‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2′ Suffered From Studio Cuts, Says Andrew Garfield

It's been four months since 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' hit theaters, and yet we're still not done talking about how disappointing the whole thing was -- both with critics and at the box office, resulting in the lowest gross of any previous 'Spider-Man' film. But it looks like leading man Andrew Garfield finally has an answer for all of us: it was the studio's fault, you guys.

In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Garfield opened up about who he thinks is responsible for the failure of 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2,' noting that he loved Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci's original script and that there were things that were actually taken out of the finished product:

When you have something that works as a whole, and then you start removing portions of it … saying, 'No, that doesn’t work,' then the thread is broken, and it’s hard to go with the flow of the story.

He goes on to lay the blame with the studio:

Certain people at the studio had problems with certain parts of [the movie] and ultimately the studio is the final say in those movies, because they’re the tentpoles, so you have to answer to those people.

Of all the complaints critics and audiences have had with 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2,' the lack of more story definitely wasn't one of them -- one of the biggest issues with the film is how over-stuffed the whole thing is with plot and characters who don't get the time and exploration they deserve, to the point where they become wobbly, tone-deaf caricatures.

Ah, but Garfield says that they would have spent more time exploring Peter's struggles:

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.

Again, a lack of Peter Parker wasn't the problem -- the stuff with Peter and Gwen was some of the best stuff in the film. It's not that the movie needed more of anything; it needed to remove a villain and a plot thread or two, and spend less time world-building and installing easter eggs for a superhero universe that audiences aren't even sure they really like that much.