Marc Webb/Andrew Garfield's 2012 Spider-Man movie megathread

[Chris S.]

Just added (500) days of Summer to the top of my Netflix list. Until then this means nothing to me.

[spiderman_rj]

Hey, weird thought, but who would be up for Emma Stone as MJ?

i dont remember mary jane when peter was in high school
she could be liz though

[RDMacQ]

i dont remember mary jane when peter was in high school
she could be liz though

She is in USM. Which is apparently the series that the new movies will be based on.

http://chud.com/articles/articles/22...MAN/Page1.html

That's also the series where Gwen is more like Peter's sister and MJ is the person Peter has expressed his love to on several occasions, if that gives you an idea of where the filmmakers might be taking things.

[Regulus B.]

She is in USM. Which is apparently the series that the new movies will be based on.

http://chud.com/articles/articles/22...MAN/Page1.html

That's also the series where Gwen is more like Peter's sister and MJ is the person Peter has expressed his love to on several occasions, if that gives you an idea of where the filmmakers might be taking things.

Didn't he start dating Gwen in the reboot-type-thing?

[Jim Thompson]

Didn't he start dating Gwen in the reboot-type-thing?

He is dating Gwen now in USM, yes.

[Chris S.]

She is in USM. Which is apparently the series that the new movies will be based on.

http://chud.com/articles/articles/22...MAN/Page1.html

That's also the series where Gwen is more like Peter's sister and MJ is the person Peter has expressed his love to on several occasions, if that gives you an idea of where the filmmakers might be taking things.

There's also the Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane where she is high school. Pretty much all versions of Spidey since the original have placed MJ in Pete's high school. The movies even did.

I could see them pulling from Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane a bit. I've been reading the first volume to my daughter. Its a different kind of book but its done well. They really push the high school angst. Thats what seems to be selling movies right now too.

It also appears that (500) Days of Summer is a lot about lovers angst. Like I said its at the top of my Netflix list. Not sure why but it has a "Long Wait." We will see though. Netflix has told me that before and it mails right away. I wonder if its from this announcement though...

[Gabe De Los Muertos]

The trailer for the film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM

[RDMacQ]

Didn't he start dating Gwen in the reboot-type-thing?

Yes. But for the first 100+ issues MJ was Peter's primary love interest. Even with the reboot, the whole Gwen issue is handled almost like an afterthought with MJ's relationship with Peter still pretty prominent with the book.

I doubt the filmmakers- if they are taking their lead from USM- are going to look at the over 100+ issues of the comics, and only go with the last six that have been published over the last few months for their lead.

[The Confessor]

eh I'm not sold.

The first two Spider-Man movies worked because Sam Rami had so much passion for the source material. This guy might make a good movie, but I'm not sure it would be a good spider-man movie.

This is my concern as well. Nowhere in that article does it say that the guy likes Spider-Man comics or has even read a Spider-Man comic. This is worrisome because perhaps more than any other superhero, Spider-Man needs to be written/filmed by someone with an understanding of what he's about. The character is deceptively simple and straight-forward but in fact, it’s very easy to get it wrong. When Sam Rami was chosen to direct the first Spider-man movie we heard a lot about what a big fan of comics he was and I would expect the same from Sony now if Marc Webb was indeed a fan of the character. Maybe I'm wrong and in fact, James Webb is a big fan of Spidey but as I say, the lack of any mention of this makes me skeptical.

Great movies have been made by people with no significant interest in the source material.

True but by the same token an awful lot of bad films have also been made by people with little or no understanding of the source material...look at Batman and Robin or Judge Dredd for example.

Good point. This is especially true of many science fiction franchise films-some of the most sucessful Star Treks were those done by Nicholas Meyer (II, VI) and J.J Abrams (The new one), both directors who didn't really care for the original material but still managed fantastic movies.

Controversially, I would add J. J. Abrams to my above list of directors ruining a movie because of a lack of understand of the source material. By his own admission, Abrams is more of a Star Wars guy than a Star Trek guy and this I think shows in his film. It might've been all very exciting and action packed but it was also a case of all surface, no depth. There was no heart to it, no soul and most importantly for Star trek, no philosophical message. In short, it just didn't feel like a Star Trek movie.

Now, obviously it was massively popular but regardless of whether you liked it or not, you have to admit that it was far from faithful to the spirit of the source material. The source material, in this case, being the original series or the movies featuring the original cast.

The trailer for the film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM

Much as I hate a romantic comedy, that actually doesn’t look too bad. I mean, it looks somewhat more intelligent than most offerings in the genre.

[rocky123]

I agree that Gordon-Levitt, despite being talented is a bit too old to play a teenage Peter Parker. OTOH I don't think you want to go too young either and run the risk of the actor outgrowing the role in some way or being too young and awkward at first. It's why actors in their early to mid 20's always play teens in movies/tv.

Arrgg...in retrospect the fact that they are regressing Spidey all the way back to high school I think you guys are right. If they had continued where the trilogy left off I think Gordon-Levitt would be great because while 29 soon he looks very young and is way talented. He's wouldn't be like Welling trying to pull off high school Clark. I guess I'm just hoping they get a quality actor to fill the spot and not just a cheap teen 'it' actor of the moment who can't act to save his life.

[Gabe De Los Muertos]

Much as I hate a romantic comedy, that actually doesn’t look too bad. I mean, it looks somewhat more intelligent than most offerings in the genre.

It's not really a romantic comedy.

[The Confessor]

It's not really a romantic comedy.

Well, judging from that trailer it features a fair bit of subtle comedy and it appears to be largely concerned with a romantic entanglement. Surely that puts it firmly in the pigeonhole of "Romantic Comedy", no?

[Gabe De Los Muertos]

Well, judging from that trailer it features a fair bit of subtle comedy and it appears to be largely concerned with a romantic entanglement. Surely that puts it firmly in the pigeonhole of "Romantic Comedy", no?

I don't want to reveal too much, but it's actually kind of a sad movie. Watch it Confessor.

[Karl Cook]

True but by the same token an awful lot of bad films have also been made by people with little or no understanding of the source material...look at Batman and Robin or Judge Dredd for example.

You can't cite Judge Dredd as the director's fault though. Danny Cannon was not to blame for Dredd running around with his helmet off and then snogging Hershey at the end of the movie.
That was all done due to Stallone's insistence (and vanity). The blame lies solely with Stallone.

[coconutphone]

I don't want to reveal too much, but it's actually kind of a sad movie. Watch it Confessor.

True. The opening narration states emphatically that this is NOT a love story. While a relationship of sorts is at the core of the movie it's in no way your typical rom-com.