Today's Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: ***/*****, or 6/10

Now that Marvel Studios' long term strategy has shown to pay off in the most lucrative manner imaginable, it's no surprise to see rival studios owning their own pieces of the Marvel pie try their luck with a similar concept. As such, Sony faces the most challenging job at universe building, as they own the rights to a franchise based around a single character: Spider-Man. Fortunately for the studio, Spidey has a wide array of friends and foes, allies and adversaries, to choose from in order to construct a larger shared realm which may at some point include movies that do not need the wallcrawler's presence to stand on their own feet. However, such characters, good guys and bad, will need to be introduced first to familiarize the audience with their personalities and groom them for their own solo debuts in later years. And so the crafting of a larger Spiderverse begins with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which hosts a plethora of new characters and a threesome of rogues to enrich Peter Parker's life. Problem is, for a freshly rebooted franchise which, after a single movie that can be described as 'adequate' at best, still needs to prove to the audience the validity of the rebooting process, the time to start such universe building simply isn't ripe just yet. As a result, the second Amazing Spidermovie feels like a convoluted, incoherently structured piece that aims to be more than 'amazing', while the audience still waits for that moniker to make good on its promise.

In the sequel, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has come to terms with his powers and responsibilities acting as New York's superhuman guardian, haunted by the vision of Captain Stacy, as he struggles to uphold his promise to the deceased father of the love of his life, Gwen (Emma Stone), to stay out of her existence in order to keep her safe from the harm that comes with being Spider-Man. A strong-spirited and intelligent young woman, Gwen is determined to embrace the dangers involved with dating Peter, or otherwise to move one with her career and leave him in the cold. This results in many a scene of fairly engaging and recognizable lovers' quarrels that reveal director Marc Webb's strengths in directing the identifiable romantic affairs of the younger generation. The chemistry between Garfield and Stone is still solid, though the same cannot be said for the writing of the former, as Peter has moved on from being a socially awkward nerd to a rather self-absorbed punk. Though his red-and-blue clad alter ego is modelled after his comic book counterpart more closely and convincingly than ever – webslinging moves, wisecracking puns and all – Peter feels like he has changed in character a little too much too fast, his occasional dickish behavior courtesy of a new team of writers. While Stone's performance remains a joy to behold, Garfield's oftentimes evokes more irritation than affection.

Spidey's knack for getting those he cares about in trouble is quickly proven as he's confronted by no less than three new villains in this movie, each with his own personal baggage and history that needs some exploration (especially if they are to be found worthy of reprising their roles for later projects). The main antagonist, the volatile and hotheaded Electro (Jamie Foxx), is given the most balanced bit of background, in which he is revealed kind of as Peter Parker-gone-bad. A lonely and socially isolated geek, his involuntary plunge in a vat of genetically engineered electric eels (if you feel this sounds silly, ask yourself whether it would if it involved spiders instead) grants him powers beyond his wildest dreams, but as he hopes to finally stand out from the crowd, those masses that worship his idol Spider-Man reject him, forcing him to go on a electrostatic rampage aimed at New York's favorite webspinner to get back at the world. Though Foxx's performance, some times over-the-top while at others more contained, leaves something to be desired, as does his rather two-dimensional anger directed at Spider-man, Electro's colourful but lethal sparkle shows make for a fancy visual style not seen in a Spider-Man movie before.

What has been seen before however is Harry Osborn, Peter's long time friend and occasionally Spidey's nemesis. In Raimi's trilogy of movies, Harry was given an arc all his own over the course of three movies, building up to the conflict to be and Spider-Man's emotional disarray that came with it. Not so in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where the same story is roughly being told in a single film, in a much abbreviated form that does not do justice to the many decades of comic book lore in which this close friendship annex hateful rivalry slowly but surely evolved. When his father Norman (Chris Cooper), the head of OsCorp Industries, dies as a result of a degenerative illness that runs in the family, Harry (Dane DeHaan) gets reacquainted with his childhood friend Peter as he offers his condolences. A more elaborate backstory is inferred, but as it is only the subject of the briefest conversation it is hard to truly care about the relationship between Peter and Harry. The latter swiftly becomes CEO of OsCorp where he finds himself thrown in an arena of board intrigue and backstabbing conspiracies to remove him from office, as he tries to find a cure for what killed his dad and all too soon will end his life prematurely too. The only thing standing between him and an untimely demise appears to be the blood of genetically engineered spiders, company property that was deemed lost, so Spider-Man's blood appears to be the only cure still available. As the disease starts to corrupt both his body and mind, Harry's friendship with Peter turns sour when his buddy will not help him get in touch with the wallcrawler to acquire that pivotal transfusion. Eventually more drastic measures must be taken for survival and Harry transforms into the maniacal Green Goblin, hellbent on wrecking Peter's life, especially when he discovers his secret identity. DeHaan proves quite up to the task of portraying the sympathetic Harry, who grows ever more frustrated as his quest to save his own life is thwarted by both those on his payroll and his oldest friend. He also visibly shows to have had a blast playing the crazed Goblin, making DeHaan's contributions to the acting front more sizable than Garfield's haphazard performances, though both characters are admittedly driven by less than stellar writing.

