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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Spider-Man rocks, I promise

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09:32 / 07.05.02

Stan Lee's cameo is so fast it's subliminal. Like they couldn't have cut out one of the 17 punches in the final fight scene and given Stan the Man one or two more milliseconds on screen??

14:03 / 07.05.02

This is sounding very good

I'm also another one that hasn't read the comic books but I watched the cartoons, oh and I had one of those read slide viewers with spiderman stories. Just have to wait for the UK release now, next month I think.

What about the 3rd movie though, its gotta be Venom right? (please)

Matthew Fluxington

14:21 / 07.05.02

My little brother was hoping for Venom too, and I sure hope that they do not give in to that urge - I think Venom, along with marrying Mary Jane, was the kiss of death for the comics Spider-Man. Venom is a character who can only be understood by explaining loads of continuity, and is a pretty dull character who is all surface and no substance. I think that it would be a mistake to introduce that character, just awful. I'm pretty sure that what they had in mind was to go with Dr. Octopus and The Lizard in the next film, and have Harry Osbourne become the second Green Goblin in the third.

14:30 / 07.05.02

Well screw you I'm with your little brother on this one, Venom rules !!!! you suck etc.

15:22 / 07.05.02

Um..who becomes the Hobgoblin?

Im hoping the next characters are :
the introduction of the kingpin as a major background mastermind villain for a few films
The Rhine and Electro..cause they're crappy and should be forced to split screen time.

The Lizard..should have his own film

...So should Doc Oc

Hobgoblin should be in the film with the final showdown with the kingpin

The final film should be spiderman fighting off a druken aunt may.

15:24 / 07.05.02

I also had a big problem with the whole voice over at the begining and end..my god what lame assed ripped off a billion times before kind of lines were those????

Matthew Fluxington

18:23 / 07.05.02

Lileks gets it right...

19:51 / 07.05.02

I was surprised as to how good this movie was. It actually had a script worth the paper it was printed on. Originally, I wasn't too keen on Tobey McGuire as Peter Parker, but he really did pull it off very well, very much bringing the geek to the fore, as well as the conflict between being able to do absolutely amazing things, enjoying them, yet still, trying to retain some... humility about it all.

Important elements were the character interractions, Peter to Harry to Norman, MJ to Peter to Harry, etc... Nice job, and never simplistic.

The sequel had better begin with the words: 'Don't tell Harry....'

00:06 / 08.05.02

Bio has a way of making me feel daft master.

00:26 / 08.05.02

A friend and I were having a conversation regarding Venom in the sequels. If they simply made the costume sentient but kept the space-alien/Beyonder crap out of it, something in the vein of the classic Spiderman 'science gone awry' bent, then they might be able to compact it and fit it within a movie context. Make it in a lab, focus on Eddie Brock's hatred in the next movie to set it up and the audience might swallow it. So many of Spidey's villains have been lab rat freaks. What's another one?

The Natural Way

07:53 / 08.05.02

I gather Bendis is introducing ultimate Venom in not so long and I doubt the Beyonder will even get a look in. So, let's see if he works in the funny books before we rule him out in the films. I agree w/ Mass, Venoms got that whole "I am spidey's id" business going on. I think he could work.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:34 / 08.05.02

sequal opens with harry's twisted goblin voice saying "Don't tell harry, but i'm going to kill everyone he cares about"
oh yeah....

But to this film, AWESOME.
i liked almost everything about it, especially the whole bit where at the end Peter could have gotten what he wanted through the whole film but he couldnt have it because everyone he gets close to gets hurt/killed, drama for kids.

and how come no one mentioned Macho Man Randy Savage as Bonsaw????

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

01:26 / 09.05.02

Well, I finally saw it...LOVED most fo it, but had a few things that just struck me as...odd.

First, I know Tobey Maguire is considered one of the best actors today, but he always looked like he was smirking to me, even when it was a serious part of the movie.

Could Willem chew the scenery just a little harder?

Where the hell were Spidey's sarcastic comments?

All that being said, I feel the same way as when I got out of the first Batman movie...they got it right, and when you get it right, it's a hit.

10:09 / 10.05.02

i hated it. i feel very... guilty... for feeling this way, but i almost walked out after thirty minutes and was about ready to chew my legs off when it finally ended. this is making me feel quite alientated from the human race at the moment.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:38 / 10.05.02

explain yourself MG or be shunned and the Cast Out!!!

but really, what didnt you like?

19:14 / 10.05.02

Spidey at least had a sarcastic comment when he webbed JJJ's mouth shut...

