descent into villainy does cause him to become pretty ruthless and cold but considering how badly he was treated by nearly everyone before, it's not hard to feel sorry for him. The fact that no one even bothered to give him a chance to explain himself after his accident and instead throw insults towards him makes him come off as more sympathetic than the New Yorkers.
  • Just Here for Godzilla:
    • A weird inversion, as some people have said the scenes that simply show Peter and Gwen's relationship are the best part of the film, and with a little rewriting could probably stand on their own as a great romantic comedy, to the point that it's a disappointment whenever the superhero stuff interrupts it.
    • Others, meanwhile, would rather Gwen and Peter just get a room and leave the movie for Spider-Man to do whatever a spider can.
    • In a dark example, those wanting to see an adaptation of The Night Gwen Stacy Died showed up to watch Gwen Stacy plummet to her doom.
    • With the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, some went back to watch this film just to see how it sets up plot points that No Way Home revisits.
  • Level Breaker: After absorbing the electricity from the area, Electro really lets loose, laying waste to Times Square. His creepy theme music plays at full blast, the entire scene making him come off as an unstoppable force of nature. Then a high pressure water stream blasts into him, and we cut to Spider-Man wearing a fireman's helmet. A funny image to be sure, but perhaps not the best scene for it.
  • Magnificent Bastard: For Gustavo Fiers/The Gentleman, see here.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Electro, Lord of Dubstep!Explanation
    • Denis Leary is always watching. Always.Explanation
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Corrupt Corporate Executive Donald Menken took a long running jump over the MEH by framing Harry for Max Dillon's condition and subsequent treatment just to get him ousted from the company, when he knows for a fact Harry is going to die without the company's research. Menken even has the gall to mock him for it.
    • Not that it makes Harry as the Green Goblin setting off the chain reaction ending with Gwen's death, just to spite Peter, okay by any stretch of the imagination, of course.
  • Narm: Has its own page.
  • Narm Charm:
    • Both scenes involving Aleksei Sytsevitch, natch. Special points, however, go to the warnings the truck's onboard Oscorp computer keeps spouting off — for instance, (paraphrased) "Warning: plutonium is an extremely radioactive substance. Handle with caution."
    • Jamie Foxx's performance as Electro is filled with this. In the hands of a lesser actor, the over-the-top humiliation he receives makes it almost hilarious in a Black Comedy sense. And yet, the acting is so excellently done that you actively want the poor guy to get a break, particularly when he sings his own birthday song to himself, because there's nobody else to keep him company. Bonus points for managing to take Electro's cheesy catchphrase ("Don't you know? I'm Electro!") and actually make it sound equal parts awesome and intimidating.
      • Additionally, Electro playing "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" during his second fight with Spider-Man; Is it cheesy as all get-out? Yes. Does it showcase how much control Max/Electro has gained over his abilities since the last fight? Definitely.
  • Older Than They Think: Aleksei Sytsevich having a thick Eastern-European accent got a lot of commentary from people, with many deriding it for turning the Rhino into a goofy Russian villain. The thing is, Rhino was always a Russian immigrant, Aleksei Sytsevich is the character's real name in the comics, though he's occasionally used the alias "Alex O'Hirn" as a form of anglicising himself. The problem is Rhino's Russian origins are almost always Adapted Out in animated adaptations and he's typically portrayed with a New Yorker accent, but this is a case of past adaptations changing things, not the film being intentionally goofy.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • Aleksei Sytsevich is a two-scene wonder — one as a memorable Mook, and the other as the Rhino.
    • As is Norman Osborn, who (allegedly) kicks the bucket after the only scene where he's alive.
  • Padding: During the climax, two planes are set to crash into each other unless the power can be turned back on in time. There's not a single person we care about on either of them, and none of the main characters have any idea it's happening. It ends up just feeling like the whole thing was thrown in during post-production because the fight needed some kind of ticking clock.
  • Pandering to the Base:
    • The inclusion of Rhino and the set-up for the Sinister Six was done in part at the request of Avi Arad, who claimed that he thought that this is what the fans wanted (similar to Venom's shoehorning into Spider-Man 3). It seems that this plan backfired, and that more people thought that the movie became more cluttered for these inclusions.
    • This film is much more comedic and light-hearted in parts, almost cartoonish, as opposed to the first film's more gritty realism. This is likely because the gritty realism lead to complaints of the first film being Darker and Edgier from fans of the much goofier Raimi trilogy, who's style this film touches closer to.
