I know I’m a little bit behind the curve on this, but let’s talk about it anyway.
On Monday, Sony released a brand new, official promo image of Andrew Garfield in costume as Spider-Man in director Mark Webb’s reboot of the franchise.
The film’s official title was also announced – The Amazing Spider-Man.
There have been plenty of photos of Garfield in costume from outdoor sequences the crew has been shooting around Los Angeles. I will state for the record that I haven’t been impressed by those shots. But I reserved judgment until we saw something official from Sony.
Now that we have something concrete, I can say… ehhh… I don’t hate it.
Sony originally released a photo of Garfield sans-mask looking pummeled and forlorn a few months ago. Aside from the aesthetic changes they made to the costume, that shot didn’t mean much to me. Without the mask, the jury was still out.
Now that I’ve seen the mask, I’d say they did a pretty good job. It still has the Oakley lenses similar to the costume in Sam Raimi’s version, but the webs on the mask are thinner and horizontal across the forehead and scalp. To my eye, it looks more like the old Steve Ditko version of the costume (comic book nerds will know what I’m talking about) and I think that’s a good thing.
Even though I think there’s too much blue in the costume – and unnecessarily textured – the colors are bright and poppy. That, in combination with the decision to title the film The Amazing Spider-Man leads me to believe that the film will have a lighter, bouncier feel than the angst-ridden Raimi films.
Don’t get me wrong. Peter Parker’s life sucks. That’s what makes the character relatable. But when he puts on the mask, he’s free – almost jubilant. That’s something that Raimi’s films never fully captured. I have my fingers crossed that Webb’s Spider-Man will be much wittier and quicker on the take.
This reboot will live and die by the tone it establishes. If it’s not different enough from the originals, the 5 year span between the last movie and this relaunch will make the film feel perfunctory. Here’s hoping they pull it off.
Here’s hoping that it’s it’s either incredible or completely awful. The incredible is obvious but if it’s really awful then they may not make any more and let the rights revert to Marvel. If the movie is “meh” but makes enough cash they’ll just churn out “meh” forever.
Whatever it is, I can’t be any worse than Spider-Man 3. That would be impossible.
But, yeah… I’d like to see the rights revert to Marvel again.
Well, after some quick Google-fu… I am not impressed. Words like “gritty reboot” are attached to this, and they seem to basically be copying the Batman Begins formula with a high-school romance hook. IE “buy high caliber recognized actors, insert script, shake well”
Steve Ditko and Stan lee are attached to the project as “Character Writers” whatever that means; but otherwise, it seems not very much like your hopes of a witty smart mouthed spidey rebirth so much as another trip to the Emo well in the quest for money. Of course when you trot out Gwen Stacey as the female lead, can it go any other way?
Then again, its over a year till the movie is out, so who can say what will become of it?
The words “gritty reboot” and “Spider-Man” do not go together. I don’t know why Sony doesn’t understand this.
Spider-Man is the ultimate character for audiences to live vicariously through. He’s a reedy nerd who stumbles into super powers. Not some chiseled everyman who is granted them by birthright. Peter Parker puts on the mask and becomes someone else – funnier, more confident… amazing. Everyone wants that for themselves. That’s the only thing they need to focus on.
Yeah, totally agree with you… when it comes to characters who wear bright colors, the movie houses seem to have completely got it wrong. Dark and Gritty works fine for Batman… but Superman? Spiderman? These are different creatures. It’s like doing a movie about Power Rangers and introducing teen pregnancy and drug use and sexual identity alongside the giant robots and kaiju.
But heaven forbid they do something original that breaks out of the “cape-angst” mold and do something that stays true to the character. I guess with these kinds of budgets, it’s a bit scary to try something new, though.
I guess “gritty” grounds the film in some kind of dramatic legitimacy rather than going bright and bubbling and living up to the misconception that comic books are “kid’s stuff.”
There are elements of the costume that I like, such as the mask, the color combinations on the chest and legs, and the consistent fabric choice. Then, I look at his hands. Seriously, that’s just too busy for my taste. I think they’d read better as a solid color with webbing marks, like in the 90s cartoon or the Raimi films. The design they chose could not possibly be created by Peter unless he’s in textile design and manufacturing and is slightly color blind. The mask, BTW, is nearly perfect. I kinda hope they find some way of manipulating the eyes like they did in the 90s cartoon. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of emotion that you can grab from a face that’s completely masked, including the eyes. At least give the eyes one dimension of movement (wide to narrow) to show some of Spidey’s emotions. Look up “Spiderman Animated Series” on Youtube to show some of what I’m talking about.
I totally know what you’re talking about. Several artists have manipulated Spidey’s eyes in the comics to achieve a wide range of looks – from surprised to dubious – to great effect.
I don’t know if they can hope to achieve that in the movie without confusing people, though. The lenses on the costume appear to be fixed to the mask.
I know that CGI has improved since the Raimi trilogy. Wonder if it could be used in an application like this…
How long before we can get a better picture of this costume? It looks like it has elements of the regular Spider-Man costume and the Spider-Man 2099 costume. It is hard to tell though from this picture.
I actually think it looks more like Ben Reily’s costume when he took over for Peter at the end of The Clone Saga.
…gettin’ mah NERD on in here!…
At least Ben Reilly Spider-Man had that huge, chest-sprawling spider symbol. And I can’t help but notice they photoshopped out the sneakers. Hopefully they do the same in the movie. But otherwise, I agree: “there’s too much blue in the costume – and unnecessarily textured” but they’re relatively minor nitpicks. It could have gone much, much worse.
The main problem with movie spider-man has always been ‘how do you actually work one liners into action sequences without breaking the feel and coming off all Adam West?’
Works fine in text, text doesn’t go anywhere. You have plenty of time to read and enjoy without getting out of the flow, but action sequences break so very easily. Thats probably why they go for the emo angst more, its easier to do and takes place outside of the action.
Not defending mind you, just thinking through the whys. =)
I dunno. How many quippy one-liners have you heard in action movies from the 80s? It seems possible. I mean, have you played Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions? They pull it off there perfectly.
Or the 90s era Spidey cartoons. Granted, due to network restrictions, the bulk of the action was Spidey webslinging around until his opponent made a mistake. But lots of good quips while he was doing the webslinging. At least, during the first few seasons that happened. Once MJ left, it got decidedly dark for a season or two.
I agree with the too much blue, and the Ben Reilly looking costume. My main problem are the exposed web shooters. Anyone who’s played a videogame can look at an enemy and think “Hey there are some shiny things that don’t match the rest of him. Maybe they can be broken.”