By Colin M.
As most of you know, it was just announced that Tom Holland (The Impossible) will be playing Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot and Jon Watts (Cop Car) will direct. Getting fairly unknown actors and directors isn't uncommon for Marvel movies (like Chris Hemsworth as Thor or James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy) so it should come to no surprise that they did it again with Spider-Man. With this very exciting reveal, one question comes to mind: Can Spider-Man Be Good Again?
Spider-Man has had a very rocky experience on the big screen. Things started off well for the web slinger with 2 great movies directed by Sam Raimi and although Tobey Maguire was a questionable choice for the role, every time he had the mask on, he embodied Spider-Man. Audiences were clamoring for more Spidey after Spider-Man 2 and after a struggle in development with Sony, Raimi returned to give us the fart-bomb that is Spider-Man 3. Too many villains, too many storylines, all rushed into one movie and even though audiences rushed out to see it, most of them came out very disappointed. Spider-Man 3 easily could have been the end to Spider-Man on film but Sony just couldn't have that happen.
Reboot. Sony felt that they were done with Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man so they decided to reboot it because they couldn't let their most valuable franchise go gentle into that good night. So in 2012, only 5 years after Spider-Man 3, we saw Andrew Garfield take up the mantle of the web-slinger. The Amazing Spider-Man was a good movie but what hurt it was that it was so soon after the third installment of the Raimi trilogy and that it was another origin story. We didn't need to see another Peter Parker get bitten by another Spider. We know who Spider-Man is so get on with it. Then in 2014, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 continued the new story of Peter Parker but was it really "new"? That whole movie felt like a retread of every other Spider-Man movie that we have already seen. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a terrible film and showed that audiences are getting tired of seeing the same Spider-Man movies all the time.
Now, Marvel and Sony are teaming up to reboot Spider-Man (again) but this time into the established Marvel Cinematic Universe. Can this Spider-Man be good again? With Marvel much more involved, obviously it could be good but only if they stay away from the same threads that Sony was plucking from in all the other movies. Spider-Man is very likely to appear in next year's Captain America: Civil War in a small role which is something we have never seen before. Spider-Man in the same universe as all our other favorite heroes? That sounds like a good time at the cinema. If they can do Spider-Man correctly in that huge tentpole movie, that would definitely spark a new interest into the Spidey franchise for more people. But when it comes to the Spider-Man solo movie, they can't just revert back to the same thing. We don't need to see Peter get bitten again (maybe they could do a montage like The Incredible Hulk) and we don't need to see another villain created by Oscorp that is based on an animal. Bring something new to the table.
To answer the question, yes, Spider-Man can be good again, but only if Sony learns from their mistakes. They need to change the formula that they have been following since 2002. Make a movie that is refreshingly new and not something everybody has already seen. Keep Spider-Man in high school for at least 2 movies and let him be the character that he actually is in the comics. Spider-Man in the MCU changes everything and if they embrace the universe that he was meant to be in, Spidey could finally be good again.
As most of you know, it was just announced that Tom Holland (The Impossible) will be playing Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot and Jon Watts (Cop Car) will direct. Getting fairly unknown actors and directors isn't uncommon for Marvel movies (like Chris Hemsworth as Thor or James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy) so it should come to no surprise that they did it again with Spider-Man. With this very exciting reveal, one question comes to mind: Can Spider-Man Be Good Again?
Spider-Man has had a very rocky experience on the big screen. Things started off well for the web slinger with 2 great movies directed by Sam Raimi and although Tobey Maguire was a questionable choice for the role, every time he had the mask on, he embodied Spider-Man. Audiences were clamoring for more Spidey after Spider-Man 2 and after a struggle in development with Sony, Raimi returned to give us the fart-bomb that is Spider-Man 3. Too many villains, too many storylines, all rushed into one movie and even though audiences rushed out to see it, most of them came out very disappointed. Spider-Man 3 easily could have been the end to Spider-Man on film but Sony just couldn't have that happen.
Reboot. Sony felt that they were done with Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man so they decided to reboot it because they couldn't let their most valuable franchise go gentle into that good night. So in 2012, only 5 years after Spider-Man 3, we saw Andrew Garfield take up the mantle of the web-slinger. The Amazing Spider-Man was a good movie but what hurt it was that it was so soon after the third installment of the Raimi trilogy and that it was another origin story. We didn't need to see another Peter Parker get bitten by another Spider. We know who Spider-Man is so get on with it. Then in 2014, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 continued the new story of Peter Parker but was it really "new"? That whole movie felt like a retread of every other Spider-Man movie that we have already seen. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a terrible film and showed that audiences are getting tired of seeing the same Spider-Man movies all the time.
Now, Marvel and Sony are teaming up to reboot Spider-Man (again) but this time into the established Marvel Cinematic Universe. Can this Spider-Man be good again? With Marvel much more involved, obviously it could be good but only if they stay away from the same threads that Sony was plucking from in all the other movies. Spider-Man is very likely to appear in next year's Captain America: Civil War in a small role which is something we have never seen before. Spider-Man in the same universe as all our other favorite heroes? That sounds like a good time at the cinema. If they can do Spider-Man correctly in that huge tentpole movie, that would definitely spark a new interest into the Spidey franchise for more people. But when it comes to the Spider-Man solo movie, they can't just revert back to the same thing. We don't need to see Peter get bitten again (maybe they could do a montage like The Incredible Hulk) and we don't need to see another villain created by Oscorp that is based on an animal. Bring something new to the table.
To answer the question, yes, Spider-Man can be good again, but only if Sony learns from their mistakes. They need to change the formula that they have been following since 2002. Make a movie that is refreshingly new and not something everybody has already seen. Keep Spider-Man in high school for at least 2 movies and let him be the character that he actually is in the comics. Spider-Man in the MCU changes everything and if they embrace the universe that he was meant to be in, Spidey could finally be good again.