Yes, I'm a day late reporting the Spider-Man movie reboot announcement, but I still have to run a busy comic book shop by day, so sometimes it's hard to find the time to blog. MTV has an amusing "Five Things We'll Miss about the Raimi Spidey Movies" here:http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/01/12/five-things-well-miss-about-sam-raimi-tobey-maguires-spider-man-franchise/
So, good or bad? I think it's about time if you ask me. I was getting a little tired of Tobey Maguire as Peter, and don't even get me started about Kirsten Dunst as a drab not very model-like MJ. Tobey is getting a little old to pull it off anyway. Spidey 3 sealed the deal for me, time to move on, although I will miss ol' Bruce and his chin, making the Raimi-required cameo. I think the second Spider-Man film was my favorite of the trilogy, and the same can be said for the original 3 X-Men movies, number two was again my favorite, following in the tradition of Empire Strikes Back. There is something magical about Part 2 of a trilogy because all of the origin stuff can be skipped and we can get into the meat of the characters without all the necessary wrap-ups at the end of trilogy. Incidentally I think Two Towers is my favorite of the LOTR films because that battle is SO incredible.
It will be interesting to see who they cast as the new younger, high-school aged Peter Parker, Ultimate Spider-Man anyone? Some folks are crying for Bendis to take over the Spidey movie script chores, and maybe he could pull it off, but it does make me a little nervous. Keep in mind, Bendis is the man that managed to drag out Spidey's origin over SEVEN issues in Ultimate Spidey, whereas back in the day, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee did the same damn thing in ELEVEN PAGES. So if Bendis does get involved in the Spidey movies, we can expect to see the series dragged out to at least 6 movies instead of the usual magical trilogy.
Right now it's just a lot of speculation out there, no real news to report expect the actual announcement that the franchise is being rebooted. So there you go, your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will be your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Kid soon. Can't wait. Really. No really, you are mistaken if you note any sarcasm in this post whatsoever.
Uuuuughhh!!!
ReplyDeleteI think we are all in for a terrible Spiderman 4! I'll miss Sam & Bruce, Tobey a little bit, and Kirsten... not so much. It would have been very interesting indeed to see Malkovitch as the vulture, rather than say.. Black Cat or Carnage played by some kid fresh out of the latest Twilight movie.
I think the movie will be bad, but not because it's a reboot, not because Raimi & Maguire are out, but because the nit wit execs like Avi Arad are calling all the shots and they don't care about pesky things like story or actors or directors that disagree with them over which villain to put in the film.
And what is the real fascination with a teenage Spider-Boy? When I was a teenager I wasn't interested in reading about any heros who's name ended in -boy. Marvel likes to point out that Stan Lee and Steve Ditco originally intended Peter Parker to be perpetually in High School but they forget to tell you that Stan & Steve graduated him from HS and put him in College because they felt they were losing their audience. For me that's where the stories became the most interesting. At that point the hero teenage naiveté and became a real hero, He could fight more threatening villains and not look like a smart mouthed kid with incredible luck. He became a man fighting men. A hero fully aware of the consequences of his actions. Parker's relationship with Harry, MJ, Gwen, JJ and all the other supporting cast was free to reach more complex levels. Nope, I sure don't want to see a Spider-Boy.
Does anybody want to see a movie about Bat-Boy or Iron-Boy? No? How about Hulk Jr. or Corporal America? No, I think we have enough teen angst on screen. So I say a reboot is fine, New director and actors is fine, but If they simply plan to get a yes man writer and director and look at the whole project as some sort of get rich formula rather than a story, then this 35 year Spidy fan is out.
I don't mind a reboot, as I haven't really liked Tobey as Peter since the third act of the first movie.
ReplyDeleteWhen he's sitting in the hospital with MJ after Aunt May is convalescing and he's telling how her wonderful and perfect she is, I just felt wierded out. Peter came off like a creepy, obsessed stalker during that scene and ever since then, I've just been wierded out by him. I thought the chemistry was a lot better and not so much in the realm of the wierd when he was talking with MJ just after her fight with her father, when Flash comes to pick her up. So Tobey taking off is cool with me.
Raimi leaving is fine with me, too. I like him as a director, but if he has to fight with the studio over the creative content of the film to the point where it delays production and they try to stifle him from presenting his vision of Spider-Man, a vision that has made them a fuckton of money despite whatever creative misgivings they have, then he is better without them. The studio is all afraid that the Vulture will skew too old for modern audiences and they want to see more 'popular' villains in the movies. Last time I fucking checked, Green Goblin, Doc Ock and Sandman all played off well and most of the complaints about Spider-Man 3 were because of Venom's forced inclusion bloating the plot and flow too much.
Now, the studio could easily turn around and say 'well, if Raimi hadn't been so resistant to using him, his inclusion wouldn't have seem so forced' but that is basically selling Raimi short. He proved he can make a Spider-Man movie people want to see and will spend money on. So why fuck with it and start telling him what to do? This just tells me that the corporate dickery is all about merchandising and how much money they can get out of all the toys of the shittier, newer villains they can put on shelves in the big box stores.
It's sad, because Raimi's movies make them money. Just another example of the bigwigs thinking they know better than the artists making them all that money. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is all the proof you need that the contrary is actually the case. That movie was shit on a shingle.
Kirsten Dunst can go. MJ is supposed to be model good looking and lately, she's just looking rather tired, haggard and unappealing. One comment about her I remember reading and laughing about said 'it looks like her teeth are trying to escape from her mouth.' Indeed.
And on top of that, her portrayal of MJ is not endearing or exciting at all. She went from being 'the exciting girl you can't help but fall in love with' to 'token super hero love interest angry that her man chooses to be a hero first.' If MJ is made for Peter, then she should understand the same thing he does about power and responsibility.
As for taking it back to high school, I'm good with it. For many, Spidey was more interesting when he went to college. While I don't disparage this view at all, there is plenty to mine from the character's more formative years. The Lee/Ditko stuff was phenomenal, perhaps the ultimate introvert geek power trip, and a lot of good stories can be re-envisioned for today's audience.
I am reminded of the excellent The Breakfast Club, and of how the movie basically says that the social dynamics of high school never change, only the culture around it. If the social dynamics of high school were interesting fare for movies and books twenty plus years ago, they can still be interesting today.
I say bring it on. But I don't expect it to be any good because I'm a natural cynic, especially as corporate dickery goes. Since I work for a major electronics corporation with all kinds of bureaucracy and 'me first' attitudes in the corporate food chain, this is nothing new to me.