Invincible Creator Robert Kirkman Didn't Mince Words About Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man Sequel

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is rarely ranked among the best "Spider-Man" movies, and it certainly isn't Robert Kirkman's favorite of the pack. Speaking to "The Escape Pod," the "Invincible" and "Walking Dead" comic book creator didn't mince words when sharing his thoughts on the ill-received sequel. Despite his issues with the flick, though, Kirkman enjoyed the performance of its leading star, Andrew Garfield:

"I don't like to publicly talk about my opinions on movies. Still, 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' is dogs***. As much as I love Jamie Foxx, I love Andrew — Andrew Garfield is a great Spider-Man. There are aspects to both of those movies that are spectacular, but that movie is a mess."

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" sees Garfield's eponymous web-slinger, aka. Peter Parker, going up against the likes of Electro (Foxx), Rhino (Paul Giamatti), and the forces of Oscorp under the supervision of his old buddy Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan). All the while, Peter digs deeper into his parents' death and tries to juggle his complicated relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). There is a lot going on in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," in other words, and the film is as messy as Kirkman says it is. With that in mind, it might have turned out better if the creatives behind the movie had been left to their own devices.

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" didn't live up to expectations, but Andrew Garfield believes that a better version of the film was left on the cutting room floor. During a conversation with The Daily Beast in 2014, the actor revealed that some key elements were removed following interference from Sony. As such, the end product was different from the script he read and scenes he shot. As Garfield told it:

"I'll tell you this: Talking about the experience as opposed to how it was perceived, I got to work in deep scenes that you don't usually see in comic book movies, and I got to explore this orphan boy — a lot of which was taken out, and which we'd explored more. It's interesting to do a postmortem. I'm proud of a lot of it and had a good time, and was a bit taken aback by the response."

Ultimately, "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" was a box office success that killed a franchise. Be that as it may, the Spider-Man character has since found success by joining the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Tom Holland donning the spandex as Peter Parker. However, Garfield returned as his iteration of the superhero in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," teaming up with both Holland and Tobey Maguire's takes on the titular web-crawler for some multiversal mayhem. More than that, Garfield's performance is one of the best things about that movie.

Speaking of Holland's Spidey, you can catch him back on the big screen when "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" opens in theaters on July 31, 2026.