  • Presumed Flop: The film didn't perform as well as Sony wanted, leading them to cancel two sequels and a Shared Universe in favor of rebooting the character for the MCU. While its worldwide total of $709m WW made it the lowest grossing Spider Man movie up to that point, it still became the ninth highest grossing film of 2014, and turned a profit on a budget of at most $250m. It is speculated that one of the reasons that the movie underperformed in America was because it was released early in other countries and thus the ending Gwen's death got spoiled leading to lack of interest in the film.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: Inverted, actually, as many cite enjoyment of the romantic plot while it's actually running due to Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone's chemistry together, and it's only after Gwen dies at the end that you get people asking what was the point of focusing so much on a doomed romance. On the one hand, some argue that makes the death all the more effective and it was a milestone in the comics. But on the other hand, people argue there were several other plotlines that could have used the attention and the romantic plot took precious time away from them.
  • Salvaged Story: Peter's casual smarminess in breaking his promise to a dying Capt. Stacy in the last movie (who, we might add, was dying because of a Heroic Sacrifice to save Spider-Man's life) rubbed some viewers the wrong way. This movie establishes early on that, even before the inevitable tragedy happens because of it, Pete knows he's wrong to go back on his word and the guilt over it is eating him alive. Of course, he also knows it's wrong to break Gwen's heart instead of moving on from his guilt. Breaking his promise isn't in good taste at all, but keeping it causes them both nothing but pain, and given they've both lost their fathers so recently, they've been through enough. At the very least, this film helps provide additional context as to why he made the decisioni he made at the end of the previous film and sensibly shows that it was a difficult choice for Peter to make.
  • The Scrappy: Dr. Kafka has taken flak for being just too cheesy or campy that it felt out of place even with Rhino's or Max Dillon's brand of campiness, like something out of Joel Schumacher's Batman films. Additional flak comes from the character being significantly different than the Dr. Kafka of the comics, who was a woman and one of the good guys, not to mention largely devoid of hamminess.
  • Sequelitis: From a critical standpoint. The movie currently sits at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to its predecessor's score in the 70s, making it the worst-reviewed Spider-Man movie of all. Major criticisms being that the film is stuffed with too many plotlines and characters just like Spider-Man 3 as well as spending too much time setting up its own sequels.
  • Signature Scene: Gwen's death scene. Despite the polarized reception of the film, the general consensus is that the sequence was executed the most effectively out of anything else in the movie.
  • So Okay, It's Average: Some fans believe that both this film was fine and the original was good, but had room for improvement.
  • Special Effect Failure: Spider-Man is clearly portrayed by a dummy when he hangs upside down off the tow truck roof to ask Aleksei Sytsevich if he is a hugger.
  • Squick: The Sickening "Crunch!" of Gwen's fatal head injury in the clock tower is nauseating to hear.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: The four-note tune playing during Gwen's graduation speech, specifically while Aleksei Sytsevich is crashing through the bus, sounds similar to the Assassin's Creed theme.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • Averted, when it was revealed that Spider-Man's costume was changing to one more closely resembling the comics, as well as the one from the previous trilogy, winning over more than a few Sam Raimi fans in the process.
    • Played straight, at least with some fans, when it comes to Green Goblin, with some of It's the Same, Now It Sucks! since his armored suit looks much like Willem Dafoe's suit from the original 2002 film, minus the mask (although few seem to think it's worse than Dafoe's infamous "Jet Jaguar" look).
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • A number of people think that Electro's Character Development doesn't make any sense after his first fight with Spider-Man — specifically, the fact that he goes from a mild-mannered (if eccentric, unstable, and paranoid) nerd to a man who is understandably confused by gaining superpowers to a sociopathic murderer with a God complex — and that he would have been better as a villain if the transition wasn't so jarring. There are also those that believe the film would have been better if the Green Goblin and the Rhino hadn't siphoned screentime from the character.
    • Norman Osborn. He only has a single scene before his death when the trailers implied he would be serving as a major character, and the previous movie implied that he would have a large role in the franchise. He doesn't even get to interact with Peter, which is widely considered to be a hugely important part of his character. The only thing that would have alleviated this in the movie was the original post-credits scene revealing that his death was faked and he was preserved cryogenically, but this was cut out of the film.
    • Comic fans seem to think that the movie's In Name Only version of Dr. Kafka was a waste of the character that appeared in the comics, and that said character would have been good for building the universe that Sony is trying to set up.
