SPIDERMAN IS DEAD

So let me begin by saying that I never really cared for Spiderman at all. With me it's all about consistency. If your going to make a film based on a comic book, you need to decide from the beginning if your going to stay as faithful as humanly possible (300, sin city, dick Tracy) or if your going to take aesthetic liberties but stay true to the source material (X:Men, Iron Man, The Dark Knight). The Spiderman franchise never had a very good handle on this. Slapstick goofy comedy shared screen time with operatic soapy dramatics. Sometimes the action was hard hitting, and sometimes it looked like a Looney Tunes cartoon. Why update the spidey suit to look all cool, but keep the green goblin looking identical to his comic book form? The dichotomy was very off-putting. That being said, they were an all right group of films.

Until Part 3. That was hands down one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life. Why you may ask? Because it suffered from the same things batman and robin, batman forever, and fantastic four all suffered from. Too many cooks in the kitchen. The Studio always wants certain things that some test group told them would sell. They have to balance that with a director who has certain creative ideas and aspirations. Its art meets commerce. HOWEVER, when one outweighs the other, the shit hits the fan. Case in point? The X-Men franchise. Bryan Singer had a plan, and it was a long and intricate plan. He loved the comics, and wanted to bring a faithful, epic, layered story to the screen. He started with the first one, and then reached new heights with the second. At the time I honestly feel X-Men 2: X Men United was the best comic book film ever made at the time (obviously the dark knoght and sin city share that title now). Then what happened? Even though he had creative control, and was obviously doing a good job, the studio was spending soooo much money on it, they felt they had the right to some input (and shouldn't they have?). So Singer complained about the changes they wanted with the third installment, the studio said bend to our will or leave, and he left. Fuck you very much. Peace out bitches. So the studio hires a goon by the name of Brett Rattner to make the third one. Brett's not a bad guy, and a very competent director, but he's what they call a "director for hire." he has no vision. He has no creative drive. He does know how to agree with the studio suits and point the camera and say action and deliver whatever they want. Hence x men 3 was a marked step down in the franchise. Did they use any of the outlines or story ideas Bryan Singer had mapped out? No, screw that, we want MORE VILLANS!!!!!! so Cyclopes gets killed in the first 3 minutes, the jugernaught is there for absolutely no reason in the lamest power rangers leftover muscle suit only cause it was cheap, and Rattner knows cheap. The third film made money, but not like the first two. An if you ask anyone, I doubt part 3 was their favorite.

So Sam Raimi, despite my own misgivings about the spidey films, was the man in charge. Having made the classic Evil Dead series in the 70's, he knew how to squeeze the most bang out of a buck. Studios like that. He was also endlessly creative, as evident in his DARKMAN films, pseudo comic book films in their own right (albeit on a much smaller scale). So he had plans and outlined motives for the Spiderman universe he was creating. He introduced marry Jane to that astronaut guy in part two, with the plan that in part three he'd be up in space and bring the venom down with him. Well, the studio didn't want to waist time on character development and things like that, so part 3 started with it for no reason just falling out of the sky. The astornaut fiancé left at the alter? No time for that either. No explanation just cut it out. What about peter parker proposing to her? He kept trying to pop the question in part 3, and originally he was going to, but the studio didn't want to deal with a wedding, there wasn't going to be any action or VILLANS, so he never did. Raimi made these compromises against his better judgment, and it showed. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice.....

So here we are at part 3. A release date has already been established for early 2012, and raimi was busy nailing out a script with the studio reared its ugly head once again. However this time he stood up for himself. The studio felt people want the character Spiderman, and it doesn’t necessarily matter who plays him or who makes it. So Raimi left, and the entire cast agreed and walked with him. That release date is still in place by the way, with the studio planning on quickly hiring a director for hire and having peter parker in high school dealing with his superpowers. So are they just rebooting it altogether like the incredible hulk (a very smart move in regards to the hulk, I still say that movie was better than iron man, no question), or are they going to pretend like nothing happened, and for no reason peter parker became 10 years younger. Who knows, but with a focus group making the decisions and not a singular creative force, you can bet it's going to suck!

I have to mention MARVEL studios at this point. They sold the rights of Spiderman, so they are not in control of it, but they are building their own universe of films in a way that everyone else should emulate. They hired Jon Favruea to make Iron man, a passionate and experienced filmmaker and writer with strong ideas. They hired Robert Downey Jr., a legitimate actor. And they have them complete creative control. That worked didn't it? Unhappy with how the first hulk turned out, they reboot it, pretending the first never happened. They get Louis leterrier, a famed French action film director and Edward Norton, a notorious perfectionist and control freak to not only star, but WRITE the film, and they both had creative control. That turned out to be a critical and commercial success. Now they have THOR in production, with Kenneth Branna directing. Oh, and Anthony Hopkins and Renee Russo, and about a dozen other amazing actors in it. Ryan Reynolds is currently prepping to be in their captain America reboot as well, collimating in an AVENGERS film featuring all of them together in 1012 or 13'. That’s how you do it. Invest in a very strong, proven creative force for both in front of and behind the camera, and then trust them. If they have a reputation, their going to want to uphold it. They’ll take pride in what they do, not just collect a paycheck.

lesson learned? Studios should stick with what their good at: Spending money. Directors and writers and actors should be trusted with what their paid for, creativity. If everyone just stuck to those rules, not only would comic book films be in a better shape than they are right now, the quality of movies in general would improve.