Maybe he’ll show up in a cameo as a psychologist?
I haven’t seen the movie, yet, but I am curious. Did they leave the whole Gwen Stacy business out? Afterall, the Green Goblin did kill Gwen and the Mary Jane romance didn’t really start until after that.
Here’s something I wondered about (maybe it’s because I’ve never read any comic books) but are super heroes really that feared? In this movie and in the X-Men movie, even good guys seemed to make people nervous. X-Men had the whole “let’s round up all the mutants!” plot point and Spider-Man had the newspaper editor portraying him as a crazy vigilante. Is any of that based on anything that happened in the books? It seems like Superman and Batman had a much better public image.
Yes, in the comics people fear the mutants because…well, they have strange powers, and not all of them use them for combating evil. And Jameson is just one of those guys who can’t believe that one man would be so…active in fighting crime. He thinks that there has to be a catch, so he concocks the idea of spidey making the crimes he is stopping. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
I dunno. They’ve never satisfied Jameson’s beef with Spider-Man to my satisfaction. I don’t think that it’s because he can’t believe someone is so altruistic that would do things like Spider-Man does for free. At one point in the comic book Peter Parker goes on trial for murder and Jameson secretly pays for his lawyer. Jameson wasn’t looking for credit, he was just looking to do the right thing. He does something similar in the movie when the Green Goblin smashes into the Daily Bugle demanding the name of the person supplying the Spider-Man pictures: he could’ve just said “Peter Parker, and he’s standing right over there,” but instead he risks his own life by claiming that they’re mailed in and he doesn’t know who the photographer is.
Reminds me of one of my all time favorite Spider-Man quotes: “I like to think that underneath Jameson’s goat exterior there’s a heart of gold… and underneath that is a goat.”
Oliversarmy, yeah they pretty much skipped or adapted the story on Gwen Stacy but that’s to be expected considering that the movie had forty years (Holy! Is he that old?) of Spider-Man continuity to deal with and pick from. There’s still plenty of room for Stacy in a sequel, it just won’t follow the comic to a “T”.
Elwood, it depends on the comic. In DC (Batman and Superman) comics most of the heroes aren’t viewed as public menaces. In Marvel comics some heroes are and some aren’t. It’s really pretty arbitrary as far as I can tell but the best way I’ve come up with to deal with it is to just ignore the inconsistencies and focus on the story at hand. Marvel gives a half-assed explanation that mutants are feared because they are born with their powers and Spider-Man is somewhat feared due to a smear campaign by Jameson and the Daily Bugle. Why the Fantastic Four with a living arson factory (the Human Torch) wouldn’t be feared over the Angel of the X-Men (dude has wings, that’s it) is beyond me.
When I saw the promos of Green Goblin tossing a girl off a bridge, I thought that was Gwen Stacy. In any event, there’s a wealth of material to draw on for future movies. I hope they don’t abandon the scientific genius of Peter Parker, though. The fact that he was a chemistry wonk helped the comic character immensely, because he had a civilian identity that actually did things (like struggle through college), as opposed to Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne, who were just suits Superman and Batman put on between patrols.
One question, though. In the comic book, the irradiated spider dies immediately after biting Peter, but in the movie the genetically-engineered super-spider just scuttles away, free to bite again. Even assuming that only that particular spider’s venom would have such dramatic effects on a human (i.e. this spider was so much more robust than the other 14, it had no trouble escaping its pen while the others remained trapped) isn’t there a big risk other people will be bitten? How long do spiders live, anyway? Over time, such an agressive little devil that goes out of its way to bite people could spread a lot of venom around.
I thought it was OK, but I still prefer the 3-minute Spiderman shorts that used to appear on The Electric Company.
Of course I am Kidding. But seriously, I thought it was a lot of fun. I may go see it again in the theatre, and I don’t see movies multiple times in the theatre very often – I think that Sling Blade was the last one I did that with.
I just had an interesting idea for the sequel, but it would involve a bit of story restructuring, which comic fans might protest:
Harry doesn’t like Spider-man. Eddie Brock doesn’t like Spiderman (for reasons we find out in the sequel). Eddie volenteers to be made into something that could kill Spider-man. Hence, Venom is created. The alien symbiote was cool, there’s no doubt, but it would be way too hard to squeeze it “believeably” into a movie.
My only concern is that apparently the person who wrote the script for the first one won’t be around for the second, so it may not be as good.
BTW, that wasn’t Tony Stark in the Quest flight suit. That was Doc Connors, the same one who fired Peter later. Apparently he survived the Goblin attack but I sure betcha he lost an arm.
The Lucy Lawless cameo was from the montage of New Yorkers commenting on the new hero in town. I think she had pink hair but I’m not sure. I’d better go see it again to confirm
… after a Spidey sequel, a X-Men sequel, and the Hulk movie comes out and then MARVEL TEAM UP!!! That would be a cool flick! In my dream the next X-Men movie with contain a minor blurb about the wall crawler and it will go from there.
~t
If you want a villian that was “made” to take out Spider-Man, they don’t need to get Venom. The Scorpion would do nicely.
If they ever drop Spidey in with the X-Men, they need at least one scene when he kicks their collective asses, as he does in Secret Wars: “Not on the best day of your life, Nightcrawler.” Classic!