19:19 / 10.05.02

PS:

I would Love to see Harry Osbourn become the sort of criminal mastermind devoted to spending his whole inheritance on killing Spiderman & avenging his father...

I can see him hiring Dr. Connors after he's cured from being the lizard & by the 3rd film having Dr. Conners combining his lizard formula with the original Green Goblin performance inhancer to become a mutated Hobgoblin. He could also hire Kraven the Hunter to teack spiderman down, and even have a sidekick in the form of a hired merc dressed as Jack O-Lanturn

but's that's me dreaming...

04:01 / 12.05.02

Venom... it COULD work, i think i'm the only one that watched that 90s Spidy cartoon (it WAS better than the comics i always thought, kinda a ultimate thype thing) but they had Venom come as an alein from the moon that attached itself to a rocketship on it's way back to earth, something goes wrong on re-entry and Spiderman is there to help save the day and becomes the 1rst human this life form encounters... simple... yeah and i dug the movie, i tryed to make sure the guys i went w/ were like me, liked movies and comics, but know the damn differences and conventions... well of the 5 of us 2 of them turned out to be total annoying fan boys, muttering "i'm not sure if i aproves of that" and such... us other 3 were like "what ever, it was totally rad, shut yr mouth and read yr old comics if it means that much to you"... oh and about Elfmans Score, except for Burton Elfman does a LOT of subtle stuff, the score here reminded me a lot of his "To Die For" work... so fun... i'll prolly buy this when it comes out or at least see it again at the dollar cinema

04:23 / 12.05.02

didn't see this yet, but...

venom would be great in the last installment of a multi-part series, but would have to be handled with full-on creepy instead of the bully-turned-hero that happened in the 90's. for the fans of McFarlane's Venom back when they thought McFarlane was palatable...

Harry Osbourne must return as GG2. An early 80's Hobgoblin would be cool, but should try to follow the original conception. is it just me, or does Dr. Octopus suck? i don't know why, but he doesn't excite me. personally, i think the best Spider-Man movie would revolve around the Vulture's quest for closure when he learned he was dying from cancer in 1992... i just hope pt 2 isn't like Batman Returns where the action is doubled by *gasp* two enemies.

The Natural Way

14:38 / 12.05.02

Doc Ock does not suck. The early to mid eighties stories, featuring the tangled web that was the BlackCat, Spidey and Doc Ocks weird, fucked up love/hate triangle, 100% ruled, and define my personal spidervision. The wisecracking's great, but that's not all there is to petey and co... Oh no. The fun stuff's always gotta be counterbalanced w/ Spidey's other default mode - hectic, New York angst. And that's where modern incarnations of Doc Ock fall down. He's not supposed to be well muscled and spandexy - he's a "lab coat": a shrunken, fattish, deformed, bowl-cutted little man, w/ weird, thrashing metal extruding from his gut. He's in big hate w/ Spidey and just wants to wrap his arms around him and squeeze.... Like loads of spidey's villains, in his original conception, he's everything Peter Parker isn't: grotesque, deformed, adult.... A far cry from the eternal teenager bounding across the Manhattan skyline.

Yay, Doc Ock!

Let's get the vulture back to the twisted, craggy clawed old man look, too. All infected, ragged and poisonous. Lovely. Just like poocake.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

11:25 / 13.05.02

What about the main guy from The Sopranos to play Hammerhead and have that whole {ahem} 'Maggia' thing for the second movie?

The Natural Way

11:34 / 13.05.02

Yeah. Only I hate the word "Maggia" almost as much as I hate the words "Muthalovin'" and "enjoypleasure".

Matthew Fluxington

12:03 / 13.05.02

Yeah, Runce is right on about Dr. Octopus. He was always my favorite Spider-Man villain for that reason. I also really like how Dr. Octopus went on to become romantically linked with Aunt May, I'm sure they would work that angle when they bring Dr. Octopus to the screen. I just hope that they are true to Dr. Octopus and cast a pudgy older guy.

I think that Patricky's idea for working in Kraven is very smart - I think having him be a bounty-hunter is the only logical, sensible way of working him into a film.

16:20 / 13.05.02

...anyone notice that the 1st fight scene with Spidey and the Green Goblin was a rip-off of the Batman fight scene with Batman and the Joker?

Macy Gray - Prince
Hot-air balloons at a festival
GG swooping in - Batman Swooping in

and the whole save the girl part with the hero catching the girl and just releasing the batarang/web before hitting the ground.