Last and least of the trio of baddies is Rhino, a Russian criminal played by Paul Giamatti (who also makes it abundantly clear he's enjoying himself tremendously), whose presence feels more of an afterthought added by the studio to get that universe building going, as he adds little of relevance to the plot otherwise. Appearing only in the beginning of the film as a violent smuggler who's ridiculed by Spidey, and at the end donning stupendously large battle armour, the character proves the finest example of how not to introduce characters meant to form part of a larger whole later on, if you want the audience to invest in them. It is made clear in the climax of the film Rhino is the first member of Harry's team of villains meant to destroy Spider-Man, a plot line which is already stated to carry over in the next entry into the series, as well as in the announced Sinister Six spin-off. However, this attempt to foreshadow such future fare backfires on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as a film on its own. 

 

If you compare the first few trailers with the final product, you'll notice the film feels to be lacking not only many scenes but also entire story threads that would have driven the plot into a very different direction. Scenes between Harry, his father and Peter promised much more intricate relations between the characters than what was ultimately seen on screen. Likewise, characters' scenes were filmed but dropped, including the introduction of Mary Jane, while others were shortened dramatically, like Harry's secretary Felicia Hardy (who fans will know as Spidey's love affair/part time enemy Black Cat) suffered. The undeniable fact is, with multiple foes, a tumultuous love life and relationship with assorted family, plus a continuing search for his roots and the fate of his parents carried over from the predecessor, there was more than enough going on in the plot of the film already without the studio's obvious insistence of setting up future films as well. As a result, few of the many plot lines get their chance to stand out amidst the convoluted whole that now is The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Of course, there's some fine action scenes and shows of superhero spectacle, while the webslinging never looked better. But in most other respects, the film too often feels like coming up short considerably. Arguably, Sony will make more time to craft the upcoming films into a more coherent and consistent whole, as the element of universe building was rushed into this movie's plot while production was already underway. For now however, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has ended up a Spider-Man film that quickly branches off into an advertisement for upcoming Spider-Man films, hurting its own ending, despite the otherwise tragic climax, which under less padded conditions might have made this the emotionally most powerful Spiderfilm as yet. Robbed of its right to exist as a separate entity, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed in that regard, nor does it bode well for Spidey's future.

And to make matters worse, some viewers will be treated to a version of the film with end credits containing a scene for the next X-Men film, which causes this movie to feel even more like a commercial for future superhero flicks, even wholly unrelated ones...

Today's Triple News: amazing dragon jobs

Let's put an end to MovieScene news posts by my hand accumulating indefinitely right here, right now:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/155304/danny_boyle_beoogd_regisseur_voor_biopic_steve_jobs

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/155276/eerste_vijf_minuten_how_to_train_your_dragon_2_online

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/155262/x-men_in_aftiteling_amazing_spider-man_2

