Spider-man 4, 5, and 6…The Posibilities are endless!

Having already announced Spider-man 4, 5, and 6, I thought I’d take a stab of where the franchise should go from here, as a lifelong comic fan and movie geek.

IGN’s article on this subject, is a really decent start, and you’ll tell that some of my ideas somewhat mirror those, but I’ve got some different directions in mind as well…

Spider-Man 4 – John Jameson’s life was in shambles after MJ left him. He decided to take another mission to space, and was part of a moon landing, bringing back strange rocks on the moon. One of the rocks “calls to him” and he makes it into a necklace. This rock turns him into Man-Wolf during the days surrounding a full moon.

Pete finds out that he’s invited to a reading of Harry’s will. During the reading, just as Pete finds out he’s the soul beneficiary of Harry Osborn's fortune, in walks…Norman Osborn. Peter is aghast. Norman puts a stop to the proceedings, and resumes business with Oscorp. Spidey digs up Norman’s grave, to find no body in the casket.

Spidey hunts Man-Wolf. Man-Wolf almost kills him. He goes to Connors for help in treating his wounds, and ends up letting Connors take some blood for testing. Kraven comes to town to hunt the Man-Wolf to add to his collection (at the behest of Norman Osborn). Kraven captures the Man Wolf on live TV and is made into a hero by the city.

Spidey finds out that Man-Wolf is JJ’s son, and MJ pleads with Spidey to free him and help him rid himself of this curse. Peter gets a little jealous, but decides to help an ultimately innocent man. Spidey tails Kraven to find out where Man-Wolf is being held, and finds Kraven giving the Man Wolf to Osborn. Osborn immediately starts doing tests on the Wolf to figure out what makes him tick. Spidey slinks in to release Man-Wolf, and fights Kraven. Spidey releases the Man-Wolf, and rips off the moonstone that gives him his power.

Kraven releases footage of Spider releasing the Man-Wolf, and vows to stop Spidey. Kraven hunts Spidey, and Spidey defeats him, humiliating him by unearthing footage of him using canned hunts for some of his greatest “triumphs.” Kraven is put in jail, Man-Wolf is no more, JJ has his son. Spidey visits Norman to confront him about Man-Wolf, Norman explains he was trying to protect his city that his son died saving. Norman has no recollection of Spidey killing him, or any of his own Goblin activity. Spidey lets Norman know he’ll be watching him. At the very end, MJ lets Peter know she’s going to Europe to be a model. Close up on Norman Osborn’s face looking out over the city, his face starts to get a little plastic…his face morphs into Spider-Man’s face…and in Spidey’s voice…”I’ll be watching you. HA!” as his face morphs from Spidey’s to the Chameleon.

Spider-Man 5 – In the 5th movie, Chameleon/Osborn would again start Oscorp down the path of defense contracts, competing with Hardy Enterprises. Vincent Hardy is killed by Chameleon’s “Super Soldier” Electro, and his daughter (Felicia Hardy) gets caught up with his own “Super Soldier” experiments which have involved Dr. Connors and Peter. She ends up having an experiment done to her to change her into the Black Cat. She hunts Electro, runs across Spidey a few times. They start a “relationship” in that she’s very turned on by the danger in her new life. They hunt Electro together, but in the end, she intends to kill Electro for killing her father, and Spidey has to stop her. In the end, Electro is defeated, and the Black Cat leaves town to start her life somewhere else. Connors comes upon the initial research dealing with crossing reptile dna with human dna to enable regeneration. At the end, Chameleon is working at in Osborn’s office, and the door slides open. Chameleon looks up to see, Norman Osborn. Confused, he pulls out a gun. Norman jumps over the desk, knocking the Chameleon down. He grabs the Chameleon by the throat, and throws him out the window at the top of Oscorp. Close-up on Norman’s face “You’ve cost me everything Peter, now I’m going to take it all back.”

Spider-Man 6 – MJ returns to NY a huge star. She starts dating Peter who now works at the University with Connors and still at the Bugle. Connors uses the reptile super soldier research combined with Spidey’s blood to come up with a formula to allow him to regrow his arm. He takes it, and his arm regrows. This movie would detail his slow descent into insanity as the formula slowly turns him into a full blown Lizard monster, slowly (think, the Fly). Combine that with Osborn working behind the scenes to buy the Daily Bugle, and fire Peter. He exposes Connor’s work at the university, and get’s Connors fired (again, putting Peter out of a job). He buys Mr. Ditkovich’s building, and knocks it down to build another portion of Oscorp. He’s also working on replicating the Goblin formula to make it better. He takes the formula again, and returns as a meaner, more menacing Goblin (think Ultimate Goblin). In the end, Spidey has finally reverted the Lizard back to Connors, and the new Goblin fires a blast through Connors’ heart saying “Try regrowing that.” Before flying away cackling into the night as Spider-Man is left to hold his dying mentor (and father figure) in his arms.

