Behold the new theatrical trailer for the upcoming sequel to director Marc Webb‘s (WEBB!!) mediocre 2012 franchise re-start, The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The trailer opens with Spidey (Andrew Garfield) in free-fall, much like Chev Chelios at the end of Crank. Unlike Chelios — even though they are both chemically enhanced — Spider-Man swings away at the vital moment to thwart crime instead of hitting the pavement.

Honestly, the trailer looks fantastic. Now that they have done away with telling the origin story (once again!), we can start dwelling on the character of Peter Parker and the action of the film. My only concern is the addition of too many new characters and plots; which, if you remember, is what made Spider-Man 3 such an overblown and underwhelming event.

The relationship between Peter and Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) looks to continue, and thankfully so considering their chemistry was one of the stronger points of the first outing (but it is Emma Stone, so it was always bound to be charming).

We also see the continuing saga of Peter’s parents and their links to Oscorp; the “Untold Story” promoted from the first film that was mostly cut. Hopefully it actually leads somewhere this time, and with the introductions of both Norman and Harry Osborn (Chris Cooper and Dane DeHaan — the latter seemingly donning the Green Goblin garb straight away) it looks like it very well may.

One thing I don’t get is that they can make Spider-Man look so perfect and get the character so accurate, yet the bad-guys are always the result of an abundance of creative liberties. Rhino (Paul Giamatti) is now in a mech-suit (which is a current trend), Electro (Jamie Foxx) looks like the dude from Infamous, and once again they deny Green Goblin an awesome goblin mask. The Lizard in the first one looked liked a Super Mario Bros. movie Goomba, for crying out loud!

Not a lizard.

How hard is it to make a Lizard look like a lizard?

On second thought, maybe changes to character appearances are essential:

Oh that’s right, comics are dumb.

Heeding the trend successfully set by Marvel Studios’ linked superhero film universe — and concurrently developing at Fox with their X-Men franchise — clearly Sony is now focusing on world building, with Oscorp looking like the foundation and building towards future sequels as well as potential spin-offs. Did you see the hints towards Doctor Octopus and Vulture in the background? Are they trying too hard, too early? Building towards Sinister Six when this film isn’t even released yet!

If anything, this trailer is definitely not leaving anything behind: the film is looking jam-packed with action set-pieces with no expense spared, but the question remains: have they blown the proverbial wad and included too much to make a cohesive stand-alone film?

I guess what I’m getting at is The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has so much potential — and that potential is seen in this trailer — but let’s hope they don’t cock it up like the previous one.

Catch up with The Amazing Spider-Man, available in all formats.

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