Good going, Fox and Sony... As if the situation with the various Marvel properties isn't complicated enough for non-fans to grasp, you two just had to go and muddy the waters some more. This is bound to be getting people's hopes up needlessly. The X-Men and Spider-Man are never gonna team up in a movie. Period. Like Marvel big-shot producer Avi Arad said only last week, interstudio team-ups are a last resort for when the studios have run out of ideas with their franchises. And considering the amount of work currently being done to ensure smooth internal crossovering, there's simply no room yet for adding characters of other franchises to the mix for at least two decades or so. Fox is too busy making sense of the larger X-universe and looking for ways to also incorporate the Fantastic Four in there somehow, while Sony is reworking the Spider-Man legacy to explore ways of producing spin-off movies without the webhead himself, like Sinister Six and Venom. At this point, the whole notion of Spider-Man joining the X-Men in a mutually shared adventure just makes no sense, and putting a scene for an upcoming X-flick in the end credits of the latest Spider-flick ought to be considered false advertising. Better to introduce an exclusive clip from Days of Future Past in advance of screening the actual Spider-film, so lay people understand it's not connected at all, as it isn't. Sony's cause would be better served including a teaser for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 in their latest blockbuster, as the studio did in the case of its predecessor (even though in hindsight, judging from the second film that particular scene now raises more questions than it answers, which might point at Sony's long term strategy not being so clearly envisioned as the studio would have us believe). So far, indications seem the X-clip in question is not part of the Dutch release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Good thing too, since I don't feel like snapping all those clueless cinemagoers going in to see Spidey and coming out hoping for his showdown with them mutants out of their big Marvel dreams. That would be cruel, even though I'm not to blame for this poor marketing move on the studios' part.

Coherency seems better handled in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, judging from the first few minutes of the new film which are now widely found online, two months prior to the film's actual release. A common strategy as we've seen of late, as other big budget movies took the same route in the hopes of convincing people to go and check out the rest of the film soon. This opening of the sequel bears more than a minor similarity to the start of the first film, which is of course the idea. It parallels the former status quo wherein dragons were a threat to the inhabitants of Berk to the new situation in which both parties have formed a mutually beneficial alliance. A symbiosis which of course comes under threat from the movie's new antagonist, who's out of the picture here just yet so as to not spoil what the movie is actually about, other than providing us with some more adventures of Hiccup and Toothless to get us interested. How to Train Your Dragon 2 seems a typical sequel to its original, which is not a bad thing at all as that was a fun, high spirited family film with a heartfelt message of looking past differences and promoting universal understanding of others. At least this movie won't claim random ties to  computer animated films from rival companies where non exist.

Speaking of companies, Steve Jobs co-founded a notable one (bad segue, I know). Now he's dead and apparently Hollywood isn't done just yet telling the story of the man who created Apple. One biopic isn't enough, especially as jOBS apparently didn't do justice to the great man. Now Sony attempts to draw in the bigger names in order to produce a more prestigious film about Mr. Jobs. Danny Boyle is in the spotlight as director after David Fincher left the project, while Leonardo DiCaprio is sought to replace Christian Bale portraying the main character. Strong names all, but is there a real need for another Jobs film in so short a time span? Or is Hollywood still trying to cash in on the demise of the man? Granted, jOBS was a fairly low budget film and did bring in thrice its budget at the box office, but it still didn't draw huge crowds, despite the continuing popularity of Apple products. It seems those big shot names are more suited for enticing the audience to come see the film. In DiCaprio's case, if it worked on a sleazy fraud like Jordan Belfort, who's to say it won't do the same for a revolutionary inventor/entrepreneur like Steve? Guess DiCaprio needs to show off he can run a company in a responsible manner as well.

Today's Triple News: Jurassic. Spider. Busters.

More news just keeps piling up:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154577/omar_sy_in_jurassic_world

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154563/lego_regisseurs_in_race_voor_ghostbusters_3

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154530/laatste_trailer_amazing_spider-man_2_online

Another Spider-trailer. Whoop-dee-doo. Let's hope it's indeed the final trailer, since I'm sick and tired of posting more of this movie's overly extensive marketing campaign. Still a month to go, so the online hype-building ought to die down now, in favour of building tangible hype in people's everyday lives offline; TV-spots when the commercial breaks hit, posters in bus stands and other places you can't escape from the wallcrawler's renewed cinematic presence, etc.. But online we should be safe from Spider-Man now for a few years. Good thing too, since between all the trailers, posters and other publicity I posted, I feel like I've seen the whole movie already. So for me, that's that over with. At last.

