Seminar: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

With great franchises comes great responsibility! This seminar led by critic Jake Mulligan will consider how so-called cinematic universes came to dominate the movie industry during the early 2010s—and how they faltered.

It’s great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But with the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than himself. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp.

The Spider-Man series was restarted in 2012 with its webslingers aimed towards creating a cinematic universe in the mold of the MCU. This approach both peaked and became ripe for parody with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a sequel to a reboot which is mostly scripted to set up future spin-offs that never ended up happening anyway. Jake Mulligan’s super-seminar will use this infamous spider-sequel to study how Hollywood changed leading up to Amazing Spider-Man 2 and during the decade since then, so that we can see how the industry’s franchises are failing—and why they keep making them anyway.

About the Instructor

Jake Mulligan is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and has taught classes and seminars at the Coolidge before, including “Defining Screwball Comedy” in 2019 and “Roger Corman, Producer” in 2020. His film criticism has also been published in The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, and Filmmaker Magazine.