Future films could deal with the Ultimate Goblin, Tombstone and Robbie Robertson, heck…even Rocket Racer….or maybe not. The Rhino, the Scorpion, another Doctor Octopus, Morlun, or eventually Hobgoblin could also be brought into place.

As for who plays these characters…especially if you’re going to restart the franchise…here’s my suggestions:

Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Justin Chatwin or Joseph Gordon-Levitt – both would work for the inbetween cool/still geeky Parker.

MJ
Eliza Dushku – she’d be able to convey a newer more independent MJ.

Felicia Hardy
Scarlett Johansson – Black Cat needs to be…curvy. Scarlett would satisfy that.

Norman Osborn/Chameleon/New Ultimate Goblin
John C. McGinley – I always thought he had the perfect look for Norman.

Kraven
Oded Fehr

Lizard/Dr. Curt Connors
Stick with Dylan Baker

And of course, J.K. Simmons has to keep playing JJ Jameson!

Spider-Man 3 Review: Does everything a spider can…

You know, I meant to have this out days ago…at least keep with my Tue/Thu posting schedule…but as with all things, life (or work) sometimes gets in the way. So anyway, today’s post will be a review of Spider-Man 3, and next post (either tomorrow or Friday) will be about where I would go for Spidey-Man 4, 5, and 6, since those have already been announced… By the way, thanks for that link Kelly.

I always find it hard to review comic movies, or really movies involving any property that I’ve previously been involved in. Plus, with the virtual onslaught of information about all aspects of how this movie was made, and reading plenty of reviews from various movie sites like this one. That being said, even though I’ve been a huge comic fan, I’m often easier to please than most comic fans. I remember liking Batman Forever, and not hating it, accepting their Robin character, even though he’s one of my favorites. I liked the old TV Incredible Hulk movies. I even, to an extent, like X-Men: The Last Stand, even though there are loads of missed opportunities with that movie. I just like seeing characters I love up on the screen. I still love the original Spider-man, with the Green Goblin redesign and all, even though I may not have agreed with casting choices. I didn’t flip out about the organic web-shooters. I really didn’t flip out about the Goblin much either, because, truthfully, I viewed it like X-men, those costumes would look hilariously bad in real life. My top rated comic films still are Spider-Man, X2, and Spider-Man 2.

That being said, I liked Spider-Man 3. But, I didn’t love it. Non-spoiler review = 3 out of 5 stars. For those of you who don’t already know what it’s about, I’ll go with the truncated version (spoiler warning from here on out!):

Peter’s happy. He got the girl, he’s gained the adoration of the city, he’s on a high. He’s so high in the clouds, that it’s all he talks about is how great he is. He becomes a jerk. Uncle Ben’s real killer is revealed as the Sandman. Peter’s in competition with Eddie Brock for a job at the Bugle. He’s not being a good boyfriend to Mary Jane. He fights Harry a couple of times. Harry loses his memory, get’s it back, and forces MJ to break up with Peter. Peter merges with the black suit, and it makes him Emo-Spidey and Emo-Peter. Emo-Peter uses Gwen Stacy to get back at MJ. Emo-Spidey realizes he’s even MORE of a jerk with the Emo-suit. Peter rips off the Emo-suit and it attaches to Brock. Brock becomes Venom, teams up with Sandman, and Spidey and Harry (now good and not insane anymore from the Goblin formula) team up to fight the villains.

I look at this movie, similar to how I look at X-Men the Last Stand (even though this film is much better in that it doesn’t look like it was done for TV). This movie is a bunch of missed chances. Missed chances left and right. Missed chance to do some great characterization of the Sandman. Missed chance to do characterization of Peter and Gwen Stacy. Missed chance on the entire Venom character. Missed chance with Dr. Conners.

As a general movie perspective, I agree with what a lot of people have come out saying: that there’s just too much packed into this film. They talk about all the new characters jammed in there, but I only agree to a point.

