Spider-Man 4: July 3rd, 2012 - Page 12

Recent rumors include Jamie Bell on the short list for Spider-Man/Peter Parker.  Logan Lerman appears to have fallen by the wayside. From TotalFilm.com:

Jamie Bell would be a good choice, IMO. He's only 24 and looks younger, so I think he'd fit the HS age they're looking for. I don't know any of the other five except Josh Hutcherson (Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Vampire's Assistant).

I know this guy probably hasn't been considered for the role, but what about the main character from Kick Ass (Dave) ? I think he might make a pretty decent Spider man. Agree, disagree ?

Aaron Johnson? I agree. I liked him in Kick-Ass, looks a bit young though.

...and maybe they can get Chloe Moretz to make an appearance as Hit-Girl.

This is kind of strange, but Aaron in that suit reminded me of Toby in the early outfit in Spider Man 1. Heck, he even sounded the same in that film. Not sure if anyone else got the same vibe or not.

I thought the idea of rebooting the franchise was stupid to begin with.  However, Donald Glover as Spidey got my senses tingling!

http://www.collider.com/2010/05/31/spider-man-reboot-donald-glover-twitter-campaign-marc-webb-sony/

Yes, he's not white but we already have Raimi's Spider-Man films.  If Sony is going for a reboot, might as well make it unique.

This may sound superficial, but The iconography that I want to see preserved in these films is the costume.

Close behind that, it's character relationships and personalities.  The character is a brilliant middle class high school science whiz. To me, that's race neutral. As long as the same family/social dynamics are in place I'm just fine with it.

I agree with Jose, this would probably juice it up and certainly make it seem more unique.

OTOH, I'm greatly disappointed by the descriptions of the Cap America costume being used and my anticipation for that property is plummeting as a result. You screw with iconography- you throw away the inherent over-the-top theatricality of it,  and what you get is a Green Goblin- a suit that is supposed to be 'more realistic' because it has a helmet and extreme sports pads all over. Rather than seeming more real, it just calls even more attention to the silliness of it all.

Either embrace the iconography of the properties or don't bother doing them at all.

It looks like this Josh Hutcherson person may be Peter Parker.

http://www.newsarama.com/film/josh-hutcherson-movie-spider-man-100630.html

Josh is a very good actor, and coupled with the 500 Days of Summer director, Marc Webb, I'm beginning to gain some interest again. Spiderman is my second favorite comic book hero, behind Batman, and I was thrilled the first time around when we got to see him up on the big screen. Curious to see what they do with the high school years onscreen.

Cheers,

Jason

Nope, it's Andrew Garfield.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1940449/

Not a lot to say, physically he's pretty skinny, but that will surely change before production. Personally I think he's too old (27), but I've seen older guys pull off the same age so w/e. I'm glad its not Hutcherson though, who has an certain smugness unbecoming the role.

At least Hutcherson would have been age-appropriate for the role. Now we have another old guy playing a high school kid.

Garfield also looks a little like Ryan Stiles (Drew Carey Show).

Now with that bit of casting of out of the way, let's cast Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zack Gibbs 

Nope, it's Andrew Garfield.

 

 Personally I think he's too old (27), but I've seen older guys pull off the same age so w/e.

 

I agree. I think if you are going to reboot with a young Parker then use a young kid. What is the point in going back to high school if the guy playing the part is 30? Why  not just replace Toby and keep the story going. Silly to me.

Miscast yet again.

I'm hoping the mechanical web shooters are incorporated this time.  "Organic" web shooters coming from his wrists was retarded and eliminated great drama in fight scenes where he often found hinself out of web fluid at the wrong times.  I found Raimi's reason (excuse) equally retarded.  This was one of two things I did not like about Raimi's Spider-man, but overall I did enjoy them. 

Technically, shouldn't the web come out of his rear end?

Exactly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Seven 

"Organic" web shooters coming from his wrists was retarded...

And a high school kid with a home chemistry kit being able to invent an amazing adhesive substance isn't?

I don't really mind, either one was fun.

 And a high school kid with a home chemistry kit being able to invent an amazing adhesive substance isn't?

Given the subject matter, not really.  One has to suspend disbelief either way, so why not stick with the original premise?

One could go with the idea that the spider bite gave him an inherent ability to fashion his own web, an unknown knowledge if you will.  No more ridiculous then it shooting out of his wrists.  I mean there is no biological precedent...  it's just as absurd.

What's interesting in the first movie Uncle Ben, when talking to Peter in the car, mentions those "crazy experiments" he does in his room. Ironically, we see none of that in the movie.  The experiments he does was fashioning his web.

As I said, having organic web shooters eliminated a lot of personal drama from the character.  Aside from running out of fluid at the wrong time, he is a struggling student trying to make ends meet.  The chemicals he needs are expensive and often he has to sacrifice something important to him to sustain his alter ego.  There are other situations that could be derived which could make for interesting dilemmas and drama.

