VOA常速英语:Spider-Man 2 has Global Appeal

Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is one of Hollywood’s summer big budget movies. It cost $250 million to make and another $150 million to market around the world. Sony Pictures hopes its stunning special effects will bring in the money. But it is Spiderman's humanity and idealism that speak to people all over the world.

Marc Webb’s 3D sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, starts as Peter Parker, the young man under the Spiderman suit, is graduating from high school and preparing to take on the world. The film dazzles with its special effects, but filmmaker Marc Webb says the superhero's optimism and youthfulness are the biggest draw for young people.

“Which is kind of a magical thing because we are in a world that is divided by borders, by religion, by politics and these characters, the characters that everybody can find something in, can penetrate people in a very special way as we travelled the world," said Webb.

Like Marc Webb, Andrew Garfield, who plays Spiderman, believes that Hollywood’s big budget superhero flicks help shape an international popular culture based on compassion, idealism and hope.

“No matter what your gender, no matter what your sexual persuasion or your skin color. He is a representative of all of us. We really felt that going around the world, everyone can imagine themselves as Spiderman," said Garfield.

In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spiderman fights crime with gusto in the urban canyons of New York City, breaking into witticisms that many may not find that witty. But he is likeable and has a great chemistry with his co-star Emma Stone, who plays Gwen Stacy, his love interest.

“It feels like making a different movie every day because you are shooting these really grounded intimate scenes one day and the next day you are on wires swinging in a giant green room," said Stone.

The big money is on the film's impressive special effects. Like those seen in one of the film's climactic moments, when Spiderman faces off with his nemesis Electro, played by Jamie Foxx.

“We built an entire version of Times Square off on Long Island because they wouldn’t let us do the things we needed to do in the actual Times Square. We had 13 construction cranes, all these green screens surrounding this environment we could come up with, an arena for Spiderman and Electro to go head to head," said Webb.

The sleek CGI technology makes Spiderman more agile than ever and his enemies more menacing.

“After it’s done, after people are watching it and it’s opening up all over the world, we had a chance to travel and see young kids and people so excited about it," said Foxx.

But it is the grim and unexpected turn of events towards the end of the film that highlights Spiderman's humanity and limitations in a human drama where no one can have it all.