    • The Rhino. Despite getting a fair amount of coverage in the promos, he has about five minutes of screen time and doesn't even get a proper fight scene with Spider-Man. While most of his time was for setting up the Sinister Six movie, most fans wondered why they even bothered including the Rhino if he wasn't going to do anything. One review even compared him to The Underminer in The Incredibles, being a villain whose main purpose is to show up at the end (although the review was written years before Incredibles 2 was made).
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • One of the most common complaints about the movie is that it tries to set up too many plots too quickly, and the more interesting plot threads get lost in the web of all the storylines and the unresolved questions set up by said storylines.
    • One such storyline that people seemed to have missed was the introduction of Mary Jane to the movie franchise. Given that Gwen's death impacted her as much as it impacted Peter in the comics, her presence in the movie could have made for a more compelling ending instead of setting her up as a Replacement Goldfish.
    • One commonly noted plot point to have not been resolved from the previous film was Uncle Ben's killer still being on the loose. This is doubly notable, since the video game does include this as a plot detail.
    • Aunt May struggling to make ends meet and working as a nurse has literally no effect on the storyline.
    • Richard Parker is being framed for trying to profit off the military applications of his research. Peter absolves him, then promptly forgets about the whole thing.
    • Oscorp goes after Gwen when she tries to investigate the supposed death of Max Dillon...only to stop the second she leaves the building.
    • The establishment of the Sinister Six is a plot thread that seems promising, but will never be touched upon as a result of the film being the end of the series.
  • Took the Bad Film Seriously: The film is frequently perceived as a step down compared to its predecessor, with an overly convoluted plot, and over-the-top villains, but both Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy give the same conviction to their characters that they did in the previous film. Many called their scenes the best part of the film, but subsequently lost any hope for a third film being good due to this film killing off Gwen Stacy. The franchise was rebooted shortly after, and a significant amount of fans were calling for TASM 2 to be retconned so Garfield and Stone could return (instead their characters were recast).
    • The same could be said for Jamie Foxx as Electro, who, for all the movie's problems, is at least trying to do his best as the tragic yet unhinged electrical-themed super-villain.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: It's clear that Electro was supposed to be sympathetic up until he freaks out and goes stir-crazy with the electricity. After he'd been taken down — even though it was obvious he did what he did because he was scared and confused — can make Spidey come across as a jerk and Electro come across as the one worthy of sympathy.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Many reviewers have cited that the attempts at making Harry sympathetic just don't come off due to how creepy, entitled and arrogant he is. And then he sets off the chain of events that ends with Gwen Stacy dying after he injects himself with blood that he hastly didn't test to see if it was safe. Even for those that agree with the Alternative Character Interpretation point with Peter being selfish, there's just no coming back after what Harry did as the Green Goblin in response.
    • Alternatively, Peter. As mentioned in Alternative Character Interpretation, his refusal to give Harry what he wanted can come off as unjustified, when in Harry's perspective, it was his last hope to avoid dying of his disease very soon.
    • Seeing as how the New Yorkers come off as insensitive and Too Dumb to Live in an incredibly precarious situation, what with them booing and heckling while Spider-Man is trying to talk down an unstable, super-powered stranger and then treating their ensuing fight as entertainment, a lot of people didn't feel bad for them when Electro started shooting at them a few minutes later.
  • Vindicated by History: To a degree that's slowly been growing since the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home thanks to Andrew Garfield and Jamie Foxx appearing. While it's still viewed as a far from perfect film, TASM 2 laid out a lot of plot details and character development for Spidey and Electro that wound up paying off in No Way Home (in fact, the second film adds more to it than the previous film), causing fans to rally for a third film in the Amazing Spider-Man series.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: Electro's face combines lots of makeup and computer-generated effects to create it's Bioluminescence Is Cool character.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?: There are a couple complaints in this field regarding some of the antagonists.
    • People have claimed that the Green Goblin looks a lot like both Beavis and Butt-Head in a number of shots.
    • The Rhino costume got flak for having Aleksei Sytsevich look like he's in a baby carrier.
    • While Electro's appearance in the movie is the most praised costume for any villain in the movie, the lightning bolts on his costume have gotten some derision. Others feel this just verges on nitpicking.

The Tie-In Game for the 2014 Film

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Let's see: Spider-Man steals the Shocker's gauntlets (which he knows full well belong to Oscorp) and steals a high-tech Oscorp suit from the Russians for himself, and when his buddy Harry asks Spider-Man to kill him after the boss fight, Spider-Man essentially tells him to spend the rest of his terminally ill and brief days making up for his attacks on the city. In short: Spider-Man is an asshole. And that's without the player deciding to ignore the petty crimes and let citizens die so they can collect comic books...
