The Big Picture: The Amazing Spider-Man - The Gwen Stacy Paradox

Gerardo Vazquez

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Sep 28, 2013
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Hero in a half shell said:
Later he describes the crane sequence as
"Literally the stupidest thing that has ever happened in a Spideman movie"
complete with all caps STUPID coming up on the screen and a booming voice effect for emphasis. Worse than Emo Spiderman Saturday Night Fever stutting about the town? Worse than punching Mary Jane in the face? Worse than the constant Spiderman in front of giant super-fake CGI American flag scenes in every previous Spiderman movie?

I'll also give an honorable mention to his Halo is racist and evil video, for basically framing the entire Halo series as the work of white supremacists in an epic rant.

I should end with the disclaimer that I enjoy Moviebob's reviews I even enjoy the entertainment value of his rants, and the man really knows his stuff about cinema, but whether a piece of work is good or bad, he often goes slightly overboard when he does reviews of something he really dislikes.

[/spoiler]
I don't know how to respond to that since, even leaving my feelings for The Amazing Spider-man movie behind, I really do think the Crane sequence was really, really, really stupid. I think it ties with Emo Peter for stupidest moment, and I don't really mind the CGI flag thing all that much. I guess the problem is how deeply moving and affecting the crane sequence thinks it, when it's actually really silly. It's going "Remember that really moving train scene from Spider-man 2? We're gonna that but even better.", and you're sitting there going "No movie. Stop, That's not how it works". Also the Halo is racist thing I'm pretty sure was a tongue in cheek joke, and not a "serious rant", but I'm not Moviebob so ask him.
 

faefrost

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Jun 2, 2010
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Gerardo Vazquez said:
Hero in a half shell said:
Later he describes the crane sequence as
"Literally the stupidest thing that has ever happened in a Spideman movie"
complete with all caps STUPID coming up on the screen and a booming voice effect for emphasis. Worse than Emo Spiderman Saturday Night Fever stutting about the town? Worse than punching Mary Jane in the face? Worse than the constant Spiderman in front of giant super-fake CGI American flag scenes in every previous Spiderman movie?

I'll also give an honorable mention to his Halo is racist and evil video, for basically framing the entire Halo series as the work of white supremacists in an epic rant.

I should end with the disclaimer that I enjoy Moviebob's reviews I even enjoy the entertainment value of his rants, and the man really knows his stuff about cinema, but whether a piece of work is good or bad, he often goes slightly overboard when he does reviews of something he really dislikes.

[/spoiler]
I don't know how to respond to that since, even leaving my feelings for The Amazing Spider-man movie behind, I really do think the Crane sequence was really, really, really stupid. I think it ties with Emo Peter for stupidest moment, and I don't really mind the CGI flag thing all that much. I guess the problem is how deeply moving and affecting the crane sequence thinks it, when it's actually really silly. It's going "Remember that really moving train scene from Spider-man 2? We're gonna that but even better.", and you're sitting there going "No movie. Stop, That's not how it works". Also the Halo is racist thing I'm pretty sure was a tongue in cheek joke, and not a "serious rant", but I'm not Moviebob so ask him.
I may be misremembering it, but weren't the cheesy CGI flag sequences pasted in to more or less cover over where they had to quickly edit out footage and shots of the WTC?
 

Arcane Azmadi

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Andrew Siribohdi said:
Very good episode, Bob. I think what the movie does kind of ruins it for me.

In TASM2, Gwen gets LOTS of development in the movie. She tells Peter off for being a wishy-washy boyfriend, she helps Peter defeat Electro, gets interviews to Oxford and really comes out of her shell. But, she just dies in the last 15 (I think) minutes of the movie, Peter mopes for like 5 minutes (which the movies states is 5 months) and Peter gets her graduation ceremony pep talk and becomes Spider-man again just in time when Rhino was going on a rampage. Besides the convienence, it seems to me, Gwen gets all the late-game development so that the audience can have a reaction to her death. This is not character building for the sake of good character, but to get an emotional rise out of the audience.

What I want to know is how comics were able to get away with Gwen's death. Like you said, Bob, most of us thought of Gwen as another origin death. But, given this character's significance for her death, if comics were to kill a love interest nowadays, or even a character, you'd almost bet your bottom dollar that character would get revived or there'd be a huge protest about it. (Remember #Bringbrianback?) So, how were comics, back then, able to kill off Gwen without some sort of retcon trying to bring her back, and if they were to kill a character now, how do they make sure that character stays dead without an online petition/protest popping up?
It's believed by some people (most notably Spider-Sage Madgoblin as detailed in his article "Why did it have to be you, Mary Jane?" [http://www.spideykicksbutt.com/WhyYouMaryJane/WhyYouMaryJanePart1.html]) that the reason Gwen was killed off in the comics was that her character had decayed and become stale to the point where killing her off was the only thing left that could be done with her- aside from having her and Peter get married and that was the LAST thing they wanted, a married Spider-Man (oh the irony)! Basically her time had run out and they wanted to open Peter up for a more serious relationship with Mary Jane Watson.