It feels a little odd to write a list of things I’d like to see for a movie that I'm not actually all that keen on seeing! Spider-Man has been my favourite character for as long as I can remember (I grew up watching the 90's animated series) and even after spending the past 9 years collecting comic books, he's still my favourite character despite the hundreds of others that I've been introduced to over the years. So when I heard about this whole high school reboot, I felt more than a little let down. I enjoyed the Spider-Man movies. I think we can all agree that the third movie was pretty awful (though it had a few redeeming qualities) and although the first two had their faults, they still managed to do justice to the character. I was hoping for an improved fourth instalment from Raimi but when that was scrapped I was even happier with the thought that we might be getting a reboot with a new cast. (I never was a fan of Tobey McGuire as Peter Parker) Then they revealed that they'd be taking Pete back to high school. With rumours of it being inspired by the Ultimate version, a low budget and a director with no action experience, I have to admit to being worried. For now though, I'm going to look on the bright side! After all, maybe it'll be good! Ok, so probably not but take a look below at the ten things that I think would help make it a great movie!
10. James Remar as J. Jonah Jameson I know it’s a little odd to include a casting choice on a list like this but like you, I struggle to think of anyone who could do justice to this character in the same way that J.K. Simmons did in the last three films. If possible, I’d probably like to see him come back to play Jonah again but on the other hand the franchise is going in a new direction and bringing actors back from the last movies might not be the best idea. So a few months ago when the reboot was announced, I got to thinking…who is the best choice to play Jonah this time round? And James Remar instantly came to mind! Although his work on the brilliant
Dexter may not come down to anything other than appearing in flashbacks and as I guess what you’d call a “ghost“, that show really demonstrates what a remarkable actor he is. In the various roles he’s done in the past, Remar has displayed an ability to play both good and bad guys (a perfect trait for someone like Jonah) and everything from his appearance to the way he sounds, is in my opinion, ideal for how JJJ should be portrayed, Yes, it would be different to Simmons but it would be easily as unique and possibly even better!
9. No Origins? Something I
don’t want to see on a list of things I
do. I'm confused! Regardless, I don’t think that we need to see a retelling of the origins any more than we need to see Bruce Wayne's parents being shot or Superman arriving on Earth from Krypton again! The problem with this of course is that Uncle Ben's death and the "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" lesson are a huge part of the character and so they'll need to be included in some way. (especially as it will have been a decade since the release of the first movie by then and a whole new audience will be going to see this...damn, I'm only 20 in a few weeks but that makes me feel old, lol!) So, how to solve this problem and avoid it taking up 40 - 60 minutes of the movie? Well, a more detailed series of flashbacks during the opening credits in the same style as
The Incredible Hulk could work but as I've been writing this, I have to admit that an origin story of some sort is probably inevitable. Just keep it brief though eh, Sony?
8. Cameos/Easter Eggs Marvel Studios have shown that they’re the master of easter eggs and I think it’s time that the other studios get on board with this! I’m not really talking about the kind of cameos we had in
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (where pretty much every character they could think of was thrown in regardless of how bad it screwed up their already messy continuity!) Instead, I’m thinking of stuff like this: A copy of The Daily Globe with a story on the front written by one Eddie Brock, Aunt May mentioning
"that nice Watson girl next door” that she’d like to set Peter up with, Spider-Man meeting Jean DeWolff and even the brief appearance of any number of minor villains that the character has faced in the past! These are only a few examples off the top of my head and I’d love to hear if you guys have any suggestions! The fact is, although Spider-Man is isolated from the movie universe that Marvel Studios are creating, there are still countless things that be included as a nod to us comic book fans and to set up new storylines and characters for future instalments in the new direction that the franchise is taking.
7. Electro I know that Kraven and Lizard are the fan favourites here on CBM for who the next Spider-Man villain/s should be but Electro is the one that stands out as being the best choice in my eyes! In his first appearance way back in
Amazing Spider-Man #9 he goes after J. Jonah Jameson who actually believes that he’s an alternate identity of Spidey’s until our hero, along with his trusty camera, proves him wrong. In my opinion, this is the best storyline for them to follow as it neatly ties the Daily Bugle, JJJ, Spider-Man, Electro and Peter Parker’s job as a photographer together all in one storyline! A villain like Electro would also make for a real visual spectacle ,especially if the movie will indeed be filmed in 3D, and would mean that we would see Spider-Man taking on a completely different type of opponent than he has in the past. Instead of being able to stop Electro in a simple fist fight, the wall crawler would have to be a lot more inventive which would again result in some really interesting and different sorts of scenes.
6. Wisecracks I’m aware that the success of rubbish like
Twilight will probably have left Sony thinking that teen angst is a must but didn’t we see enough of the moping, and dare I remind you, emo Peter Parker in the last three films? One of the most important parts of Spider-Man’s personality is the fact that he uses humour in the costume to help deal with the villains and situations that he’s often faced with and this was completely neglected in the past movies in my opinion. I’m not talking about having him cracking jokes every other sentence like Deadpool but the odd few jokes here and there would be brilliant! They do of course need to be careful not to overdo it and fill the movie with awful puns but if they got it right, it would be a great step in helping to bring to life a big screen Spider-Man who’s far more authentic and faithful to the comic book version!
