Spider-Man is one of the greatest superheroes of all time, which is why the character has received three separate movie franchises in the past 20 years. The debate has been centered around which is more enjoyable.
Fans were on the edge of their seats when Disney announced it had acquired the rights to all of Marvel’s superhero properties, including Spider-Man. The latest movies and games have generated a lot of buzz, but longtime fans of the franchise are still holding out hope that Marvel and Disney can somehow capture the magic of the Sam Raimi movies that defined the early 2000s.
I plan to dive deeper in the future. But for now, let's just hit the highlights.
The Amazing Spider-Man is a middle ground and really wasn’t as bad as the flack it gets. But the 2002 series and the 2017 era films really couldn’t be further apart in terms of aesthetics and tone.
The writers are now catering to the Avengers franchise and the MCU as a whole, rather than the artistic expression of the individual filmmaker.
Sony is a massive company, and for what it’s worth, I enjoyed the Venom movies even though the quality dropped significantly in the sequel.
Marvel struck the jackpot with Black Panther, Infinity War, and Endgame, but others like Doctor Strange present as overproduced. I don’t expect them to go full Dark Night Rises and create an extended psychosocial commentary, but the tropes are nothing we haven’t seen before.
Tom Holland and Zendaya are amazing actors in their own right, and their on-screen chemistry is palpable enough for the ship to come to life. But there’s not as much nuance allowing the characters to arc from the inside out, making them feel 2-dimensional. It’s cute, but that’s really all it is.
Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker was undeniably a geek–a freelance photographer struggling to make ends meet in New York City.
Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane is a plucky acting student with a miserable home life. The slice-of-life argument scene with her father gives us an inside look and an emotionally gripping performance.
Zendaya's adaptation is flashy at most, and her low-maintenance hipster apparel still manages to be trendy and with the times. It's the quiet desperation behind each character's deepest desires that initiates the pull between the cast and the audience.
The same could be said of Willem Dafoe and Jame Franko as Norman and Harry Osborn. There's the added moral conflict of Peter's enemies being his closest and most trusted companions.
There is one thing the new movies have on the old: Aunt May. After two decades of being portrayed as an innocent and medically fragile old lady, we get a Woodstock MILF. How I would have loved to have been in the writers’ room when that was pitched...