I thought the movie was ok...the CGI in the end sequence was better than that of the whole movie...looked more realistic. What I don't understand is why they don't use noise filters to take the plastic look off of rendered skintones. Oh well. Really liked the initial sequence with the comic storyboards before the opening credits...would have been cool if they used that concept instead of the 3D web thing. Was campy at times, cheesy romantic dialogue here and there, but being able to see Spiderman in the movies was a treat overall.

12:24 / 15.05.02

I saw this last night - finally - and I have to say I was utterly thrilled with it. I couldn't have hoped for a better Spidey film. Brought into the 21st Century but at the same time felt exactly like a 1963 Lee/Ditko joint.

I got funny butterflies in my stomach when Spidey was swinging around the city, I was all gooey in the romantic scenes, I cheered when the Goblin got his ass handed to him at the end. I was running and jumping and pretending to shoot webs from my wrists all the way home.

I'm really happy to see such overwhelming love of the film here - boo to Mystery Gypt - and I'm curious to know Jack Fear's reaction to it, if he managed to go see it. He was the one who started the Spider-Man thread last year entitled "Am I A Geek To Be Looking Forward To This?" and then shortly thereafter did an about-face and was going on about how much it would suck....

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

14:21 / 15.05.02

I was worried about having to surpress my urge to jump around and pretend to shoot webs from my wrist, it not seeming to be a manly thing to do. But I'm glad you just went ahead and did it Cam, now I shall feel no shame, no shame at all, and shall feel united with my geek brothers through a foolish display of child-like antics! Hurrah!

oh, the blessing of a box office smash.

21:07 / 15.05.02

Yeah... we've been doing the web-shooting hand gesture among friends as well...

Also of coolness, I just moved into a new apt in Mid April... & of all things right at the corner of my Block is a HUGE Billboard advertising Spiderman... The Billboard was blank when I first checked the apt. out... but had the huge Spiderman on it (swinging between the buildings & doing with finger thing about to shoot his web) by the time I moved in. Took it as a good sign (pardon the pun)

And now every evening as I come home from work I get that total boy hood thrill as I see that bill-board. As if it was placed there just for me (c'mon, you know that feeling) & so I can use it as a land mark for all my visiting friends who know of my secret comic-geek identity...
"...then turn Left at the Spiderman..."

15:37 / 17.05.02

Sorry kids, but I hated it. Really bad. A big old tub of cheese and corn. Nothing but formulaic nonsense, crippling nods to continuity and irritating slush. Plus plotholes the size of entire films (Where did he get the second costume? Did he send off for it? Or go to Supercostumes-R-us?). The Goblin was pathetic, Mary Jane was annoying, and Tobey Maguire sleepwalked through the entire thing. Even Aunt May was terrible. It was very faithful, yes, but there's so much they could have improved. The only good thing was J Jonah Jameson...

15:39 / 17.05.02

Oh and also: Why didn't Peter go to a hospital after he was bitten by the spider? He just looked down, thought oh, a spider bite, I'm going home...
Plus, how many people did that spider bite after Peter? Spider Squad, anyone?

20:52 / 17.05.02

Bah.

22:17 / 17.05.02

THOSE Bastards removed my SPIDER-MAN bill board LAST night!!!

what's worse is that they replaced it with a Harry Potter DVD & video Ad!!!

at least I can still say . . ."Don't Tell Harry!" every time I see it... :0

01:24 / 19.05.02

"at least I can still say . . ."Don't Tell Harry!" every time I see it... :0"

hahahahaha... nice!

13:41 / 25.06.02

Apart from the credits sequence which looked poor and the opening voice over, and most of the first twenty five minutes which felt embarrassing (especially the CGI when Peter was laying on the floor after being bitten). I thought it was brilliant.

Needed some more Norman Osborne though.

The final scene with Harry, Mary and Peter was one of the best in any super hero film, showing the depth of Peter's selflessness.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:27 / 25.06.02

Saw it for the 2nd time yesterday... am seriously considering jacking in my job and dedicating my life to fighting crime.

A

15:28 / 25.06.02

I just saw it the other day. Damn fine, i must say.

I think it's better than any superhero movie I've seen. Batman was good, but he mostly just sat in his car pushing buttons and such. It wasn't as action-packed as Spiderman, that's for sure.

It emphasised the human side of the story over the hero side, which worked well.

The cast was good, too. Tobey Maguire was an excellent choice for Peter Parker, and Kirsten Dunst, good lord. Did someone say they found her annoying? I'm afraid it's pistols at dawn if that's the case.

I hope the next one doesn't have two bad guys. that was the ruin of the Batman movies (well, that among many other things). Two-Face didn't even do anything, for god's sake.

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