How to Not Make Spider-Man 4 A Total Mess
Comic Book Movie News, Featured, Featured Movie Articles, Spider-Man 4 (Reboot, 2012) Movie — By Nate Kimmey on October 14, 2009
The original Spider-Man (2002) film was released to rave reviews, garnering a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the sequel (2004) was even more critically acclaimed with an average of 94%. Now, the similarity between these two movies (besides the cast, setting, and name) is that each one only had one villain, allowing a great deal of focus on just him and Spider-Man. Now, the biggest difference between this incredibly popular sequel and the “threequel” was that the third movie had three villains. Oh, yeah, and the ratings were different, too. About 32% different.
So, what was the cause of this? Is there simply a curse on these so-called “threequels” (like the 34% drop from x2 to X-Men: The Last Stand), possibly because “threequel” is such a stupid word? Or perhaps it’s because Sam Raimi packed as many villains as he could into a movie, which was easily the biggest complaint critics had regarding the movie. But that may oversimplify the problem: going back to one villain may not be a quick fix for the next installment in the Spider-Man franchise.
*SPOILER ALERTS FOR SPIDER-MAN 3 FOLLOW* The nearly two and half hour movie left a lot of loose ends. Harry Osborn died, leaving open the position of who would run Oscorp, Peter and Mary Jane had never officially “made up”, and Sandman’s fate was left unanswered. Where do you pick up from there? Well, fans have been clamoring for the Lizard and Carnage, and Dr. Connors does still has a piece of the symbiote…
The best bet for a Spider-Man 4 would be to have just one villain, leaving director Sam Raimi with the difficult choice between Carnage and the Lizard. Like I said, Dr. Connors still has a piece of the symbiote, and using Carnage as a villain would tie that up – but in the comics, Carnage is nearly unstoppable, at least by Spider-Man alone. Spider-Man was always forced to team up with Venom, at least temporarily, to take out the much more powerful foe. With Venom’s death in Spider-Man 3, it might just be impossible to have Carnage and Spidey face off.
Because of that, and although it would leave Dr. Connors with a piece of the symbiote, the Lizard would be a much more practical villain for the movie. Spider-Man would have the ability to actually defeat him, and Dr. Connor’s appearances in all the previous movies would finally have meaning. In fact, if Raimi truly did want to fix the mistakes of Spider-Man 3, he could somehow integrate the symbiote into Connors’ transformation into the Lizard, even if it would make all the geeks grab their pitchforks (or plastic lightsabers).
As for the relationship between Peter and MJ, why have them make up now? Sure, more love drama might seem like it would make the movie drag on like the last one, but with just one villain, Peter’s interaction with other people would have to step up. Although it bothers me greatly that Raimi threw away the possibility of having Gwen Stacy be a major character, why not give Peter another romance, with, say, Betty Grant?
And finally, the problem with Oscorp. Sam Raimi has said that he would love to do a Spider-Man 4, 5, and 6, and while each movie will likely have a different plot and villain, there is the possibility that Spider-Man 4 will be the beginning of a three-movie story arc. In the comics, Norman Osborn returned from his supposed death, and because the lead position of Oscorp is empty, that leaves the perfect chance for Norman to come back, or at least have a “puppet” to control the company for him while he plots revenge on Spider-Man. And since Raimi isn’t really paying attention to the comics, wouldn’t it be amazing to see Osborn come back in the sixth movie as the Hobgoblin?
But these are all just ideas, and shouldn’t be taken as actual news. While it would be great if Sam Raimi listened to these, don’t count on it (hey, since it’s the fourth Spider-Man movie, why don’t you just have four villains!?).
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26 Comments
The villain in the fourth movie will be Morbious with a cameo of some sort by Carnage setting things up for the fifth and sixth movie.
Make the movie without Tobey MCGuire. He is a tight ass who never tips anyone worth a damn and should join the ranks of losers like Jim Belushi and Kenny G. Find somebody worth a damn to play Dr.Strange and put him into the movie in a big way…
TJ
“who never tips anyone worth a damn”
what does that mean? lol
LOL Yeah That got me too. I agree though. I’m just not digging Tobey as Peter anymore. As for the sequels, I say stay away from venom, carnage, or any symbiotes.
All due respect to the author of this article but i disagree on several points, i’ll try and keep this simple guys:
1 The “Threequel” curse is simply the sad effect that supply and demand in hollywood has on the overall quality of any popular franchise, its a sad combination of sweaty movie exec’s rushing the process, cheaper and quicker script writing and normally contract wranglings with the major stars that means the movie loses cohesion and makes little or no sense in terms of plot and character development to say the least.