Unlike Jurassic World, production of which is finally getting into gear. Casting continues, and soon shooting finally begins for real, after only twelve years of anticipation from big Jurassic fans like myself. This time Omar Sy, from Intouchables fame, has joined the cast, says he and director Colin Trevorrow on Twitter in two languages. Sy is a fine comedian, that's for sure. Whether he is equally adept at playing different kinds of roles remains to be seen. As he's playing Bishop in X-Men: Days of Future Past, not a character known for his cheerful, lighthearted disposition, I think he's capable of more than just generating laughs. I have no clue what type of character he will play, I just hope it's not some kind of one-note comic relief role. I doubt it though, they could have just picked an American for that. I gotta say, this film's cast is getting increasingly international. So far we have actors from three continents and four countries, so I guess Jurassic World is an appropriate title in multiple respects. Still no word on dinosaurs though, I guess they're still on the drawing boards/work shop benches. And the plot is still wrapped in mystery too. So despite following every bit of news surrounding this project so far (I have to, I write for a movie website after all), there's still plenty of unexposed material to look forward to. But if I keep sticking this close to the movie, I will hugely spoil things for my eventual viewing pleasure. So I had better take a step back and let my fellow news editors post Jurassic World in the future. If I can keep myself from beating them to it.

Another popular franchise that hasn't seen any real action in ages - and far longer than Jurassic Park too - would be Ghostbusters. The third movie has been in development hell for years, but Sony finally seems decisive to get the project going. First order of business: finding someone to take charge. The original director, Ivan Reitman, just backed out because his dearly beloved friend Harold Ramis died. Regrettable but understandable, and a respectful decision for sure. Ramis would also have aided in writing the screenplay for the third installment, so his death is bad news on more than one level for this project. Nevertheless, the studio is persistant in making that 2015 release date. So who 'you gonna call' to save this wacky comedy adventure? Why, people who specialize in wacky comedy adventures of course! Especially the sort of folks that has already made a few for the studio in recent years to great financial results, and is currently top news for pulling off another such film. Chris Miller and Phil Lord are a predictable but trustworthy choice. This type of oddball underdog humour is right up their alley: compare The LEGO Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street. All enjoyable in their own regard, though not likely to become franchise films as popular and enduring as Ghostbusters. Can't hurt for their career to add such a name to their directing credits. I for one am not particularly waiting for another Ghostbusters flick, especially one so late in the game. Heck, I didn't even think the first two movies were that good to warrant their longevity in terms of popularity (well, sorry!). Nevertheless, I like Miller & Lord, I like their quirky style and I think they may just be Sony's best bet to get this film going properly. But I would prefer them to assemble The LEGO Movie 2 first. While the fans can put together that upcoming Ghostbusters LEGO set:

Today's News: Spidey loses his Webb

Yesterday's hottest news today on my blog!:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154451/webb_niet_terug_voor_amazing_spider-man_4

All good things come to an end, and for most directors, the number three is that magical line where they tend to call it quits. There's exceptions of course, like Michael Bay on Transformers, but then, that is not a good thing. It doesn't happen very often that a director working on a major franchise continues to work in that capacity beyond three movies. Sam Raimi stepped down as director on the previous Spider-Man trilogy at a point where that was still intended to feature more than just three movies (but as history willed it, Spider-Man 4 was dropped by the studio in favor of the current rebooted series). Marc Webb seems to follow closely in his footsteps in this regard. You'd think Webb might want to show off and do at least one more of these films just to stick it to Raimi, but such frivolous thoughts of competition apparently do no enter his mind. A job as advisor is enough for him when he has finished his trilogy, he says. And who can blame him? We gotta cut these directors some slack when doing three movies in a row and then deciding to call it a day. They spend years and years working on the same characters, the same type of films, propelled by the same high expectations by the studio and the general audience alike. That takes its toll. Webb will have spent the better part of a decade doing Spider-Man when he's done. Maybe he'd like to spend more time with the wife and kids for a change? Though no doubt he liked his experience on the first movie - and the paychecks that accompanied the job - well enough to have at it two more times, there comes a point where any director needs something new to keep thoroughly engaged. Directors are creative people that continuously crave new challenges and different types of projects. If they keep regurgitating their energy for doing the exact same thing for ten years, quality of the end results is bound to suffer, and nobody will be the wiser. Raimi's much maligned Spider-Man 3 already seemed to suffer from such deterioration, and we have yet to see how well Webb will cope on his third Spidey movie. Nevertheless, since these new Spider-Man movies too make the studio stupendous amounts of money, you can't blame them for wanting to keep the momentum going. Especially when they see how great Marvel Studios is doing with their Avengers approach, which they have now copied with the intention of exploring and expanding Spider-Man's universe, for the moment seemingly ad infinitum. Not only have they slated two more Amazing Spider-Man movies after next month's second installment, villain spin-offs Sinister Six and Venom are also in the works, whether the audience wants them or not. Hey Webb, how about doing Venom when you're done with Spider-Man? He's just like Spidey, except in black and evil, so totally different. There's your creative challenge right there!

