Yet another superhero franchise, but bearing in mind that there are few people who can’t kick Andrew Garfield’s butt in the universe, the reality distortion field surrounding Spiderman has never kept us from being anything but, meh.
Nevertheless, there are Spidey fans – aren’t you disappointed enough having had to deal with Tobey Maguire and Garfield for all of these years – who will want to know this stuff.
Redeeming features: Jamie Foxx and Paul Giamatti. But then again, remember that Batman movie that Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones? How did that work out for you?
Definitely check out Ain’t It Cool’s coverage of the live Spidey Part Deux panel at Comic Con 2013. It is a nice write up and has all the fanboy love you could want. I can tolerate their love of this franchise:
Footage stars with a big construction truck barreling down a New York street, smashing cars as it goes. Cop cars give chase and so does Spider-Man, who webslings onto the top of one cop car, jumping to another and then another, getting closer to the truck. “You know what it is I love about being Spider-Man? Everything.” He gets onto the truck and we see it’s Paul Giamatti playing Aleksei Sytsevich, aka RHINO is driving (pre-suit).
Man is he pissed. Screaming in Russian, trying to fire his uzi when Spidey lands on the hood and leans into the open driver’s side window.
That cuts to Peter Parker having a confrontation with Aunt May in the laundry room. She stops him from putting a load of laundry in the wash. “The last time you did it you turned everything blue and red.” Peter sputters for a second, but comes up with a save. “I was washing… the… the American flag. My flag…” “No one washes a flag!” “Not anymore!” Stern look from Aunt May and Peter gives up. “Alright, laundry Sheriff!”
The next bit we see a big street fight where (if I remember correctly) a car is hurtled through the air right at comb-over version of Max Dillon. Spidey swings in and pushes him out of the way. Max is in awe. “Spider-Man?” “Yeah, I guess the costume gives it away, huh Max?” “How did you know my name?” “Your badge,” he says, pointing to his Oscorp ID hanging off his white coat.
The crowd is chanting “Spidey! Spidey” over and over again during this talk. “Nobody knows my name… I’m a nobody.” Spider-Man puts up to fingers close to his mouth and says, “Lick that.” Dillon licks his fingers and Spider-Man starts finger-combing down Max’s messy combover with his newly moistened fingers while giving him a quick peptalk. “You’re not a nobody, you’re a somebody! You’re my eyes and ears out here!” Then swings away.
We next get a bit of Spidey confronting Aleksei (again, no suit), webbing his feet to the ground. “Ah, you are a funny guy!” he screams while aiming a big gun. Spidey web-ties one hand, pulls the gun away with another strand, then ties his other hand before doing one final move, using his webs to pull down Aleksei’s pants, revealing colorful boxers.
Then we see Gwen riding in an elevator with Max, both watching the news playing on a TV monitor on the elevator wall. Spidey is saving the day somewhere, Max is watching in awe, Gwen with worry. “It must be pretty cool to have the whole world see you like that. Most people don’t notice other people. I wish I was like him…”
Gwen’s worry triggers a new short bit between Gwen and Peter. She tells him “You’re Spider-Man and I love that about you, but I love Peter Parker more.” “This is my path,” he replies. It was around this point that they showed Gwen in a familiar blue trenchcoat looking somberly out at a bridge in the distance. If they follow the books this is going to be a hell of a bit of foreshadowing.
Then we get a little bit of Electro’s origins. Jamie is repairing something in a shaft and he gets zapped, sending him falling into a vat below. Inside are electric eels, but he brings in the wires he was holding so everything gets fucked up in there. Later on we saw glimpses of a heavily charred man walking through a cloud, some of the outer char breaking off. I believe this to be almost a metamorphoses for Electro, but they didn’t explicitly show that.
We also get our first look at Chris Cooper’s Norman Osborn who is very sickly… like cancer sickly… laying in a bed, talking to his son. “Not everyone has a happy ending,” he tells his son, who looks angry as hell… at the world, at his dad… everything.
Electro’s first close up appears here… he’s in his hobo clothes, hooded, and we hear him say “I just wanted everybody to see me…” Harry Osborn replies “You will never be invisible again.” Which leads me to believe that Harry’s arc is pretty different here. We may see him fall right away into villainhood instead of wait for his dad to go through the Green Goblin stuff.
”Soon everyone in this city will know how it feels to live in my world, a world without power, without mercy… a world without Spider-Man. They will see me for who I truly am… I’m Electro.” Foxx delivers this quietly, not shouting… gives it a creepy edge. It also helps that he’s in what looks like Times Square and he starts to float, power gathering around him… his electricity running under his skin.
Suddenly Times Square goes dark, one section blinking out at a time. It’s quiet for a beat and then everything explodes. We get flashes of Electro shooting lightning out of his hands Sith-style all around at cars. One goes flying and again Spider-Man swings in. It’s a cop car and it’s heading straight for a police officer. Spidey catches it mid-air, uses his swing momentum to turn it up over his head and he lands holding it up, very much like the famous Superman comic cover. He turns to the cop, car still over his head, and says, “Need a hand?”
There’s also the teaser that the public got to see yesterday, showing Jamie Foxx as Electro Hmmm. Django Unchained then get your ass handed to you by Andrew Garfield. C’mon, Jamie, buddy, get a new agent. You are better than that.
If you still haven’t geeked out enough on this dross, IGN got an interview with helmer, Mark Webb here:
