Most of us are still unsure whether we can really trust our money with the hope to be entertained and gripped by a two-hour blockbuster about one of the most famous superheroes in the world after the sudden re-launch and estrangement from the old movies that once were a part of childhood of every other kid.
With Sam Raimi’s take on Spider-Man, today’s audience believes that only Tobey Maguire is Spider-Man, that Spider-Man film must be bright and light in colors, that Spider-Man has to appeal to kids foremost, that cheesy humor and corniness are must for the film, and even that Spider-Man has always had organics to spin his web.
As a result, the commonly accepted knowledge of Spider-Man and his universe is no more comes from comics, which were always the original source material, but recent Raimi’s films and cartoons. As many of us admit, it is indeed true that Raimi created one of the most memorable cinematic experiences involving a superhero.
He did create the feeling as if we were in the world of Spider-Man, applying retrospective visuals that ingeniously merged our reality with the world depicted in comics of the 1960s. For the most part, he also maintained consistency with the original comics about the superhero of the Lee/Ditko era. And, finally, it was again him, who became the first director to bring Spider-Man to the big screen and allow us delight in watching our hero swinging among skyscrapers.
When watching the first two movies nowadays, it’s impossible to deny the way they bring nostalgia to our minds and how we felt watching them for the first time in theatres, crowded by many other peers and adults. However, it’s also impossible to deny the fact that Raimi’s movies didn’t age as well as some wish they could. Aside from all the visual effects and costumes that no more look stunning, it has become more difficult to not notice in these films such crucial drawbacks as poorly written dialogues, careless characterization, repeating cliché moments, and, most importantly, lack of credibility that the story is real and tangible. Watching previous Spider-Man movies is equal to reading comics of the 1960s, when there was too much of exhibition, predictable dialogues, cheesy humor, and barely believable events. And, here we ask the question: Even though Raimi did make one of the most memorable motions pictures about a superhero, was his Spider-Man the greatest adaptation of the material that could ever happen?
The truth is Raimi’s interpretation had a good standing on surface, but it’s easily visible that he never really tried or even wanted to explore the character deeper than Maguire’s moody face and cries, his scantily written dialogues with Uncle Ben or Aunt May, and the forged tragic nature of his character that is barely understood and related by viewers.
It’s been less than five years since the release of the last film, but the whole trilogy already seems to lose the prominence it once had due to its deficiency of authenticity that would strengthen the weakening connection between audience and the character. Nonetheless, if Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 could still stand strong on their feet as a result of the ongoing story progression and groundbreaking action, the third film was the point, at which it all ended.
Apart from Peter’s dancing and emo-like appearance, the story brought such ridiculous changes to Peter Parker’s arc as Sandman being the real murderer of Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy, once the first love in comics, serving as only a distraction for Peter in order to maintain the constant soap opera-level drama between Peter and Mary Jane, who had been almost disgraced by writers for her never-ending affairs with other men.
Summing up all this and considering the overgrown royalties of stars, it is now pretty obvious why Sony decided to finally put an end to falling in the trap it created and move on with another vision.
It’s no doubt to assume that The Amazing Spider-Man has to go through many obstacles, from the bottom to the top, in order to prove its significance and not fall short as another film, attempted not in the right time and right place. The same held true about many other films, including:
- Batman, firstly criticized for being “too gothic and dark” for a movie about superhero, but in the end became one of the biggest movie events of 1989
- Batman Begins, which was almost bashed for the fact of being a reboot, as well as a serious take on what’s not supposed to be taken seriously; nowadays, followed by two sequels, it’s famous for starting revolution in its genre and setting a new benchmark for the next generation of superhero movies
- Casino Royale, proclaimed by many as a betrayal to the canons of films about James Bond and trying to be what it wasn’t thought to be, is now accepted as one of the best revivals of the franchise
- Star Trek, which was at first condemned for “not fitting” the franchise and bringing some major changes to its continuity with previous films and TV show, but then turned out to be the return of the Starship Enterprise that everyone had been looking forward to for years
- Even The Social Network, castigated for the sake of the fact of being “a movie about Facebook”, was called “Citizen Kane” of the new century
- And, the recent X-Men: First Class, which was initially doomed by many to be “just another attempt” by 20th Century Fox to keep the rights and later critically praised for becoming one of the better in its series
Tue, August 2, 2011 