Today's Triple News: Heroes and villains

My increasing lack of spare time continues to wreak havoc on my regular, timely updating of this blog. So here's another bit of triple news, some of it days old by now. Expect this sort of thing to occur more often in the future.

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154042/nieuwe_posters_game_of_thrones_seizoen_4

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154006/nieuwe_trailer_the_amazing_spider-man_2

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/153971/heroes_terug_op_televisie

Of all the cancelled shows they just had to resurrect the series that least deserved it in my opinion. I disliked Heroes from the pilot on, and couldn't be bothered to
watch beyond the first season. It was severely overhyped
and dreadfully uninspired. Anyone who knows his superhero comics had an easy time recognizing just where they stole the various characters, powers and plot lines from. The show also exceeded its fair share of hommages to similar works, so it was hard to consider it paying tribute to (better) thematic forebears as it blatantly appropriated such names for its own uses. I had a hard time swallowing this show's popularity, but fortunately I got to enjoy a surprisingly similar but superior show called The 4400, which debuted only a year or so prior to the release of Heroes, but also was copied by that show abundantly. That series hardly got any audience love at all, and also ended up prematurely cancelled. I would much rather have seen that series return, as it's highly frustrating to know it left us with so many unanswered questions. Not the first show where that happened though. Enterprise, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Caprica, V and the notorious Firefly... all terrific shows that deserved more episodes but were denied. But apparently Heroes was just popular enough for the network to try again five years later, same people beind the scenes involved. At least it's for only 13 episodes. God forbid it catches on well enough to end up getting more. The shameless intellectual theft that characterized the previous show already seems to continue unabashed, as the title Heroes Reborn is suspiciously similar to the line of comics from the same name that witnessed alternate versions of the Marvel Universe superheroes, after they supposedly died in their regular universe. Won't be the last time Heroes takes a note from Marvel. Again.

Game of Thrones, now there's a fabulously well crafted show not likely to get cancelled anytime soon! Both its general popularity and anticipation for the upcoming fourth season are ever stronger on the rise. To tease us a bit more, HBO released a bunch of moody character posters of the most beloved established characters that are yet alive. But will they be for much longer? Their grim faces aren't accompanied by the ominous exclamation 'Valar Morghulis' for nothing... some of these (or all of them, mayhaps!) are bound to die in the near future. Most likely excruciatingly, knowing this show's nature and HBO's delightfully sick, depraved mind. Of course I spoiled myself big time by reading the books so I know just who are the goners here, but I like the suggestive way HBO handles this marketing campaign, knowing just what buttons to press to ensure its spectators keep on spectating. It's like the contemporary equivalent of a high profile Roman gladiatorial match, and these are the contestans. Who will kick the bucket? Place your bets! But never bet against a lady with three pet dragons.

And Spider-Man got himself another trailer. This time it's a full three minutes and it basically shows you the events of the movie in a nutshell. You know a promotional campaign is nearing its end when they resort to giving so mcuh plot away, even though half of it is old news by now. I doubt we'll be getting any more trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. We've got several of those, various behind-the-scenes videos, many a poster and banner: it should suffice to get people's attention. Best thing Sony can do now is sit back and watch the money flow its way. And prep the third movie of course, since this one is bound to break a few more of those annually smashed box office records. Whether the moniker 'amazing' is warranted still remains to be seen, considering the previous installment didn't exactly fit that description. That said, this one does look more appealing in my mind, though with a severe risk of overdoing it in terms of the number of present characters.

