Saturday, April 21, 2012

2002: Spider-man Coming Soon! Ten Years Later...


     Wouldn’t you know, another “Spiderman 1” is set to release in just a couple months, one more reason to look forward to summer, but is it too soon for another “Spiderman 1”? Will it be too much like the 2002 version with just a bit of subplot changes? Will it live up to its incredible hype? I think the biggest question of all is will it be better then the original?


     Sure, a lot has changed in ten years. Writers appear to have writing good superhero movies down pat and with all the advancements in special/ visual effects you can pretty much do anything, well, a hell of a lot more then you could in 2002, but is the emotional excitement there? Will it be as mentally thrilling for a fan to watch? I say no. Lets rotate the clocks back about ten years. There were many great superhero films in the past: the Christopher Reeve Superman films, the Batman films from the 90’s (half of them anyway) and most recently, the first X-men film. Now don’t get me wrong, X-men was the first superhero film of the 21st century and it was great, but there was something about the release of a Spiderman film that got people talking. Maybe it was because Spiderman was a fan-favorite or maybe something entirely different, but the movie’s release didn’t break box office records because of nothing.

     Spiderman, as we all know, is one of the most relatable characters ever created. Just a regular teenager with regular problems. Every fan that watched that first Spidey movie had been a teenager at some point in their lives or would become one and every person has a different set of problems. Not every fan watching the movie was rich, or owned his own company or was an alien from another planet, so I think that’s where most of the appeal came from. The 2002 Spiderman paved way for tones of superhero films that followed, it inspired writers to create and recreate other characters like Batman and Ironman for a new generation of fans and I would put the original Spiderman up there as one of the best superhero movies ever. I just don’t think that The Amazing Spiderman has that power and I don’t think its ready for all the responsibility.


     With the release of the first Spiderman film the audience had no reference or at least nothing to compare it to so when they first saw the film it was something special, unlike anything they had seen before. To see Spidey swinging in live action, fighting the Green Goblin on the top of the bridge, all the things that fans had read for years in comic books was now being displayed on the big screen in live action. Unfortunately for The Amazing Spiderman, we kind of know what to expect. There is only so much that you can change about the character before you begin to ruin the character and the movie. I like how they changed the look of the costume (giving it a Ben Reilly style) and I also like how they’re using a villain not seen in the previous films (Lizard). But while the 2002 version had the luxury of being the “first great superhero film”, the 2012 movie is following films like the Ironman movies, Captain America, Thor and the Dark Knight and has to compete with blockbusters like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, all being released within a couple months of each other.


     I want to believe that The Amazing Spiderman will be a huge success and I hope that it is, but I just can’t see it being better than the original. But apparently they already have two sequels on the way so maybe those can top Spiderman 2 & 3, and if they plan on redoing the symbiote saga, do it right (but that is a discussion for another time). Basically what I’m saying is that this new movie has a lot to live up to and while the original trilogy was amazing, even though the third one brought it down a bit, I feel that id Marvel is confident enough to reboot a movie franchise that only ended 5 years ago then they better do a great job. In conclusion, good luck Amazing Spiderman, I hope that you are a great success but you must realize that you hold a lot of fan’s expectations in your hands, so with great power comes great responsibility.

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