  • Broken Base: The fact that Gwen and Peter broke up in-between games. The negative side at the fact that the whole point of the first game was to save her. The positive being she was Spared by the Adaptation.
    • Once again, Venom is completely absent barring one tiny Mythology Gag, while Carnage once more takes a pivotal role without the character that, frankly, was entirely responsible for Carnage's very existence.
  • Catharsis Factor: Tired of the Hero/Menace system? Replaying missions allows you to choose the time of day and you aren't bothered by the system, although random crimes wont happen either. Just swinging around the city can be surprisingly calming. Just don't head to the objective. (And optionally turn off voiceover volume and subtitles.)
  • Improved Second Attempt: The conversation between Spider-Man and Harry Osborn lacks the Conflict Ball aspect from the film. Rather than just outright refusing to give him blood for vague reasons, Spider-Man explains to Harry that he just needs time to make sure it would be safe (something he fears that Harry would neglect to do in his desperation), and additionally points out that other lives could also be endangered if Harry became like the other Cross-Species.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Wilson Fisk is once again portrayed as a criminal mastermind and expert opportunist. Pretending to have reformed from his criminal ways, he partners up with Oscorp to create a more effective police force, secretly planning to use them to wipe out his rivals and take over the city. In the meantime, he allows Cletus Kasady to kill other criminals so that the civilians are intimidated enough to trust him, later having him captured and experimented on by Oscorp, led by the Chameleon disguised as the head doctor. He also hires Kraven to befriend Spider-Man and trick him into eliminating his rivals as well. After Spider-Man arrests Kasady, he launches a city-wide crime spree under the alias "the Kingpin" and attempts to take over the city alongside his gang and some corrupt cops. Fighting Spider-Man himself when confronted, proving to be a match for the hero despite lacking powers, he takes advantage of the sudden rampages of several supervillains to claim Oscorp as its new CEO and winning over the city's trust, effectively winning in the end.
    • Kraven the Hunter is a vigilante who seeks to turn Spider-Man into the "Ultimate Prey", teaming up with Wilson Fisk to do so. Befriending Spider-Man and offering to help him track down the "Carnage Killer", he teaches Spider-Man how to track criminals and follow them to their hideout, a technique that the hero would adopt for himself later on. Upon uncovering a map of Carnage's targets and mapping out where he'll strike next, the two arrive and capture Cletus Kasady, though not after Spider-Man goes against his instructions to wait a bit longer to strike. When Peter figures out his deceptions, Kraven, anticipating that he'd find out eventually, catches him in a trap and takes him to city park, where he faces him in a one-on-one fight, utilizing his skills to combat him. Eventually being bested, he willingly gives Peter information on the Kingpin's whereabouts, claiming that "he earned It".
  • Narm: Most of the rescuing civilians side missions involve lifting debris off them... debris that is sloped completely over the civilian and not trapping them in any way. It looks less like they're in danger and more like they're too lazy to get off the ground.
  • Older Than They Think: One of the things Beenox have hyped up is the improved web-swinging mechanics from the previous game, frequently pointing to the fact that the webs Spidey swings on are attached to buildings this time around... Something that was in Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, and Ultimate Spider-Man.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: While praised for not directly following the film, the game was criticized for having some very poor visuals practically on par with a PS2 game, lanky combat and plenty of bugs and glitches to boot. Showcasing this was rushed to meet the release date of the movie.

  • Questionable Casting: JB Blanc's performance as The Kingpin was heavily criticized, with many fans finding the voice he did unfitting for someone like Wilson Fisk.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: The Hero or Menace morality system sounds cool on paper, but when you learn that there's no benefits to becoming a Menace and if you fail to stop crimes — which can occur across town and simultaneously, with more cropping up all the time — your rating will go down. If your rating does go into the 'Menace' region then you'll have to deal with a task force of flying goons able to keep up with your web-swinging at its highest speed. And the game will also drop your rating down to Menace at certain points of the story, regardless of how high it was earlier. To make it simple, when a game mechanic makes you stop caring about saving people, there is something wrong with it.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The fact that Peter and Gwen having broken up sometime after the first game means that there could have been a lot more Ship Tease between Peter and Whitney Chang like in the first game. However they never interact face to face once in this game.

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