Today's News: rise of the sustainable superhero

Another MS newsflash from mine own hand:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/153835/nieuwe_behind-the-scenes_featurettes_the_amazing_spider-man_2

Not much novel actual content from the movie itself here, except for some new snappy gags showing off Spidey's trademark sense of humour (sorely missed in Raimi's trilogy of Spider-films). Otherwise these are typical puff pieces, in which the cast and crew reminisce about how great it was to make this movie, how much they adored each other on set and how lucky they are to have these jobs. Which is the usual sort of thing for featurettes like these to show. They serve as little more than promotional pieces reminding you of how much you want to see this movie by displaying little new material but showing mostly 'the good times' from the set so you get the idea that these people have the greatest jobs imaginable, and therefore the resulting final film is a work of love, instead of mere business. The 'Sustainability' video is interesting in this regard too, as it reveals how much studios aim to appear as if they care about more than just the huge sums of money that are involved, in this particular case by 'going green'. Producing big blockbuster movies is after all a hugely wasteful exercise, and there's definite room for improvement there. Now that public sentiment towards ecological thinking turns ever more in the direction of widespread embrace by vast audience numbers, studios hop on this bandwagon to show the folks that are likely to buy tickets they care about the environment too. Especially in the case of giant multi-million dollar projects like this one, public relations are of the utmost importance, so the studio must appear as likeable and openminded as possible. You didn't think they were going green because it actually is the most responsible and sound thing to do, right? They're doing this because the audience needs to like their new movie in every way imaginable, and ecological thinking is "all the rage" right now. Sounds harsh? Maybe it is, but time must tell whether the current Hollywood fad of sustainable filmmaking leads to actual permanent changes in the industry and its general short-term way of thinking. That said, it's still a change in the right direction and as such a laudable objective. But I doubt most audiences will care really much about all this hard work on the sustainability front when they sit down in theaters to watch The Amazing Spider-Man 2. They just want to see their webslinging hero wisecracking around as he's kicking bad guy butt. Bad guys like the Green Goblin. See, there's some subverted ideological overtones right there...

Today's News: a deluge of more Spidey pics and posters

Here's another bunch of Spider-Man images I posted on MS:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/153149/meer_nieuwe_posters_en_shots_amazing_spider-man_2

Are you getting tired of Spider-Man yet? I gotta say, this is really an agressive, in-your-face marketing campaign that Amazing Spider-Man 2 is witnessing. It seems there's new material made available every other day. And we still have more than three months to go before the movie hits, so I don't expect it to get any less any time soon, which means the movie's release will be hard to miss. New images is one thing, but what's the point of so many different posters? One possible answer in this case is building up (unconscious) franchise awareness. The 'Enemies will unite' tagline on the Electro one-sheet is a rather overt reference to the recently anounced upcoming Sinister Six spin-off movie, the groundwork for which is being laid right in this film. TAS-M2 introduces three(!) baddies from that notorious team of super villains from Spidey's rogue gallery, and if you count Lizard from the previous installment as another (though that has not yet been confirmed), you only need to spawn two more in TAS-M3 before the Six can have at the webslinger in the fourth film (also alreayd announced) and their own adventure afterwards (an all-bad guy movie would be a new one even for Marvel). As the trailers revealed - subtlety is not one of this franchise's strong suits - the identities of the missing pair have also been established already. But of course, the danger with so many characters is risking a convoluted, overcrowded movie. Remember how well (or not actually) Raimi's Spider-Man 3 fared in that regard, when it also let loose three antagonists on our hero? At least director Marc Webb will have a decent blueprint on how not to do things storywise.

And if a Sinister Six movie wasn't enough, it seems Spidey's archenemy Venom is getting his own solofilm too, though no word yet on how this character is gonna get introduced prior to that happening. The proposed project certainly won't build on Raimi's third Spider-movie (thankfully!). Since Venom needs to be (re)introduced through a Spider-Man film first (otherwise you completely ignore the origin of the character and his motivations), everybody's guess is he will pop up in TAS-M3 too, which means he could possibly replace Lizard as a Sinister Six member. But why then the privilege of a solo film? After all, it seems unfair and overkill if we would see Venom both in his own film and the proposed Sinister Six flick, unless he would be replaced by another villain in the latter, rendering the Sinster Six Venomless but justifying a Venom movie more strongly. As you can see, Sony Pictures' intended development of the Spider-Universe is already rife with questions about the future of characters not yet introduced, and that universe at present still consists of only one film. But a constant stream of images, posters and the occasional new vague comment from the director and execs keeps the fans' discussions and controversies going and ensures it will survive for a few more years. Are you getting tired of Spider-Man yet? If not, you probably will eventually, if those Spider-fans can't shut up about it until solid information is finally released.

