Bonus Post: Spider-Man and my eternal state of woe
My obsession with Spider-Man started when I was in about second grade. On school days, we'd wake up earlier in the morning, get dressed, flip on the fireplace and switch the channel. Every morning, the 60's version of Spider-Man would come blaring through the speakers. The theme song first, which helpfully explained the major plot points, then the episode. Of course, being in about first or second grade I didn't really understand most of it, especially since the singers in the theme song were a bit hard to understand. If you asked my second-grade self what Spider-Man was, I'd probably say something along the lines of "he's a man with spider powers who beats up bad people". Granted, that was all I really needed to know. After all, the exact origin story of Spidey wasn't really necessary to understand the beating-up-of-bad-guys bit.
I forgot about the web head until a few years later, when my brother began watching The Spectacular Spider-Man on TV. I watched a couple of episodes, thought it was dumb (because who has time for TV when there are books to be read?) and didn't watch another episode until about three years ago.
That, ladies and gentlemen, was when I got hooked. The humour! The wit! The fights! The bad guys! The sarcasm! I adored it, and watched both seasons in about a week of late nights, early mornings and forgotten homework. Yes, it was cheesy. Yes, I still loved it, and was heartbroken when I found out that they cancelled the third season.
Then, we watched the trilogy. This was the point in my life when my eternal state of woe began. To be honest, I hated it. Spider-Man wasn't written the way I thought he should have been (I bitterly missed the banter between Spidey and the bad guys), I didn't think the actor suited Peter Parker, I hated Mary Jane and how she screamed/got herself kidnapped in every. Single. Freaking. Movie and I didn't like how the relationship between Peter and Harry was played out. The plot didn't make any sense and the bad guys could have been done better. In other words, I was heartbroken. It was about this time that I started ranting about how Spider-Man needed to team up with the Avengers.
I consoled myself with The Spectacular Spider-Man with its ever amazing theme song until the The Amazing Spider-Man came out. My goodness, I was excited, and I wasn't disappointed. The actor fit much better, Gwen Stacy was AMAZING and there was much more banter and humour. The villain was more complex (somewhat) and the feel and tone of the movie was much better. Still though, it was missing... something. At this point, I was still disappointed, because while it was a much better movie, it was still average, and in my opinion Spidey deserved much more than an average movie.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was awesome. It could have been much better (as in half an hour shorter) but it hurt and it was funny and it answered some questions. Without a doubt, it's my favourite Spidey movie to date. I think the gap it filled was the meaningful relationships; Peter and Aunt May got some time together, and Peter and Gwen's relationship was more meaningful in two hours than in the trilogy and the previous film combined. Not perfect, but it was up there. (I have tried The Ultimate Spider-Man, but I haven't had time to get past the first two or three episodes, so my judgement on that one is still up in the air.)
Then. The unthinkable was thought. The undoable was done. The unspeakable was spoken. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was cancelled. I was seriously sad. I mourned for a whole five minutes until I hear the incredible news. Oh my goodness gracious sakes alive. Spider-Man joined Marvel. This was what when through my mind at that point:
OH MY GOODNESS I AM DREAMING THIS CANNOT POSSIBLY BE REAL SPIDEY IS GOING TO BE AN AVENGER AND HE'S GOING TO BE FUNNY AND WITTY AND AWESOME AND TEAM UP WITH CAPTAIN AMERICA AND IRON MAN AND HAWKEYE AND BLACK WIDOW AND IT'S GOING TO BE THE MOST AMAZING DAY OF MY LIFE THIS HAS GOT TO BE A JOKE I FEEL DIZZY!!!!!!!!!
Thus, I come to the end of my current Spider-Man journey. Three sucky movies, one decent one and one pretty good one. So far, I feel like none of the movies I've seen have truly done the web head justice, and I'm hoping that the newest reboot will finally give Spider-Man the movie he deserves.
Is anyone a Spider-Man fan? Who is excited about the reboot?
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I forgot about the web head until a few years later, when my brother began watching The Spectacular Spider-Man on TV. I watched a couple of episodes, thought it was dumb (because who has time for TV when there are books to be read?) and didn't watch another episode until about three years ago.
