The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has eschewed the colon-plus-noun title formula that franchise sequels like Thor: The Dark World have plumped for of late, but had Marc Webb and co. gone down that route, they might have opted for Amazing Spider-Man 2: Electro Boogaloo or even – and bear with us here – Amazing Spider-Man 2: The King Of Comedy.
As Jamie Foxx, the Electro in question and star of one of these newly launched posters, explains in the new issue of Empire, the story “took a fair bit of inspiration from Rupert Pupkin”. Electro is an outsider who craves much more than just the one moment of attention Spider-Man affords him. A snub, an accident with a substation’s worth of electricity and - presto! - here he is, angry, blue and extremely dangerous. The similarities with Scorsese's obsessional antihero end long before the blue phase, but it's a parallel that's worth bearing in mind (even if it's hard to see Andrew Garfield in the Jerry Lewis role). Electro's motives and the human insecurities that drive them will play a major part in the next two movies.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, of course, sees Andrew Garfield's friendly neighbourhood Spidey come up against a range of baddies, just as he's beginning to settle in and enjoy his super-powered life and super-hot girlfriend Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone). Alongside Foxx's Electro, he clashes with ne'er-do-wells including Paul Giamatti's Rhino and Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborne (and, it seems from the trailer, Green Goblin).
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2** hits UK cinemas on April 18, 2014.