Smiley Spot: Amazing Spider-Man

I know that it is still months away, but like most comic book fans one of the things that gets me most excited is the summer slew of comic book movies. We have talked at length about this years summers movies, and both the quality and critical issues that they brought with them. But like comics themselves, the new sleight is coming this way and the three big movie offerings have a lot to download. These movies are of coarse:

The Amazing Spider-Man,

The Avengers and

The Dark Knight Rises.

Let us look at each, see what is exciting, what is worrisome and what the fan reaction might look like. Just keep in mind that this article is educated speculation and holds nothing but my opinions. I only present them to give context to the creative decisions that are being made.

So for our first article, lets look at:

The Amazing Spider-Man:

Unlike the other two, this one is a reboot. Forget Toby Maguire and James Franco. This is a new movie universe and we get to see Spider-Man start over.

What Might Rock: Like the comic book universe it comes from, Columbia has chosen to throw away the older and matured movie continuity and go with a younger Peter Parker. In the comics, though this move caused major storms the move proved affective, and reinvigorated Spider-Man stories. If this movie can be Spider-man without the hang-ups of the original three movies then it would be more enjoyable than having to deal with the fallout of Spider-Man 3. I am happy with this because Spider-Man as a teenager is more appealing than a graduate student, and can appeal to kids more, which was Spider-Man’s original intention.

What Might Rock Less: I don’t particularly like the origin story of Spider-Man, and now I have to sit through it twice? No matter how the original movies (that came out only 10 years ago) are perceived now, they still did a definitive origin of Spiderman, and if this reboot does the same then it will be arduous at best. If they want to start by making him younger, then do so, but I am not looking forward to having to rewatch Uncle Ben die again and have it be a new movie. Don’t get me wrong Martin Sheen is a fabulous actor and I want to see what he does with it, but no matter the actor, rolling over to die looks the same.

Fan Reaction: I think that while the hardcore fans will enjoy the movie and be thankful that Peter is younger and away from Venom for a while. For the majority of the public, quality of the movie aside, I don’t think that they will appreciate the reboot. The original Spider-Man movie was not done that long ago and for better or worse, and it’s proximity to 9/11 really solidified that film as people’s window into Spider-Man.

            All that said, I think that the quality of this movie will determine the outcome and it can and should surpass its branding. I am just addressing the problems going into the film, and this movie’s problem is that it plays a little to much for the hardcore fans. The decision to reboot instead of ignore past movies cannon is playing to the fans needs to rate and place superhero films instead of figuring things out for themselves. The hardcore fans are moving around to quality over quantifying this stuff, and if Amazing Spider-Man overlaps too much with Spider-Man proper, then I think that it will hurt the quality this movie needs.

            Still, as a 12 year old Spider-Man blew my fragile mind, so if Amazing can do that for a new wave of kids, I can be an older fan now and deal with it.

To be continued…

Dov Smiley