This film would have been just perfect, if they just would have done less…if they just would have gotten to a plot point and stopped, instead of insisting on finishing the arc. I’ve read around that Sam Raimi was forced to include Gwen Stacy and the Venom characters. I can see that. They get almost no love from the script in general. Gwen’s just mostly eye candy. What would have probably been best for the franchise as a whole would have been introducing the black suit, Eddie Brock, and Gwen in this movie, and instead of forcing all those arcs to finish themselves in this movie, have them roll right into the next making Venom the sole villain in the next movie. In fact, the scene from the trailer with Peter ripping off the symbiote and it falling onto Eddie would have been a perfect ending. I think it’s the biggest missed chance of the franchise, because if Sam Raimi actually had the time to run with the Venom character, after learning more about him, I’m sure he’d make a great horror type movie, as Venom is a scary character. He’s stronger than Spidey, he knows all of Spidey’s secrets. But no, they had to have him in here. I also don’t generally agree with Spidey taking his mask completely off again, letting Sandman get away, and the killing of Harry and Eddie.

All that being said, I still like the movie. The designs of Venom are spot on. Sandman looks great, although I did laugh when he took that green shirt out of his dresser. I mean…who wears a shirt like that? I liked Mr. Ditkovich and his daughter. I liked that Peter went to Dr. Conners for help. I liked JJ Jameson, and everyone at the Bugle. Aunt May is even good in here.

The action is spot on. The action is probably the best I’ve seen in any comic movie (until we get a full on Wolverine/Sabertooth fight, or Superman Returns again fighting an actual supervillain). The movie makes me happy…but also a little sad when I think about what could have been…

Now THIS is Movie Marketing – Ultimate Movie Standee’s throughout time...

Wow…I have to admit, I’m always impressed with the way movies market themselves with standees. Back in the day, we use to love setting up standees, and taping a walkie talkie to the back and yelling at kids as they walked by the standees. Now that was fun with Blade, telling everyone that he wanted to suck their blood. The stakes have definitely been raised over the last couple of years though.

First one that pops into mind is the life size King Kong replica set up in New York last year for the film opening. I remember thinking that this would be the coolest thing to see live and in person. I remember reading about the original King Kong release (1933) and how they brought in the life size bust they made of Kong, the one that had the moving eyes and mouth that they shot close-ups of Kong chewing people. That would have been totally tits as well.

Well…just this last weekend, the Girlfriend and I went to see The Invisible. Upon walking into the theater, we were treated to the following standee:

Crazy. First thought I had was: I want it for our living room. I still remember when it was a big deal if the movie had a banner, this is taking it to a whole different level. As is the new Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer standee below.

We saw this one as well, and it looks really really cool. Probably the best and coolest looking standee I’ve seen in a theater, and the first one I’ve come upon that I wanted my picture taken with.

Well, on top of all that, leave it to Sony to try and top them all:

Came upon this whilst jaunting around IGN’s site…I think that’d be pretty cool to have an overlook of that lot out your office window. I would say I’d love to take that home…unfortunately, I think it’s bigger than most houses…

Here’s hoping we get a great Iron Man Mach I suit in theaters in the next year!

What other great movie promotions have you seen through the years? Leave ‘em in the COMMENTS!

Wind Turbines on the Highways, The Invisible, and the NBA Playoffs.

Clogged highways and frustratingly waiting while your gas needle plummets to empty usually doesn't conjure up thoughts of green, but it seems like these very roads could become the source of a lot more energy. Several recent student designs have proposed that major roadways be retrofitted with various forms of wind energy collection devices...
read more digg story

Saw this on Digg…had to blog it. I specifically remember driving over the mountains from Vegas to the OC with the Girlfriend and the Kitten and thinking “Why aren’t these mountains covered in windmills to capture energy from the winds this high up?” I’ve been positively amazed with the lack of such innovation since moving here, especially since I work for the power company, and the threat of brown-outs year after year. So, here’s hoping that this design gains steam and some state gets smart and realizes that this could help. At the very least, tax dollars could be used to fund it, and then the state could sell the energy back to the consumer resulting in yet more money for the government. Places like MI (if you could make all weather turbines), really need more money for their government.

Got a chance to check out The Invisible this weekend…I’d recommend it to rent or go to for a dollar show or something, that’s about it. It wasn’t that the movie wasn’t bad, it looked like they had re-cut some or changed the movie a bit, as the part in the commercial with the old guy talking about “solving the mystery of your own death” was no-where to be found. That’s a pet peeve of mine. The leads were ok, the whole premise of falling in love with a ghost is kinda…I don’t know, doesn’t seem plausible enough even for a movie. The main character, I could care less about before he got “killed” anyway. Not a bad ending though.