Today's News: Spidey slinging into more action on novel poster threesome

Here's some more MS news for ya:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/152901/nieuwe_posters_voor_the_amazing_spider-man_2

The marketing campaign for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 continues to throw more goodies our way in rapid pace, even though the release of the film is still a good three point five months away. I must say, I both love and hate this particular set of posters. I like the dynamic pose of the protagonists on these, rather reminiscent of actual comic book cover art, especially the one showing Spidey in typical web slinging fashion (top). They're bound to get more enthusiastic attention than the rather dull posters of Sam Raimi's trilogy of movies, which in typical Hollywood fashion showed just a bunch of heads, or at best, a full shot of Spider-Man in a fairly energetic posture. The poster that shows an extreme close-up of Spider-Man's mask with a reflection of an angry Electro in his eye (bottom) certainly can be taken as a nod to some of the posters of the predecessors, where you would have the identity of the movie's main antagonist revealed in a similar fashion, except much smaller.

However, I'm bugged by the laziness of these posters, applying the same elements in slightly different order and size. Whereas there's a respectable diversity in the way the titular character is displayed, you'll notice Electro assumes an identical pose on all three one-sheets, as the exact same piece of imagery is used. A similar thing is happening with the video boards on all three posters, showing the same characters in precisely the same shots. It's like some member of the promotional team just had him/herself a ball photoshopping these posters by rearranging the way said elements are portrayed, the only piece showing any originality being our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man himself. Given there's still three months of marketing to be done, you wonder whether releasing a single new poster of Spidey versus Electro would not have sufficed for now, so more money and attention could be spend on following posters showing Rhino and Green Goblin too (even though there's a hint at the Goblin present here, poor Rhino is totally neglected on these posters!). Assuming such posters won't be released later on, which remains to be seen as this film's promotional campaign seems to go all-out. Even though the blatant similarities on these posters are kinda disappointing for movie/comic nerds nitpicking at home on their computers for lack of existential purpose, it probably won't matter where theater marketing is concerned. I doubt many theaters, save for the really big ones, will get all three of these anyhow, considering there's been a few TAS-M2 (much shorter!) posters released already - though at my theater we didn't receive any yet - and I doubt these will be the last of them. Besides, it's only posters: it's the actual movie that counts. I'm certainly looking forward to it, though I'm kinda hesitant about the presence of three baddies (plus hints to various others) all in a single film. Didn't work out so well the last time...

Today's News: more Spidey pics, and a trailer soon slinging our way

Look what I found online to post on MS:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/152139/nieuwe_fotos_amazing_spider-man_2_online

These pictures are getting increasingly oriented, as was to be expected. The shooting process is now over and done with (excluding eventual pick-ups), so the first finished (or nearly so) effects pop up in the promotional material as evidenced here. We now know who the new villains are and which actors will be playing them - in case you simply can't care less and/or missed this bit of news, it's Electro (Jamie Foxx), Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and the Green Goblin (either Chris Cooper or Dane DeHaan) - so now we are dying to see what they can do to the poor webhead. These few pictures are just the tip of the iceberg as the marketing machine slowly but surely starts to crank out more and more intriguing stuff with the intent to drag us along in the typical Hollywood hype surrounding this type of excessively expensive (but often equally lucrative) blockbuster flick. Pictures are one thing, but what the audience wants is trailers. And they're getting one pretty soon, as we've been teased with little snippets of it for a week now. These days, simply releasing teasers and trailers for a big budget film like this is apparently not enough, you have to release teasers for the trailers themselves too. It feels like commercial overkill, as it's likely the trailer will be seen by most people who would visit the film itself in theaters sometime along the next five months anyway, but the marketing execs take no chances, spending even more top dollar bombastically announcing the upcoming trailer event which like the film itself should not be missed by anyone since it's gonna be oh so special; a thing the studio system tries to convince us of in the case of pretty much all summer blockbusters, with most of them failing to live up to such hype. Of course, with such a thorough marketing campaign, the more money is lost if the movie flops (e.g., John Carter). Not that the movie will flop, considering the Marvel logo alone is enough to draw record breaking attendance levels in these days.

Oh well, the trailer is up tomorrow, folks! Be sure to plan your life accordingly so as not to miss this must-see online spectacle! Or simply wait till you see it in theaters somewhere before the end of April next year. Or ignore it altogether and go into the movie without knowing what's gonna happen, as people used to do in the old days. Now the ability to be surprised about a blockbuster's content, that was truly amazing!