Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Spider-Creep


Ugh! In what is probably the single most unnecessary re-boot in Hollywood history, aggressively unattractive Brit twink Andrew Garfield is starring in The Amazing Spider-Man, due in theaters next July. Really?

My only question is: Why? Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy may not be perfect (okay, Spider-Man 3 was just this side of awful - but Spider-Man 2 remains one of the five* best super-hero movies ever made), but the franchise is less than 10 years old. Are there really that many Marvel fans out there clamoring for yet another Spider-Man origin story? I think not.

And while I may find the casting of Garfield reprehensible, even worse is Sally Field as Aunt May. For my money, Rosemary Harris is the quintessential Aunt May. Ms Field, while a fine actress, is just too... Gidgety (Yes, I said it). And no J. Jonah Jameson? What the...? The whole thing stinks to high heaven.

Director Marc Webb (insert ironic name here) may have scored with the hipster RomCom (500) Days of Summer (a movie I actually enjoyed), but he hardly seems qualified to helm a film about such an iconic character. And while Raimi's films addressed the cheesy humor found in the Marvel comics of the 60's and 70's, the teaser trailer for Webb's version seems all sturm und drang, concentrating on how hard it is to be a teenager (ala Twilight - another creep; double ugh!) rather than how fun it it is to be a superhero. Check it out below and tell me what you think:



I hope I'm proven wrong. Tim Burton proved us all wrong when he cast Michael Keaton as Batman; Neil Jordan proved us wrong when he cast Tom Cruise as Lestat and Martin Campbell proved us all wrong when he cast Daniel Craig as James Bond. Still, I can't help but think casting Garfield as Spider-Man is tantamount to casting Halle Berry as Catwoman

Either way, I'll be saving my July 2012 movie money for Christopher Nolan's final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.

 *The Top 5 in My Order:


More, anon.
Prospero

No comments: