How Can Sony Pictures Save Spider-Man?

[Kenjitsuka]

"Keep Miles and deal with endless wailing from fanboys about never getting to see the "real" Spider-Man meet The Avengers?"

Uhm, you know comic books, Bob... so of course Marvel can *easily* get back Parker ánd have Miles at the same time.
It'd REALLY spice things up for them in a positive way, as the two can interact in tons of interesting ways.

 

[Queen Michael]

"Maybe one whose story-arc doesn't tell young women that owning/flaunting their sex-appeal doesn't mean they have to end up evil or "good, but not relationship-good?" Just a thought."

I'm pretty sure this should read "Maybe one whose story-arc doesn't tell young women that owning/flaunting their sex-appeal means they have to end up evil or "good, but not relationship-good?" Just a thought."

 

[Nowhere Man]

On the Richard Parker thing, I didn't mind it so much at first but when I think about it enough it does steal precious screen time from developing other more important characters especially Green Goblin. They could of used alot of that time they used on Peter's dad in both ASM1 and 2 and introduced Harry in ASM and built on that friendship through both movies. What a wasted opportunity! Sony needs to tie up that whole story arc quickly already and let Peter move on with his life and give screen time back to things that really do matter. Also I agree with Bob's comments on plot mechanics and world building.

Also we need J.K. Simmons to return. I can watch his JJJ for hours.

 

[immortalfrieza]

How can Sony "save" Spider-Man? Easy, keep doing what they've been doing. They've been faithful to the comic book's version of the characters, made great plots that don't slow down, and avoid making the villains or hero into an idiot to make the plot work unlike some Marvel movies I could mention. Also, since ASM was great and ASM2 was pure gold, if they keep their track record going the next few movies are going to be brilliant.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Snip

I'd argue that Peter's parents are VERY important. Not only does it give context for Spider-Man and the various freaks in movies as well as plainly show that Oscorp are the bad guys, it also give a good reason why this spider venom is working with Peter and not with anybody else. That, and trying to find out what happened to his parents gives Peter more reason to do things beyond "this is a bad guy, I have to stop him".

 

[Ashley Blalock]

Box office numbers are looking like the Amazing Spiderman 2 is going to fall to second place behind Neighbors. When you get beaten out for the top box office spot in your second weekend by a rated R comedy you have some serious problems selling people on your massive budget superhero action film.

If Sony is having this much trouble getting Americans into the theater seats for Spiderman you have to wonder just how well all the spin off movies will do. That image that a franchise has ran out of steam can be a tough hurtle to get over.

 

[prpshrt]

Can save it by giving spidey back to marvel... I honestly didn't mind the new spiderman. I like garfield. They just need better writers

 

[SnakeoilSage]

I'm down with Miles Morales. I'd even consider it a fair compromise if Disney/Marvel got Peter Parker back, and Sony continued on with "Ultimate" Spider-man aka Miles Morales. An odd kind of arrangement but hey, everyone wins. Sony gets a franchise to milk, Marvel gets to retroactively insert Spider-man into the Battle of New York (always a dream of mine to have Captain America come around a corner and find a chitauri warrior strung up in a web), and the fans can go head-to-head like the blind thrusting pricks they are trying to decide which one is best.

 

[Mangod]

How can Sony "save" Spider-Man? Easy, keep doing what they've been doing. They've been faithful to the comic book's version of the characters, made great plots that don't slow down, and avoid making the villains or hero into an idiot to make the plot work unlike some Marvel movies I could mention. Also, since ASM was great and ASM2 was pure gold, if they keep their track record going the next few movies are going to be brilliant.

I don't know, but I get the impression that this would be a very bad idea. People seem to like this movie less than both ASM and Raimi's SM3, so continuing down their current path would be like seeing a man-eating shark in the water... and then wading further out.

The actors are good, the special effects are good, everything about ASM2 is good... except for the plot itself. And that's the problem. You could have an all-star cast of the greatest actors of all time, but if you give them a worthless script, chances are they will not be able to save the movie no matter how good they are. They might be able to, but it's low odds.

Yes, ASM could be a truly great series, but the story, the plot, the script for these movies, need to drop the whole "building towards the ASM-"Avengers"-movie!" thing and just be a good self-contained movie.

 

[startrekmike]

As far as Miles Morales goes, there is one significant hurdle that can't be ignored, to the majority of people who might potentially see a Spider-man movie, Spider-man is Peter Parker, it is not about racism, it is not about being a angry troll or a fanboy who can't let go of the past, Spider-man has been around long enough to have a place alongside Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne as pop culture icons.

Additionally, we have already seen a prior trilogy that was heavily based on Marvel's prime universe and that trilogy has it's own set of fans that have based their vision of the character on what Tobey Maguire did as the character.

To put it simply, Peter Parker is Spider-man as far as just about everyone is concerned, not much is going to change that, it would be like saying "Hey, lets mix things up and have Jean Paul Valley as Batman in the next movie!" Nobody would know who Valley is.

Morales is a great idea in the comics but it worked out in the comic because of two major reasons.

1.) It is not part of the primary Marvel universe, Peter Parker is still Spider-man as far as most casual fans go.

2.) The story that brought us to Morales was handled really well and his character taking up the mantle made sense, it had the benefit of time to really work.

To be a bit frank, I can't help but feel that Bob mentioned Morales not because of his quality as a character but simply because he is not white and that somehow not being white makes him a more interesting character by default, I can't say I share in that idea, I would love to see The Amazing Spider-man franchise tackle Morales but only if they are willing to put the legwork into allowing that story to happen correctly, not just to please those that seem to think that male and/or white characters are boring or don't do a good enough job at scratching that social justice itch.

 

[octafish]

snip

Also we need J.K. Simmons to return. I can watch his JJJ for hours.

Agreed.

Of course the real answer is to give Raimi whatever money they have left and then get the fuck out of his way. The man can make a Spiderman movie when studios aren't forcing shit characters into his films because they think the kids like Venom.

 

[CaitSeith]

You know Moviebob, Sony doomsaying isn't a new thing, people have been decrying the end times since the PS3 didn't sell half as well as Sony hoped. Now eight years later they have the most successful console on the market (despite launching without any exclusive worth a damn... again) and are still steadily chugging along. They have shown remarkable resilience, they'll get over a movie that sells less than they hoped but didn't even come close to bombing.

And yet, the PS4 didn't stop Sony from having to lay off 10,000 employees. If the Amazing Spiderman movie franchise doesn't make enough money, probably more people working in Sony will lose their job.