HOW BOUT THEM PISTONS AND BULLS!

I have to admit, I haven’t had a chance to watch my taped Pistons – Magic game 4 yet, but those Bulls are going to provide the Pistons with everything they can take in the 2nd round. It just reminds me of the Spurs – Mavericks series of last year, the unofficial Conference finals, unless they beat the crap out of each other so bad that they’re too tired after this round. Whichever team wins (Pistons) is my pick to win the whole shebang though.

Oh, and go WARRIORS! I love watching top seeds sweat (especially when it’s not my team!) The only thing that would make this series better would be if Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison were on the Warriors, then it would be all of Cuban’s castoffs coming back to haunt him. Regardless of what happens, this series has definitely provided some entertaining basketball. Hopefully the Warriors won’t get full of themselves (ala the Magic of 2003) and start looking ahead. The Pistons (from 2003 vs. the Magic) and the Suns (last year versus the Lakers) came back from similar deficits.

4 MORE DAYS TILL SPIDER-MAN!

Top Ten Things that are worth paying more attention to than Imus and his f*ckup.

Imus.

Anyone sick of that name yet? Talk about over-exposure. Much has been made of Imus’ comments on his radio show about the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team. First, they suspended Imus for two weeks without pay. Then, companies are pulling their commercial dollars and running for the hills. Now, MSNBC is canceling the simulcast of his radio show. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton continue to attack him.

Much has been written not necessarily defending Imus, but not vilifying him either. My personal fav is Michelle Malkin’s Imus vs. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks Chart. It brings up some good points on the double standard that’s currently killing Imus. Then there’s this point of view at Politopics and this one from Earl Ofari Hutchinson. These all bring up good points.

Here’s 3 things I think (if you don’t care, just scroll down to the Top Ten^_^)

I think everyone in this country is in some way shape and form, whether they want to be or not, racist. At least a little bit. Once everyone excepts that, this world will be a better place. Call it the Avenue Q Social Theory. I’m not saying everyone out there is a bigot. I’m just saying, all people think things that can be construed as racist, and all people, at one time or another, have said something that could be construed as racist, even if meant as a joke. Imus probably falls into this category…he’s just got more people listening to him, so he’s naturally a bigger target.

I think that the best way this could have been handled, is how you handle bad kids in elementary school…just ignore him. Until Imus had his show pulled from MSNBC, I thought for sure he was going to come out of this better than before he went in. So much free exposure…for something supposedly negative. Exposure…and people like Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, usually go hand in hand. The best way for the Rutgers girls to handle it would be to rise above it…treat it as noise, or a bad joke gone horribly wrong. Unfortunately, the media won’t let it die, which shows they’re not trying to really punish him…

Finally, on a more comedic side of things (I could see South Park running with something like this), if advertisers like Staples and Bigelow Tea aren’t putting their advertising dollars into the show anymore, Imus should go out and find the same people who advertise with any of the rappers on the songs pointed out by Michelle Malkin. He could create a whole different radio career as a Bullworth type character.


Anyway, in the spirit of rising above and not treating this as anything news worthy…here are tens things more worthy of paying attention to than Imus’ F*ckup:

10: Ask A Ninja
They know all.

9: The first picture of the initial Iron Man suit from the upcoming movie.
It looks cool, I trust Favreau on this one. We’re living in some sort of Golden Age for comic movies…enjoy it!


8: The final week of the NBA regular season, and the start of the Playoffs.
The West is crazy, and the Pistons will have fun tearing up the East.

7: Reality TV or…Anna Nicole’s new movie (God rest her soul, it’s what she would have wanted.)

6: Hot Fuzz.

5: The Dresden Files. It’s a good show.

4: Ninja Warrior on G4.
Have you watched this show? Crazy crazy people competing, showing off their insane hand strength. Plus, the commentary is MXC funny.

3: Spider-man 3
It’s gonna rule!

2: The Stanley Cup Playoffs
The first night provided the following:
Sid the Kid’s first Playoff Goal.
A win for the Sharks in the 2nd Overtime.
And a Canucks win in the 4th Overtime. It’s only going to get better.

1: Chicks dude…Chicks.

Other such notables: foot fungus, watching paint dry or water boil, WHO’S WANTS A BODY MASSAGE, and finally Professional Wrestling.

Got anymore? Leave em in the comments!

Update: IMUS was FIRED yesterday. What a sad sad day for all involved that it came to that.