If you haven't seen it, check it out post-haste.
I was really excited for this one. Ok. So here's why I think this movie's going to be BAD. And it seems pretty likely it's going to be BAD. I won't even address the 'terrible new costume' because it's pretty much requisite for the new direction a reboot requires. Now that's a term that's getting tossed back and forth with an aggravatingly increasing proclivity these days. The Reboot. Rather than trying new ideas or doing a new sequel that acknowledges mistakes of the past, movie studios are increasingly likely to just throw the whole casserole out and order pizza instead. Reboot Pizza. It worked for Batman because those movies had gotten so bad they were laughable. But now everyone seems to be on the "Batman-style Reboot Bandwagon."
And The Amazing Spider-Man is no exception. Right down to the brooding and the dead and/or disappeared parents. As a comics reader, I continue to watch in frustration as the movie studios bomb Marvel's characters. And Spider-Man is Marvel's biggest. Sam Raimi did a good job on the first two movies. It would have been great to see a funnier spider-man or a nerdier Peter Parker, but the movies are solid and enjoyable and at the time were the best comic-book movies around. But comic book movies have real competition now that an actual comic book company is at the helm of these new movies. The reason that the latest showings from marvel, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and the as-yet-unseen Cap flick is that they stick to the books. It's part of why the Dark Knight was so good. Faithfulness to the source material. But you have to do a little work yourself, as page-for-page remakes of these books is typically unfeasable (unless you're Zack Snyder) especially when a lot of these characters have upwards of 70 years of material to draw from.
So what gives, Amazing Spider-Man? It looks like we've turned Peter Parker from lovable nerd to brooding, angsty loner with a Rob Pattinson in twilight vibe. And that sucks. Spider-Man, while troubled at points, is always one of the most fun comics to read. They tell the stories that are the most fun, with Peter Parker himself usually having a positive outlook, even in the face of any troubles he may be facing. And this movie doesn't look like we'll be having very much fun. We probably won't get witty banter from Spider-man as he squares off against Rhys Ifans' Lizard. Shoehorning Peter's parents into the story will probably lead to some kind of 'find who killed my parents and avenge them' situation going on. And for the record, any time Peter's parents showed up in the comics, a really stupid story soon followed. Just sayin'.
Also, how does Andrew Garfield plan to fit all that hair under his mask?
I guess this really just falls into the 'let's wait and see' category, but I'm not putting any money on this being a great movie. Which is sad, because Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer was fantastic. I loved that movie. And let's hope to God that the graphics get better than that wall-crawling footage they show us at the end of the trailer. Bleh.
I'm bitter about Sony's obvious 'first script that comes along so that we don't have to give up rights to spider-man' play. This is a character that would do SO much better with Marvel steering the films. And Spidey would be able to join the Avengers, the only thing that I think could possibly make that movie any cooler than it's already shaping up to be.
And speaking of Avengers, check out this concept art for that film, due out May of next year!
Released in sections at comic-con, the full poster is now up, complete with first looks at the Quinnjet and what looks like is possibly the Helicarrier!
Clicking might make it bigger, but I'm still working out how this whole Blogspot thing works. So it may not.
How do you think the new Spider-Man movie's going to be? Sound off in the comments section!
I agree with what you've said here, and would add the fact that this movie is covering the same ground as the first Spider-Man that came out ten years ago.
ReplyDeleteTo me, there are two ways to do a reboot: The "Batman Begins" way, where you start over from scratch and show the full origin story and everything, and "The Incredible Hulk," which was a reboot but also seemed like a sequel due to the fact that it didn't really tread the same origin story we'd seen before, instead jumping right into the action.
I feel like Spider-Man is trying to do the former, when it would be much better served by the latter. The origin story for Spider-Man is relatively fresh in the public consciousness, making this movie seem kind of redundant. Everyone knows Batman's origin but it had not been explored in a film since 1989, and even then it was only touched lightly upon. This made his origin story reboot less stale. Spider-Man has not really had that time...
One thing to consider is that this may be an attempt to shift the tone of the Spider-Man franchise, in the same way Batman Begins shifted the tone of the Batman movies. But I would describe the tone of the previous movies as mostly heroic and fun, with a strong undercurrent of angst. This is what Spider-Man needs, in my opinion, and the tone in this trailer seems to have the angst down, but the fun is lacking... Then again, this is the first trailer.
That said, I would like my Avengers to be Spider-Man free in the movie. I don't like when he or Wolverine are members in the comics, and to be frank I feel like Spidey needs to stay a lone wolf. If I had my way, there would be no Hawkeye or Black Widow though... I have faith though. Marvel Studios has only let me down once (Iron Man 2) as far as comic book movies are concerned.
-Michael Toland
Even if Spidey wasn't a member of the Avengers and if Marvel had the rights, we would get a much more rich and enjoyable story, which is mostly what I was going for. I watched an interview with the director who said that the movie is about a boy 'searching for his dad and who really finds himself.' So it sounds like we are going to get a look for/solve dad's disappearance, and that's not something that spidey needs. A huge part of his character is that he was raised by his aunt and uncle and never knew who his parents were.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as it treading the same ground as the first movie, I guess it will and it won't. For one thing, it seems to be set primarily in high school. Which, maybe it's just me, but how the hell am I supposed to be convinced that Andrew Garfield is in high school? The one thing that I really hold on to is that Brian Michael Bendis (who has written Ultimate Spider-man since its inception) said the script was great. Whatever your feelings about Bendis, guy knows his spider-man.
The other thing that Marvel also seems to be doing well on their movie front is making each movie feel different. It would be easy to just make Iron Man four times and call it good, but it wouldn't do the characters justice. I loved how Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and I assume Cap is (just for the argument's sake) set out in their own directions. It emphasizes the differences between the characters. Tony Stark would be so out of place in Asgard. And that's a good thing. This new spidey movie just seems like it just wants to be Batman. And that's not a good thing.