Amph Spider-Man & SSU Films (Madame Web, Venom 3, Kraven, Beyond the Spider-Verse)

Yeah I was hoping for at least another movie with Gwen while keeping the Osborn stuff in this film intact. I'm really disappointed it seems we won't see a Norman Gobby after all (unless his death was "faked").

 

Tbh though Goblin has been way overdone in this whole franchise (appearing in some form every movie apart from ASM1). Spidey has such a big rogues gallery so I want to see villains that haven't been done yet.

 

I was just thinking about how this is trailer for Raimi's Spider-Man 2 is still one of the best trailers I've ever seen.

 

Rogue1-and-a-half: Where is my part II!

 

Kinda similar to Superman and Lex Luthor.

 

True, but Zod he wasn't in the most recent movie. And Zod was also the villain in Superman II

 

Why have we yet to see The Kangaroo on the big screen?

 

Boomerang. He's so hot right now. Boomerang.

 

Saw the movie today.

It has pacing problems, and I feel more could have been cut. It has some bad cliché dialogue. Aunt May's line about going to college to afford Peter's college tuition was stupid. And Electro was unnecessary (though not bad, and not too detracting from the main point of the movie). The plane collision drama was really unnecessary.

But it was still a good movie, and it had some superb acting, especially for the central characters. And I like how they're creating their own tone for the series, and clearly having some fun doing it.

I think the biggest problem was the lack of Uncle Ben. And why did the Oscorp men stop following Gwen?

Oh, and Norman is totally coming back. There's not a chance that he doesn't, especially with knowledge of the cut scene.

 

Okay, Jabba-wocky and anyone else who wants to hear the awful truth about this movie. Here's Part II.

So, okay, Richard Parker. That stuff was dreadful. I initially liked the way this plotline started, with us seeing the "behind the scenes" of what happened at the beginning of the first film. But then it quickly became ludicrous, though in a large way this didn't become obvious until later. So, all the drama of Richard uploading this video to "Roosevelt." Fine, whatever. Then Peter discovers that Roosevelt is actually a subway car, buried beneath the tracks at a disused station. So, it comes up on hydraulics and reveals this secret lab type thingie. By the by, and I can't park here, but this super secret lab gets triggered to rise out of the ground via the super secret signal of . . . someone pounding on the wall. You'd think there'd be a code, but no, all Peter has to do is bang on a random wall in the station and up from the ground comes this magical train car.

And then we find out what's in this magical video that has everyone at OsCorp so terrified. It's Richard Parker making a single, incredibly vague allegation against OsCorp without presenting a shred of proof and then talking about how much he loves Peter. Okay, so cue emotional moment, but really why is OsCorp so desperate to stop this video from surviving the plane crash. Every time this guy on the plane gets the upper hand, he purposely stops the upload and then, when the plane is literally breaking in half, he is still giving all his energy to trying to get the laptop from Richard. So he can stop what exactly? Richard Parker, a man accused of being a traitor, mind you, and thus not a man whose word is going to be given much credence, from releasing a video in which he vaguely alludes to the fact that OsCorp is doing weird things with spider DNA. Without any proof, mind you. This is hardly the smoking gun I had thought it might be.

Also, can I just say how stupid it is that Richard keeps whining about how little time he has and then he wastes the entire time of the video talking about how awesome his little kid is. I mean, seriously. "I thought I'd have more time." *rambling about Peter for forty-five seconds* Oy. Also, if this video is supposed to be the thing that will exonerate him and take down OsCorp, why the hell is he being so damned vague about what he's talking about?

Okay, Electro. First of all, Jamie Foxx is just not particularly good in the first part of this movie. I've never been a huge fan, though I did love his performance in Django Unchained. But he is really not convincing at all as a nerd. He just really isn't. Oh, but, hey, B.J. Novak! Good job, B.J. Keep climbing that ladder. Please tell me they're going to let you be Spider-Slayer in the next movie. Because B.J. Novak as a Spider-Man villain would be fan. tas. tic.

But back to Electro. I'm honestly not sure . . . is he supposed to be developmentally disabled? Because he's kind of playing it borderline that way. I mean, is that supposed to be funny when he's talking to Spider-Man in his empty apartment? Or what? And when he's literally singing Happy Birthday to himself while connecting high voltage wires with the power turned on while balancing on one foot over a vat of electric eels? But then he turns into Electro and he's making this incredibly pompous speeches with these five dollar words? I'm trying to figure out just how intelligent this guy is supposed to be.

I will say that I really liked the first big Electro scene, the Times Square scene. That was a lot of fun. And I kind of liked the look of Electro, particularly in the hoodie in that scene. And I really liked the way they did the voice of Electro too. That was all good. But somehow the script just didn't really get the character communicated. There's real potential there in that Max is a person who is totally powerless in his world, but now gifted with incredible power. But there's just one line about that and they didn't really explore it. Instead, Max's motivations seem to be that he basically thinks Spider-Man is a jerk because he forgot his name and then everybody cheered for Spider-Man after he saved a guy's life. Again, is Max supposed to have the mind of a ten year old or what? And then, five minutes before the end of the movie his motivation becomes, "Hey, they stole my electric grid design! I guess I want to turn it off now!" I just never had a clear sense of motivation.

