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Spider-Man Franchise Rebooted Leaving Me with Mixed Feelings...
In 2002's Spider-Man, the Green Goblin gives this fantastic line:
But the one thing they
love more than a hero, is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying. In
spite of everything you have done for them, eventually they will hate
you. Why bother?
No one would have guessed that this is exactly what would happen to the Spider-man Franchise. Despite bringing in millions of dollars, despite showing that comic films could have deep characters with real life problems, and despite pioneering modern CG-to real life transitions (and it has the Oscars to prove it), when Spiderman 3 failed to measure up to the first two, people started acting like the franchise always sucked. It hurts me to see people act like this, but the Green Goblin was right. Movie audiences are fickel and flakey, often so afraid to see the good through the bad.
Getting to the point here, in case you didn't know, up till about 2 weeks ago Spider-man 4 was in the works with the same director, same leads, and all that jazz. However, the studio was really putting the hammer down on Sam Raimi (the director) on the time frame situation. Many of the problems with the 3rd movie were blamed on the studio meddling far more than they did on the second (and best) Spider-man film. Raimi ultimatly refused to rush the production into the studio's time frame (probably due to the above reasons) and the studio decided to restart the franchise (which will only delay the film more, leaving me to question their logic).
What bugs me is how many people are saying this is such a great thing. Yeah I get it! We were all disappointed in Spider-Man 3. But that's only because we were all so excited about it. And why were we excited? Because Spider-Man 2 at the time of its release was the greatest superhero movie in existence (yeah, I said it so back off). Why was it? Because it did essentially what Batman Begins did before Batman Begins came out (and it had better handled action scenes). Spider-Man 2 gave us a superhero movie that was simply a good movie in and of itself. It had characters with normal, real world problems, scared to accept their destiny and more so, scared that their destiny will only hurt the one's they love.
Also, Spider-Man 2 gave us this great, tormented villain. I wasn't particularly excited about Doc Oc being the villain, but he was handled so wonderfully. Here was this man, manipulated by his own creation, bent on finishing his work for the greater good so his wife's death wouldn't be in vain. When he finally realizes the ere of his ways and sacrifices himself in the end, I was left completely satisfied with his character's journey (which is not something that can always be said). In so many ways he is the exact opposite of the Dark Knight's Joker (and Alfred Molina does just as fine of a job as Heith Ledger did, its just eccentric characters always get the attention [but Heith was amazing, I'm not arguing that]).
It's not that I'm not looking forward to the reboot. A sort of Ultimate Spider-man run could be really good. Also, the new movie will be directed by 500 Days of Summer director Mark Webb who could bring a great aspect to the film, not to mention his last name seems like a sign from God Himself. Webb has also directed an obscene amount of music videos including the MCR videos "Ghost of You", "Helena", and "I'm Not Okay" which are three of the most entertaining, re-watchable, and cinematic music videos I've ever seen. I have a great amount of confidence for the reboot.
What bugs me is that, much like Brett Favre, Sam Raimi is ending on a sour defeat. A fourth (and maybe 5th and 6th) movie could have given him a chance at redemption and all would have seen Spider-Man 3 as a simple misstep (which is what it was). Heck, if four would have been really good people probably would have started saying that 3 wasn't even that bad (which at the very least it was better than both Fantastic Four films, X-Men 3, and probably Wolverine). And anyone who saw Drag Me to Hell (Raimi's most recent movie) knows this is a man who is only continuing to get better at his craft.
Now, we are left wondering and the new Spider-Man will probably be great and cause people to either forget or ignorantly hate on Raimi's entire franchise (much like the effect Batman Begins and the Dark Knight had on Batman and Batman Returns). Its very bittersweet. For now, I guess we play the waiting game (since the new film is projected for 2012). At least we have Iron Man 2. Let me know your thoughts!
P.S. For those who think I'm going overboard on Spider-Man 2, think again. First of all, Spider-Man 2 is the second highest reviewed superhero movie of all time, following very closely behind the Dark Knight (that's right, it was rated higher than Iron Man). According to speculation, it was very close to being nominated for the Oscar of best adapted Screenplay (which is rare if not unheard of for a comic) and some believed it deserving of a Best Picture (which it deserved more than Avatar does). Without the wit, humor, and memorable characters of Spider-Man 2 (not to mention the great blend of computer and real life), the Iron Man film we know and love may have never happened. But seriously, I think Roger Ebert said it best with this from his review of Spider-Man 2...
"The best superhero movie since the modern genre was launched with Superman
(1978)" ... "It's a real movie, full-blooded and smart, with qualities even for
those who have no idea who Stan Lee is. It's a superhero movie for
people who don't go to superhero movies, and for those who do, it's the
one they've been yearning for."
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