2. Nate show some respect to fans of these comic book saga’s as its the movie-going public who pay your bills and keep you writing whether its about comic book movies or not. Next time before you want to try and recommend plot devices and character inclusion as a means to improve the overall quality then at least do your homework on the subject matter as none of these things can take the place of good quality scripting/direction/editing etc that the 3rd movie was lacking in which in turn leads me to my final point in this little tirade.
3. Nate your quote “In fact, if Raimi truly did want to fix the mistakes of Spider-Man 3, he could somehow integrate the symbiote into Connors’ transformation into the Lizard, even if it would make all the geeks grab their pitchforks (or plastic lightsabers).” was not only disrespectful to the ‘geeks/anoraks/fanboys’ (whatever term we’ve all used for die-hard fans though we all love something just as much!) but also again highlights your lack of even basic research on your subject matter. Of course artistic licence must be used in order to distill years of comic book history into a 2 hour sitting, but as with any pop culture icons/myth/legends the formation of the central characters should always be taken straight from the source material as anyone has seen most popular characters whose story has been altered to fit in with current trends has still retained the most important elements that has made them popular enough to include in such a major franchise in the first place e.g. Iron Man being set in the Iraq war as opposed to vietnam or Hulk’s Gamma radiation super-soldier program as opposed to gamma bomb experiment. I hope you can see where im coming from otherwise feel free to flame this comment and continue on writing for those who just don’t care.
Comics are simply put the modern day mythology of our society, Egyptian hieroglyphs or tales of the Norse gods, we have our heroes we look up to and learn from, whose morals and values however written hold true regardless of circumstance and as Spidey says “With great power, comes great responsibility”
CarpeDiemsNuts
WHoa! Well said. Though I am one of said geeks, and didn’t actually get offended by the statement, you make some valid points about not knowing the source material and the process and rules of adaptation. I feel the same way which is why I don’t get mad when Spiderman has Organic web shooters, or there is no Squid in Watchmen. Somethings just don’t tramslate or you just don’t have the time to get into i.e. Doom being a sorcerer in the comics and being and Electro/Colossus hybrid in the film.
Why all you people want the spider-man movie to be like in the comic books…. For God sake ! Grow up guys the story should evolve through times and that is what Sam Raimi is doing…… BTW they should not cast the Wolfman or the vampire just to get hype with Twilight….. They should stick with the “Mutation” Thing…..
@: L
You clearly missed the whole point of the term ‘comicbook adaptation’
It requires you to take source from the comic books themselves, had you understood my/dedpool’s initial post you would know that most fans (those of us who have grown up enjoying the comics/cartoons as children) have no problem with the story being set in a modern context as long as its faithful to the characters and any changes made are actually relevant to the storyline without going off course and spoiling the franchise as a whole.
Funnily enough you quote Sam Raimi as though you know how he felt about the films, clearly not the case if you read his interview on cinematical.com (I feel a quote coming on!) as even he laments his own mistakes:
“I really think I know in my heart who the character is, and I haven’t quite been able to sing the song yet, or bring it out to the extent or degree of detail that I feel in my heart that I can. And I may not be successful, but I still feel like I know it better than I’m able to play it; I feel like the kid that really practiced at the piano recital, with years of comic books, and when I got to my other recitals, I sometimes made some missteps with them. There’s a whole crowd there and they think that’s as well as I know the piece, but I really do know it a lot better than that and I would like one more chance at that character. The Spider-Man films, I’ve made mistakes, but I really do look at them as things that I’ve learned, and hope that when I apply what I’ve learned to this next one, I really make a film that people enjoy and is really true to the character in a fresh, original way. That’s my goal”
As far as the new Wolfman film is concerned it has nothing to do with Twilight, its a reboot of the original 1941 film and nothing to with any subsequent werewolf films/themes.
And that kids its how you get PWN’D
CarpeDiemsNuts
LMAO!!! Here here!!! I am a firm beleiver of “If you want the comics, read the comics! If you want the videogame, play the game!” The only thing Raimi really needs to do to bring me back in is to make SPidey fun!! I really don’t like the angst driven plots he has given us. Yes Peter has a hard life, but that’s why he’s so flippant as Spidey. The mask keeps his annonomoty and he can say EXACTLY what he feels!
please no more story based on peter-mary jane relationship problem, its already 3 movie !! just make them already married and have baby spidey or something ! and please cast new actress for mary jane! previous one sucks!
Kabel, they are talking about 3D Support with 3D Glasses.
Like UP 3D, Avatar 3D, My Bloody Valentine 3D
Sweet, I hope that Spiderman 3 will be 3D support at local cinemas like Vue so I won’t have to go to Imax.
HARRY NEEDS TO BE HOBGOBLING AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE KINGPIN TOO PLZ…agree with spiderman 1 and 2 been awesome 3 was a mess…. sam raimi tho defo nedds to do the rest of the movies. i think hes done a great job and reckon he will tie up loose ends in the 4th..