That, ladies and gentlemen, was when I got hooked. The humour! The wit! The fights! The bad guys! The sarcasm! I adored it, and watched both seasons in about a week of late nights, early mornings and forgotten homework. Yes, it was cheesy. Yes, I still loved it, and was heartbroken when I found out that they cancelled the third season.
 |
| Source |
Then, we watched the trilogy. This was the point in my life when my eternal state of woe began. To be honest, I hated it. Spider-Man wasn't written the way I thought he should have been (I bitterly missed the banter between Spidey and the bad guys), I didn't think the actor suited Peter Parker, I hated Mary Jane and how she screamed/got herself kidnapped in every. Single. Freaking. Movie and I didn't like how the relationship between Peter and Harry was played out. The plot didn't make any sense and the bad guys could have been done better. In other words, I was heartbroken. It was about this time that I started ranting about how Spider-Man needed to team up with the Avengers.
 |
| Source |
I consoled myself with The Spectacular Spider-Man with its ever amazing theme song until the The Amazing Spider-Man came out. My goodness, I was excited, and I wasn't disappointed. The actor fit much better, Gwen Stacy was AMAZING and there was much more banter and humour. The villain was more complex (somewhat) and the feel and tone of the movie was much better. Still though, it was missing... something. At this point, I was still disappointed, because while it was a much better movie, it was still average, and in my opinion Spidey deserved much more than an average movie.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was awesome. It could have been much better (as in half an hour shorter) but it hurt and it was funny and it answered some questions. Without a doubt, it's my favourite Spidey movie to date. I think the gap it filled was the meaningful relationships; Peter and Aunt May got some time together, and Peter and Gwen's relationship was more meaningful in two hours than in the trilogy and the previous film combined. Not perfect, but it was up there. (I have tried The Ultimate Spider-Man, but I haven't had time to get past the first two or three episodes, so my judgement on that one is still up in the air.)
 |
| Source |
Then. The unthinkable was thought. The undoable was done. The unspeakable was spoken. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was cancelled. I was seriously sad. I mourned for a whole five minutes until I hear the incredible news. Oh my goodness gracious sakes alive. Spider-Man joined Marvel. This was what when through my mind at that point:
OH MY GOODNESS I AM DREAMING THIS CANNOT POSSIBLY BE REAL SPIDEY IS GOING TO BE AN AVENGER AND HE'S GOING TO BE FUNNY AND WITTY AND AWESOME AND TEAM UP WITH CAPTAIN AMERICA AND IRON MAN AND HAWKEYE AND BLACK WIDOW AND IT'S GOING TO BE THE MOST AMAZING DAY OF MY LIFE THIS HAS GOT TO BE A JOKE I FEEL DIZZY!!!!!!!!!
Thus, I come to the end of my current Spider-Man journey. Three sucky movies, one decent one and one pretty good one. So far, I feel like none of the movies I've seen have truly done the web head justice, and I'm hoping that the newest reboot will finally give Spider-Man the movie he deserves.
Is anyone a Spider-Man fan? Who is excited about the reboot?
I'd actually forgotten how obsessed I was with Spider-Man when I was younger. Every weekend, our newspaper published a Spider-Man comic booklet and there were quite a few. I loved them so much and I still have them at my parent's house somewhere. I always moped a bunch when we missed a week, for whatever reason, and there were a couple times when they forgot to include our comic which made me mad. But yeah. I was disappointed with the trilogy too, and while I watched the first Amazing Spider-Man, I never got a chance to watch the second, so I will need to hunt that one down at some point. I'm so excited he's going to join the Avengers. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool! I would have loved to read Spidey comics but I've never been able to find any. (Not that I've looked too hard.) Hahaha, I can just imagine you wandering around the house, glaring at the walls because you've missed the weekly comic. AND I JUST CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEW AVENGERS TEAM AAAAH!!!
DeleteSuperheroes have become more of a later-teen years thing for me, but I think I have read a lot about Spiderman more than I've watched him (I've only seen the first one of the old series). I think, to some extent, I can understand why people like Spiderman, but I'm also not sure if I can get into it. Like someone else once said, the Spiderman franchise so far has mostly been origin stories, and origin stories kind of get old when you have a lot of them.
ReplyDeleteSo, I am not really a Spiderman fan yet, but perhaps when people get his life sorted out I shall be more interested in watching more than one movie. :)
I can understand why Spider-Man wouldn't be your favourite. There's been so many reboots and none of the movies have been amazing (in my humble opinion) so I guess we'll see if Marvel can do him right.
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