IMHO,
Having never read a comic book in my life…[ul][]Kirsten Dunst definitely needs to get her teeth fixed. Her character was, for the most part, unlikeable.[]Willem DeFoe was miscast, but I hope I look 1/2 as good as him when I get to be his age.[]The effects were good. Scenes that were cut due to WTC, should have been left in.[]My 7 year old loved & the 5 year old (both girls) liked it more than I did…there goes at least $100 on Spiderman related merchandise in the next month and they’re both arguing over who’s gonna be Spiderman this Halloween.[]If there’s a gentically engineered, predatory spider running loose in Columbia, why did it only bite one person?[]It beat any of the Batman & Superman movies hands down…didn’t see the X-men.[/ul]
Well, for Venom, instead of Apidey getting the suit, Eddir Brock could just “find” it after being wronged by Spider-Man. This isn’t all that continuitous (is that a word?), but it’s a little closer to the comics than Venom being “created” to combat Spidey. Hell, Spidey could even find the alien suit first, then ditch it pretty quick after fingout out it’s alive and stuff.
I’m not completly in the know about the comics, so would anyone care to share why Eddie Brock hates Spider-Man so much? I know it has something to do with Spidey killing innocents, but I don’t know how they got killed, or if Sipdey was even involved at all.
eddie brock was an investigative reporter at the globe. he thought he found the true identity of some throwaway villian and publishes it. spider-man puts the kibosh on said villain and ends up revealing brock’s article as a fraud. he loses his job, wife, everything, and blames the web-slinger.
My favorite comic-book take on Jameson’s attitude towards Sipder-Man is that Jolly Jonah has a repressed sense of inferiority towards Spidey. Spidey is everything Jonah wants to be, but can’t – altruistic, heroic, noble in the classical sense. Sure, Jameson is the publisher of one of NYC’s big newspapers, but he can’t do as much for the “little man” as Spidey does. This sense of inferiority leads to Jameson’s attempts to tear Spidey down so he’ll feel better by comparison. Can’t remember which issue of the comic this explaination was from, alas.
As for future Spidey-villians, I’d love to see The Scorpion or the Sandman, just to stick to the traditional Spidey Rogue’s Gallery. I suspect the studio will want to go with (ugh) Venom, however, to appeal to the younger fans.
Three…four if you stretch things a bit.
Dr. Mendel Stromm (murdered by Norman) won’t be building any Spider-Slayers in this universe. Also, the outfit that the Quest guy was wearing looked quite a bit like the Beetle’s exo-skeleton.
FEnris
i’d like to see hobgoblin, dock ock or sandman, they were always my favorites. spidey had some great foes, when you look back on it. too bad a lot of them would come off uber-corny on celluloid.
when i was really big into comics in the late 80’s, early 90’s, venom just came on the scene. if they could work out the real origin of the suit it might be interesting, but in the span of one movie i don’t think it would work. just plopping venom down in the middle of the movie would be pretty terrible, but i’ll bet dollars to donuts that’s what they’ll do.
but on the other hand, raimi seems fairly honest (as much as possible, considering the constraints of the medium) to the comic, so maybe he’ll work out a decent story arc for the next one.
SPOILER:
Did anyone else have a sort of “unreal” feeling when they first showed the Green Goblin flying in to attack the Oscorp guys at the festival? Not unreal as in fake, just a kind of unbelieving feeling. It was a sort of “ah hell, what is that?” kind of deal. Or maybe it was just the caffine and I should shut up now?
I haven’t read the comics, so I don’t know if this is mentioned, but I had a “missed opportunity” thought in one scene.
At one point (and this is the scene that was shown in about every special or blurb about Spidey before its release), Osbourne comes over to meet MJ and have Christmas dinner, and goes up to Peter’s room right as Spidey is returning. Spidey has to hide on the ceiling 'cos he’s in his suit, and Osbourne is turning to go as blood from Spidey’s wound drips on the floor.
What with all the mentions of the cranberry sauce, I was expecting for Spidey to somehow get dressed and be standing behind Osbourne right as he turned around, with the explanation of it being cranberry sauce.
I dunno, it wasn’t a big deal, and I really enjoyed the movie otherwise. Dunst was kind of hard to get used to, because I generally try to avoid her movies, but Tobey, Willem and the other actors were really good. (And I have no problem with her teeth…nice to see someone in Hollywood with normal, if not great, teeth.)
Some other stuff I was wondering, that has probably been 'splained in the comics/books/whatever:
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GG and Spidey’s voices are pretty distinctive; I was wondering why MJ or GG’s son didn’t recognize their voices. They didn’t try to disguise them, really. If I were Spidey and I wanted to keep myself secret, and went to the trouble of getting a suit and mask, I would try to disguise my voice too in case anybody recognized it (I’d at least try to disguise it around people who knew me). Hey! Armchair Spidey!
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JJ asked what Spidey had to hide (about the suit). Why didn’t he think of the obvious possibility that Spidey had to protect those he knew?
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Nobody seemed accurately amazed at Parker’s accomplishments at school. Sure, they acted a bit amazed, but in the “real world” he would’ve been hauled away by teachers and armed guards for study. Maybe they were just in shock.
Tonight on Boston Public…
Geeky science student suddenly displays advanced hand-to-hand skills and above-average strength. This is followed by 45 minutes of hand-wringing and philosophizing when it is learned the student learned how to fight from the internet. Throw in some Columbine references and at least one wet cheerleader, and you’ve got David E. Kelley’s latest Emmy.