Great parody by Jeff Loveness and Prussian Sunset. I love Wes Anderson and I love Spider-Man, so I would have no problem if this movie actually existed.
I’m a Sam Raimi fan, but the project has to move on, and Sony and Marvel could actually do worse than Anderson. Rushmore is one of my favorite movies, and Spider-Man 2 is my favorite comic book flick, so let’s make this happen. I’m serious. He did a fun job with Mr. Fox, I’m sure he could handle Spidey. Maybe, the big face off is a bit of a let down, but the entire Spider-Man 3 was a let down, so who cares?
I felt after Spider-Man 3, Raimi seemed kind of done, his webshooters were dry as they say. I don’t think it was his fault it was awful though. The person I would love to see banned from a new Spider-Man franchise is Avi Arad, chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment. He’s the one who pushed Venom into Spider-Man 3. If he’s involved it will just be about making toys and selling merch.
Of course, the other problem with Spider-Man 3 is the lack of respect for the source material. One problem with all comic book movies is that the screen writers think they’re better than comic book writers, so they feel confident that whatever trash they put together will be inherently better than a comic book simply because they themselves are better than comic book hacks. It’s this hubris that is ultimately the undoing of most comic book films.
Comic books have a vast mythology and legend associated with them, and whether or not it’s intentional or by accident is irrelevant. To ignore this mythology is giving a middle finger to every comic book fan that ever lived. And, of course, Spider-Man 3 is just one gigantic middle finger. The essential problem though is that Venom is a promotional character created for the sole purpose of dollars and cents. There is no myth worth telling. Here’s the comic book back-story on the symbiote in case you didn’t know. During the Secret Wars (A mega Marvel cross-over pitting every superhero vs. every supervillain created by marketing douchebag, Jim Shooter), Spider-Man tore his costume up and needed to use a costume making machine, but went through the wrong door and found an evil symbiote machine instead. No lie, that’s the story. There is lots of substance to the Eddie Brock character and Venom, but still at the end of the day he’s just a wrong door.
But anyway, no matter who they tab to revive the Spider-Man franchise, whether it’s Marc Webb or whoever, let’s hope it’s someone with the right balance of goofiness and reverence, and with the gnards to say, “Avi Arad, you’re kind of an idiot.” My vote’s for Anderson
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