Sam Raimi's Spider-Man came out the year I graduated high school. I saw it with a girl I was dating at the time, who I haven't seen in years (we also saw Attack of the Clones together). I remember I had been reading Ultimate Spider-Man a lot at that point. Spider-Man had always been my favorite comic book hero. Now I look at the character even more fondly. He has to deal with not only superhero problems, but real world problems. He's low on cash and down on his luck a lot despite being a genius and a living marvel. There's a lot of social commentary I could go off on, but this isn't that type of blog.
I had been waiting for a Spider-Man movie ever since it was announced that James Cameron was directing one. Though that movie never happened, we got the 90's animated series which is also close to my heart.
The first Spider-Man was great. It seems the cynical majority of commentors on the internet hate everything now, but no one talked down about Spider-Man in 2002. Willem Dafoe played a great Norman Osborn and the rivalry set up between the two could have been taken straight from the comics. The metal suit was different, but a rubber mask might have been difficult to pull off in a live action film. I would love to be proven wrong, but if Green Goblin shows up again he'll more than likely resemble his mutated Ultimate counterpart.
Kirsten Dunst I think portrayed Mary Jane alright, and at the time no one really questioned the quality of the character like they do now. I was never huge on the main stream version of MJ, but after reading the comics after the movie, I've grown to love the character a lot more. Brand New Day pissed a lot of us off as a direct result. James Franco did a good job as Harry, more or less, but I enjoyed his character in the second movie moreso than in the first.
The original trailer to the first Spider-Man movie had the twin towers in it, but that was scrapped after 9/11.
Spider-Man 2 (which was originally titled The Amazing Spider-Man oddly enough) came out in 2004. Doc Ock was an okay villian in the 90's show, but I loved his portayl in the Ultimate comics, so I was really looking forward to how he would be shown in the movie. I wasn't dissappointed with the outcome more or less. This movie is revered as the best of the trilogy by most, but I don't quite agree with that opinion. I think the first movie is just as good. I think the second one could have been better if it hadn't been bogged down by Peter losing his powers due to confidence issues. I know this happened in the comics before, but in most of those cases it was a result of mutagenic or genetic reasons (which led into him turning into the six armed Spider-Man or Man-Spider). This was because he had confidence issues and his powers were failing him. This might have been okay in a tv episode, but I feel like the movie suffered from it. Though the climax that resulted from the sequence made up for it.
Doc Ock was done really well and the train sequence might have been the best part of any Spider-Man movie to date (I'll be seeing the new movie at Midnight and putting up a review directly after).
Spider-Man 3... I have mixed feelings about. I don't straight out hate it like most people. I'm a big Venom fan and I felt he was gipped in this movie. I think that Topher Grace did a good job if you think of him as a combination of the 616 and Ultimate versions of Eddie Brock. He was just shoehorned into the script and then disentigrated at the end of the movie.
This I had a problem with, because there was no chance of him returning as a result. Green Goblin was impaled, but he came back in the comics due to a healing factor. Harry could have come back the same way. Sandman wasn't killed. Doc Ock wasn't 100% dead when you see him last. Venom is super f*cking dead with no possiblity of return. That pissed me off. The series is being rebooted, so there's a chance of Venom returning proper, but we'll see.
The Sandman was done really well. His past, him learning to use his powers, and the acting were all handled really well. He was never a huge threat, so Venom being a puppet master for a bigger plan makes sense. MJ is held hostage... again. I know this is what's expected, but come on. The part where Peter has the crap beat out of him while being double teamed is pretty intense.
New Goblin was a mixed bag. He was a real threat when he was trying to kill Peter. The first fight sequence was done really well. The name was stupid, though it was never said on screen. Hobgoblin would have been fine. I didn't mind the snow board, but the ninja mask was kind of confusing. He doesn't look like a goblin in any sense. His sword was pretty badass. The side story of Harry getting amnesia was odd, but felt like it belonged in a comic book. Things like this happen all of the time, so I didn't mind it so much.
Harry dying in the end after redeeming himself was similar to the comics. Dying in front of his friends in a similar fashion. This felt like a fitting end to the trilogy. Though this was one of like four endings (what is this, Lord of the Rings... jj). There's a lot of messaging about not having revenge in your heart. Recently I found out the lady who laid me off had breast cancer. I didn't feel any positive emotions about it, this surprised me due to how much I disliked her, but maybe these types of lessons have rubbed off on me.
Peter being evil due to the symbiote was handled well. The comedic angle of a evil Peter went a little overboard, but I don't think it was all the different than the happy go lucky Peter sequence from SM2. A lot of people hate the dancing in the doorway Peter, but it didn't ruin the movie for me the way it did for others. I'd give the movie a 7. It's jumbled, but had a lot of well done moments.
One of the things that will not be in the new movie is the organic web shooting. This was done for time I think in the first movie, and this was later incorporated (and then undone) in the comics (see: The Other, Brand New Day). Amazing will have mechanical webshooters, which is something I always loved in the comics.
Spider-Man 4 was supposed to have happened, but studio differences with Raimi made him pull out of the project. I think that MJ and Peter's relationship having closure would have had merit. Peter never fully explained the symbiote business to her. So having all of that tied up would have been nice. The Lizard was planned, but The Vulture was decided upon as the main villian. Anne Hathaway was going to be Felicia Hardy, but would have turned into The Vultress and not The Black Cat (and now she's Catwoman ironically).
I personally would like to see Bruce Campbell play Mysterio, even in the new series since he's doing some voice work in the video game version of ASM.
There were a lot of fond memories of the old series. It was a big part of early adulthood for me, just like the animated series was a big part of my childhood. Hopefully there will be memories to be made from The Amazing Spider-Man.
No comments:
Post a Comment