And while I'm on the subject. What. The. **** was up with that insane German doctor that was torturing Max in Ravenscroft? That guy just came out of ******* nowhere. It's like suddenly we're in a Mel Brooks movie or something. He's cackling and using one of the worst German accents ever and . . . Jesus, I swear he had a ******* orgasm when he shocked Electro that one time. And this should be like really, really powerful emotional stuff; this is what should be giving Electro motivation. This should be really dark and we should feel Electro's pain and suffering. And instead I'm staring open-mouthed at the worst take on the crazed Nazi scientist I've ever seen in a movie. And people in the theater were laughing. Laughing. That's the last thing we should be doing at that point of the film. Seriously, that character genuinely angered me. I've been trying to go with this movie. The movie hasn't been giving me the real human emotions that I want to get from it, but I'm desperately trying to hook onto what little they are giving me. And then the movie just ******* carbombs itself by dropping this cartoon character in what should be the most human and emotional scenes in the whole picture. This is absolutely ludicrous. I don't know who's idea this was, but that Marc Webb let this character into the movie is genuinely bumfuzzling to me. He's usually more attuned to emotional moments and even if they don't really land, he isn't just ******** all over them with this kind of nonsense.

Okay, I'm wrapping this up. I think I've talked about most of the things that really killed me. Oh, crap, the Rhino! Oh, God. I can't get into the Rhino. Let me just say. ******* Paul Giamatti. You guys. Paul Giamatti.

 

Um... banging on the wall didn't do it.

I don't think they were after the Parkers because of the video, but because they suspected Richard had the proof, probably on his laptop. He happened to be uploading that video when everything went down. The Parkers weren't planning on dying then.

And Electro clearly is schizophrenic, hearing voices and all. Spider-Man was probably just his latest obsession. I think he was supposed to be pathetic and freaky. But like I said, Electro wasn't the heart of the story. He was just a hyper-powered goon for them to show off some cool action sequences, and act as a catalyst to the real story of Peter/Gwen/Harry.

 

Yeah but the poor doctor didn't deserve the horrible fate that was inflicted upon him.

 

But he kinda did.

 

The greatest tragedy of Doctor Kafka was that they took a somewhat obscure but interesting female character and Spidey ally and turned her into a one dimensional male character constructed on a horrible cultural stereotype.

 

Maybe the "real" Dr. Kafka will be his wife or sister-in-law in the next movie.

 

What did? All I saw was that he hit the wall and the thing came up.

Even when Mary Parker had been shot and knew she was dying, she still told Richard to ignore her and concentrate on completing the upload to Roosevelt. Which was that stupid ass video.

When did he hear voices? I'm not disputing that he might be schizophrenic, but if so, they really didn't hit that as hard as they could have or should have. The only moment I noticed of Max seeming to break with reality was when he had that moment with B.J. Novak. And I don't think Walter Mitty should necessarily qualify as schizophrenic. The idea of a supervillain that's genuinely schizophrenic, not just deluded with grandeur, has huge potential.

Yeah, but . . . did he work as a catalyst? In what way did he propel the story of Peter and Harry at all? Harry was already sick and already needing Spider-Man's blood and ultimately discovered the spider DNA stuff without Electro's help. You could argue that Harry needed Electro in order to get back into OsCorp, but there are plenty of ways around that, most obviously Harry's second-in-command who originally did indeed have a much larger role in the film. They could easily have developed that character and showed us Harry as a much more cunning character, which is what I think of when I think of the Green Goblin. He didn't really need Electro in order to get back into OsCorp; he's wealthy, smart and has someone on the inside. That's enough. I don't see what purpose Electro serves in the Peter/Harry story.

Electro doesn't function in the film in any kind of emotional way; and I think they did try. It's not as though the filmmaker didn't try to make him a deeply evocative character; they just tried and failed, and everyone is trying to dodge that by saying that he wasn't the heart of the film. Well, no, he wasn't, but that raises two issues, which are whether he needed to be there at all and whether they needed to waste all that time on attempting to develop him if he was never intended to be the heart of the story.

 

I thought I was getting Part 3, that took the deep dive on the Rhino.

 

I wasn't really a fan of the soundtrack to be honest.

 

Uh, the Avengers main theme itself is reminiscent of the soundtrack to X-Men: First Class, only much less memorable. In fact, I was watching The Avengers last night (third time ever) and it feels a lot like a TV movie, but with expensive CG, obviously. But enough about that.

I liked the Horner soundtrack to the first ASM, but didn't feel like it was reminiscent of the Elfman score. If anything, I liked it precisely because it was different, and had a more traditional and recognisable fanfare to accompany Spider-Man's arrival to a scene, compared to the more continuously pumping Elfman score that was more context-based in its transitions. That said, I am also a big fan of the Elfman score to the Raimi films, but I appreciated the departure from that style for the reboot.

I feel the electronic build-up parts of the Zimmer score that lead to the fanfare in ASM 2 are reminiscent of Elfman's continuous string beat, but more low-key and relaxed, as it typically appears in quieter moments. I also, unlike you, felt like the fanfare sounded like an evolution of the Horner score. Watch a video of his final swing that lead to the credits from ASM 1 on YouTube and you might get what I mean. It's like it follows the same pattern and melody, but rearranged in a different rhythm. I realise it's very difficult to explain why I think so in writing, so without some goodwill on your own, you probably won't catch my meaning. And even if I could explain it to you perfectly, it's not given that you would agree.

 

I didn't feel the Marc Webb Amazing Spider-Man series was good at all, and now it appears the studio agrees with sagging box office numbers.

The Amazing SpiderMan 3 Could Get Pushed: Is the Franchise In Trouble?

 

I've liked Webb's Spider-Man much more than Raimi's. Even with the problems both films had, Garfield's Spidey/Peter tends to make me rate them higher than the previous trilogy.

 

I've liked both of them too, but I do find them to be quite uneven in tone. The first ASM felt more grounded and serious than the Raimi trilogy, which is more stylised and deliberately cheesy, bordering on parody of comic book fiction. The second ASM, on the other hand, while retaining a grounded love story between Peter and Gwen, cranks the cheese up to 11 in the other parts. The difference is that the Raimi trilogy is cheesy with a self-referential ironic distance. ASM 2 is cheesy while taking itself entirely serious.