"As I said, having organic web shooters eliminated a lot of personal drama from the character.  Aside from running out of fluid at the wrong time, he is a struggling student trying to make ends meet."

Parker was enough of a sad sack already.  They didn't need to make him more pathetic.  That's what brings down the trilogy, in my eyes.  Spider-Man 2 has one of the greatest scenes in comic book/movie history, the scene on the train after he passes out.  I tried to watch the movie the other day and couldn't get past the sad sack delivering pizza scene.  Sheesh...

That was way over done and unncessary.  True, in high school he is picked on and teased but not by the whole world.  Just stick to the character as written.  There is a reason why the character has been so popular for the past fifty years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Seven 

Given the subject matter, not really.  One has to suspend disbelief either way, so why not stick with the original premise?

 

If his body has physically changed so that he now has spider sense and the ability to stick to walls, it's much easier to believe that his body also changed to allow him to shoot 'webs' from his wrists than that he managed to use a home chemistry kit to synthesize some kind of adhesive web that the world's most intelligent and well funded scientists haven't thought up yet. I understand that many fans want the original version but if we're comparing which is sillier, the mechanical webshooters win as hardest to believe.

Yes, it would make sense that included in his physiological changes is the ability to natually produce webs... but not through his wrists!   It is totally absurd to me.  He might as well shoot webs from his ass (in "reality", that probably would happen).  Of course that is also ridiculous in the comic world.

You trivializing to a "home chemistry set" is not quite accurate as it is implied in Spidey lore that he has to buy expensive, unique checmicals (that's why they are expensive).  However, that aside, it is still easier for me to believe a gifted scientist with a now inherent knowledge to fashion his own web is just as believable as (LOL) webs coming from his wrists.  If there was any kind precedent, your arguement might hold water, unfortunately, it is just as laughable (if not more so), therefore, I would go with the original premise.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. 

I don't understand why you find the detail about the webs coming from the wrists so absurd, in particular. It sounds like your mind just wants to have something to point to over your frustration with them changing the original concept.

Aside from that, the basic premise of the argument is simple. When it comes to suspension of disbelief the audience has already accepted the idea that being bit by a radioactive spider will yield these specific superpowers. The ability of a High School Student to create such a fantastic materiel (one that even looks like spider webs no less) is a completely new situation, wholly outside of the superpowers conceit. So the two are not at all equal in the audiences ability to believe them.

I understand why they created Spider-man this way in the 60's, they wanted to show his intelligence and back then you could do... 'obtuse' ideas like mechanical web-shooters without the audience questioning it. But it really makes no sense, one of his key spider powers and he just happens to invent it? It would be like if Superman used a jetpack to fly.

And the films just aren't missing anything from the supposed "drama" that the upkeep of webshooters require. It works well enough in the comics, I like it there, but the films have more important stories to tell and relatively little time to do it in.

I just don't believe the audience would be sitting there saying, "This kid made those webshooters?  I'm calling bullshit."  They'd have just gone with it, like they went with the organic shooters.  It was no big deal to me until they changed them for the comics, but that was eventually reversed (along with some changes I was not too fond of).  I do like that Stan realized the criticism even back then and had Peter try to sell the web fluid.  They were interested until they found out it dissolved over time.  Of course, in real life, they would have bought the formula in order to either work out the bugs or keep someone else from buying it, and probably given Peter a job to boot, but at least Stan got an explanation out there.

In Ultimate Spider-Man, Peter's brilliant dad had started on the webbing formula before he died, and Peter found it and continued the work.

I don't understand why you find the detail about the webs coming from the wrists so absurd, in particular. It sounds like your mind just wants to have something to point to over your frustration with them changing the original concept.

Right...

It is absurd because the biology to support the concept is absurd.  It's that simple.  Read up on it. 

My point is both are absurd.  So go with the original premise.

"This kid made those webshooters?  I'm calling bullshit."  They'd have just gone with it, like they went with the organic shooters. "

LOL!! exactly.

I'm not familiar with what they did in the comics.  Greg, can you summarize?

I didnt have a problem with the organic web shooters.

It was easy to buy it as a change and makes sense from a pacing perspective. Organic shooters are part of his mutation. Ok. It saves the time of Peter going through what would a exaustive and time consuming process creating the stuff.

Maybe I'm not understanding you Gary, from what you wrote it sounds like you're saying;

"Sticks to walls, super strength, spider-sense, even organic webs, no problem, I totally believe that. But webs FROM HIS WRISTS, no way, that crosses the line."

Organic web-shooters are just part of him having superpowers, the audience is going to buy it by the time they've got their ticket. You don't have to earn that, you have to earn mechanical ones. You have to earn Parker being a boy genius, and if you don't even try, if you just gloss over it, then you're taking the audience for granted. It's poor storytelling.