5. Classic Costumes As I’ve mentioned once or twice above, this time out I’d like to see the classic costumes on these characters! Although Norman and Harry’s Goblin suits were pretty awful, they did well with giving Doctor Octopus a more updated and realistic look. Sandman was of course right on the money as was Venom for the most part but if they don’t plan on using any of them again in this reboot then that only leaves a lot of villains who have fairly elaborate costumes! I’m not against updating and altering a costume so it fits into the real world (as they seem to have done with the Captain America costume recently unveiled) but I don’t want to see an Electro in black leather as he is in the Ultimate Universe or a completely unrecognisable Scorpion in a bulky battle suit as he’s often been portrayed in the video game tie ins to past Spider-Man movies. I know this isn’t necessarily all that big a deal but I’m hoping that this reboot is going to have a different feel to the past three films that will mean that costumes which resemble their classic 616 counterparts don’t look too out of place. The ‘Gauntlet’ storyline in recent issues of
Amazing Spider-Man has shown has minor updates can make the villains costumes look both realistic and true to the stories of old and I’d like to see the movie follow in the same footsteps. As for Spider-Man’s suit…well, I for one wouldn’t be against seeing the webbing under his armpits. A minor detail I know and even if he only wears it once and tears it off, it would be a great sight to see for this particular comic book fan! Other than that, I think it’s pretty easy to give us a good Spider-Man costume that looks exactly like the one we see every month!
4. Rise of the Green Goblin Yeah, I know we've seen Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin before and I don’t want to necessarily retread old ground but I'd love to see it done again, and this time a lot more faithfully to the comic books! I don’t want him to be the main villain in the upcoming reboot but perhaps they could slightly alter the origins of whoever is and tie them into Oscorp thereby helping to create a storyline that they could then delve further into in future instalments. In fact, they could even do what the original comic books did and not reveal the Goblin’s identity, instead establishing him as a villain pulling the strings who only comes face to face with Spider-Man in a fight near the end of the movie. This could then allow for a great cliff-hanger where the audience finds out that the seemingly normal Norman Osborn is the Green Goblin! In my opinion, something along these lines would be the perfect set up to making him the main villain and revealing how he got his powers in a sequel. Providing all this is handled differently enough to what we saw back in 2002, I honestly believe that this is a storyline that would work brilliantly. And yes, I want to see a version of the classic costume NOT another Power Ranger style costume!
3. Supporting Cast of Characters If we're going to be stuck in high school with Peter Parker, then we might as well have a great supporting cast of characters alongside him! All we had last time was MJ, too much Aunt May and not enough Harry. This time, I'd like to see the whole gang together hanging out at the Coffee Bean! (something that very nearly got it's own place on this list!) I'm talking about Flash praising Spider-Man while picking on "Puny Parker", Liz Allen having a secret crush on Peter and his and Harry’s friendship being developed a lot more than it was last time before he inevitably goes Goblin in a future movie! They’re just a few examples but there are a lot of new and interesting stories that they could tell if these characters were included and I’d love to see it happen! If Gwen is going to be Pete's main love interest this time round, I'd actually rather that Mary Jane was given a far smaller role (although I wouldn’t be in the least bit bothered if she wasn’t even in the first film) and saying that, I'd also be more than ok with a single Spider-Man!
2. Web-Shooters I’m guessing that this could be quite a controversial thing to include! In the past, I’ve noticed that people here on CBM are split down the middle when it comes to the inclusion of web-shooters in the Spider-Man movies. The fact is, Peter Parker is extremely intellectually gifted (and has often been referred to as a genius) and although he might not be up there with Reed Richards or Tony Stark, I see no problem with a high school kid creating these. What’s that you say? The audience wont buy it? If they’ll accept a guy having super strength, the ability to crawl on walls and shoot organic webbing from his wrists (as in the previous movies) then I don’t see why a mechanical device couldn’t also be accepted! Peter running out of web-fluid at the worst possible moments has always added a fun element to his adventures and him being able to build these web-shooters would actually help show the audience exactly how smart this kid is! I suppose their inclusion will depend on how in-depth they decide to go with the characters origins as I’m sure it would take up some time to show him making them, but then again, they hardly need to go into great detail about
exactly how! I know that it seems like a small, if somewhat insignificant, thing to want in this movie but what kind of Spider-Man fan wouldn’t want to see the iconic web-shooters translated to the big screen? Between the way they’d help flesh out the character of Peter Parker and the storytelling opportunities that would come with their inclusion, they’re a must for the reboot in my opinion!
1. Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Inspired I probably could have written a whole article on this, and still might, but for now I'll try to keep this to the point! Mark Millar's work on the first two volumes of
The Ultimates (which for those of you that don’t know was a modern day re-imagining of the Avengers) was superb. Bendis' work on
Ultimate Spider-Man is in my opinion the opposite, and the last thing I want to see as the inspiration for the reboot. Instead, they should focus on the classic stories told by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. It’s the tone and feel of these early issues, which followed a high school Peter Parker, that the movie should follow in order to both be a success with comic book fans and even the general movie going audience as a whole. The fun, light hearted nature of their run would translate well to film while a balance of Stan Lee’s great dialogue and scenes inspired by Ditko’s dynamic art could really make for an amazing combination on the big screen. I suppose that my biggest reason for wanting this is because I dread seeing an
Ultimate Spider-Man movie…the mutated Green Goblin is probably the prime example of why that is but the overall tone of that series never really worked for me. There are definitely some minor aspects that could be used (Peter trying to balance school with being Spider-Man was pretty well done to be fair) but for the most part, I think they need to go back to the where Spider-Man began where I think they’ll find the best direction in which to take this movie!
So they’re the things that I most want to see in the
Spider-Man reboot! Some of them may already be things we've already talked about here on CBM but I hope that there are one or two ideas here that you might not have yet considered! Thanks for taking the time to read and have your say about what you think about my choices, as well as what you’d like to see in the movie, below!