Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Blog About One Picture



Back in 2007 we got to see the 3rd film in director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man film franchise. The previous two installments were both critical and commercial hits, while part 3 made more than enough money, most found it to be a big let down that was lacking in story, and sloppy in execution.

Even though many were not totally thrilled with Spider-Man 3, news came quickly that Raimi was still going to work on another installment with Tobey Maguire and a rumored villain in John Malkovich as the Vulture. But almost immediately following these rumors and reports, Sony announced completely out of left field that they would no longer be persuing a 4th Spidey film with Raimi due to the typical Hollywood “creative differences” and instead launch a complete franchise reboot with (500) Days of Summer director Mark Webb at the helm.

Now I get things not working out with a director and wanting to try something new, but when Bryan Singer left X-Men, they didn’t start all over. When Tim Burton left Batman, they got someone else and kept it going, and those were a bit worse than Spider-Man 3. Spider-Man 3 made plenty of money despite some bad reviews so there was no real reason to start from the beginning like it was a flop.

But the decision was made. Screenwriter James Vanderbilt’s original script for Spider-Man 4 was going to be reworked into an all new origin story for Peter Parker and Andrew Garfield (pre Social Network) would be plucked from obscurity and become the new Spider-Man.

So despite a little bump in the road, a new Spider-Man movie was happening and things began moving fast. But the fans didn’t seem happy. Most message boards and other nerdy outlets were filled with comments of unhappiness and criticizing a movie that they haven’t even seen yet.

I haven’t seen the movie either, and although I was a little skeptical of the whole idea of rebooting what many call one of the greatest franchises in comic book/movie history, I was also excited to see what they would do with it. Mark Webb has proven himself to be a talented director who focuses a lot on character while not forgetting the visuals and Andrew Garfield certainly looks the part and now after seeing The Social network, I’m confident he can play the part.

Then, a few days ago the first official image of Garfield in the Spidey-suit hit the internet. Some fans are still saying no thanks to this reboot, but that image sealed the deal for me. I’m pumped to see a new take on the web-head that is just as true to the comics, but isn’t a 2nd rate attempt at the franchise. The suit looks like a fantastic mix of comic accuracy and urban realism. If you look closely at the wrist, you can see that the creative team opted for the mechanical web shooters from the comic books rather than Raimi’s organic ones. It’s only one image, but it proved (to me anyways) that these guys know what came before and totally respect it, but they also have no desire to repeat it. I’m gonna welcome this movie with open arms, and hopefully I won’t come out of the theater in the summer of 2012 disappointed.

2 comments:

  1. My only early criticism of the reboot so far is finding out recently that there will be no J Jonah Jameson, at least in the first one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. yeah I read that too, and am ok with it because he's still gonna be in high school and probably not yet working for the bugle.

    ReplyDelete