Well guys, we did it. We finally got Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe like we all wanted. Now before any of you try to kill me for the title of this article let me make one thing clear. Spider-Man joining the MCU is not only a good thing, but it should have been done the minute Spider-Man 4 was canceled. However that's not how things turned out. Instead we got 2 films in a new franchise that I want to discuss. Not only do I want to discuss the behind the scenes of these films, as well as the films themselves, but how in a lot of ways, the reasons for this franchises failure, was two fold. It wasn't just the producers fault, it was ours as well.
The Concept.
Ever since the announcement of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise people have been unfair to it. I remember when It was announced that not only was Spider-Man 4 cancelled, but that a reboot of the franchise would be on the way that brought Peter back to High School. Some were for it, most were against it. However, if anything, the concept that Sony had for these films was a solid one, so much so that Marvels plan for their Spider-Man franchise seems to be similar.
A darker, more realistic approach to Spider-Man, with Peter Parker back in High School along with more comic book accuracy compared to the last series, including web shooters, and a wise cracking Spidey, something fans had been clamoring for since the beginning. I remember an interview done with some of the producers of Spider-Man 3, where they said they had plans and ideas that went all the way into Spider-Man 6. However later on in the same magazine it was revealed that Sony had a backup plan in case the current franchise went down under. The Amazing Spider-Man franchise was that back up plan.
I understand how people could be a little upset at the time of the original announcement of this reboot, we had just spent over 10 years in this last franchise and now we had to pretend it never happened and go back to the beginning, however at the time, this business decision made perfect sense if they wanted to reboot this franchise. People seem to forget that they started developing this film in 2010, only 2 years after The Dark Knight which was a huge success. While Spider-Man himself may not be a dark character the situations he could get into could be pretty dark, so putting a lighter character like him in a darker environment was a good idea. However, problems arose before the production even began.
Mistake Number One: Cancelling Spider-Man 4 At The Point They Did.
The title to this point is the way it is because I want to make my point clear, It's a good thing we didn't get Spider-Man 4, from the ideas and concepts we had heard the film sounded like it would have been a disaster. However, Sony was not smart for cancelling it at the point that they did, really the entire way Spider-Man 4 was handeled could be seen as a mistake but one of the biggest ones that caused their down fall was the cancelling of this film when they did.
When making a film you set a release date for said film, which Sony had done at the time. The film was to be released on May 5th 2011. Now after setting your release date the studio will then have to meet that date or lose a lot of money in the process, unless of course they renegotiate the contracts made to set the film to that date and the film is delayed. However even after setting a date you can still be in the clear if the film is cancelled early enough into development. However, when Spider-Man 4 was cancelled they had already written several scripts, as well as hired many different actors including 2 more leads, started drawing concept art, and even resigning a lot of the actors to new contracts, as they only had a 3 picture deal before hand. Add the cost of all of those elements on top of the amount of money they would lose due to cancelling the film, and you have the main factor for Sony Pictures near bankruptcy. Which in turn caused them to become more desperate.
Spider-Man 3 did have a sense of finality to it, although the franchise was able to continue with more stories after that the film did feel like it was the end of the stories that they brought in, all character arcs resolved, no loose ends, the franchise could have ended right than and there. Sony had 2 options of what they could have done instead of this. Either continued on with the Raimi Spider-Man franchise, given Sam Raimi the time he wanted to get the concept working the way he wanted too and plan out one film at a time, don't worry about Spider-Man 5 or 6, only worry about the the film currently in production. The film had already been in production for 2 years at this point, they were too far down the rabbit hole to back out without suffering a huge loss, which they did. The other option they had was to just stop with the Raimi Spider-Man franchise and just move onto the reboot, instead of having it as a back up plan, have it as your main plan to get the love of the fans back and bring the series back to its roots, using this new series to hopefully redeem the sins of the past.
Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time: Avi Arad As A Producer
We all pretty unanimously hate Avi Arad at this point, and with good reason, the man has clearly showed he does not understand the Spider-Man character, and seems to be more focused at selling toys then making a good film. However in 2010 when this film was being developed, from a business standpoint, keeping Avi as a producer made sense. This man was the reason Venom was included in Spider-Man 3, which had caused Spider-Man 3 to be the highest grossing Spider-Man film ever made, as well as the highest grossing Sony pictures film at the time. The man had had ideas that brought the company a lot of money and a studios first and foremost concern with any film is making money. A good movie is nice as well, but studios would rather have a poorly received movie that made lots of money, like Transformers, as opposed to a really well received film that made little to no money at all, like Scott Pilgrim Vs The World.
However what should have tipped Sony off to not bring this man in as a producer again was not only the ideas he had for the films we got, but also the fact that the Spider-Man films that had little to none of his ideas were the ones that were better recieved over all, and because of that positive reception caused Spider-Man 3 to become the giant money maker that it did. Some of this mans previous ideas for this franchise that were not implemented into the Raimi trilogy included the following:
1. Including Doc Ock as well as Green Goblin in Spider-Man (2002)
(Was not included because the remaining producers felt that having 3 origins in one film would overstuff the film.)
2. Having a teenage Doc Ock in college with Peter Parker, and having a love triangle with Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2 (2004)
(Was not included because the remaining producers felt that going for a more comic accurate Doc Ock was a better idea.)
3. Including The Lizard, Harry as "The New Goblin", Black Cat, and Doc Ock In Spider-Man 2 (2004)
(Was not included for the same reasons as number one)
All three of these ideas would have drastically changed the films we got, If Avi Arad would have gotten what he wanted back then the way he does now we would have had a very different franchise. Sony should have realized due to all of the ideas from him that they and Sam Raimi in turn had rejected that he was not a good candidate to bring on as another producer of this new franchise.
Mistake Number Two: The Writing Team.
When you're making a reboot of a franchise, wanting to give it a fresh start and feel drastically different from the other films in your previous franchise this is not the way to do it. Hiring James Vanderbilt in itself was not an awful idea, the man had written Zodiac, which was a pretty well received film all things considered, however he also wrote Darkness Falls, a movie with not as good reception, one film had a great director, the other had an awful one, so there was really no way of gauging how good of a writer he was at the time. Sony having originally brought him in to help write Spider-Man 4, being moved over to this franchise and having his story be the basis for the first film. So he could have been the fresh blood the franchise needed to get the ball rolling, however the mistake came in who they got to write the screenplay, Alvin Sargent.
Now how could I think such a horrible thing? Alvin Sargent brought us Spider-Man 2, one of the greatest comic book movies of all time. There in lies the problem right there, he had already written all previous films in the Spider-Man franchise at that point. When you want your franchise to feel fresh again, you don't get the same writer as your previous franchise to write the script again, especially when the same concept had already been done in the previous franchise the he had helped write. Sargent shouldn't be blamed for the quality of Spider-Man 3, as that film also had Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi writing the script. 2 people who had not only didn't have many writing credits under their belt, but who didn't understand one of the main villains of the film. (Venom)
Due to Sargent writing this film as well The Amazing Spider-Man has been criticized as feeling largely the same as Spider-Man (2002), feeling like it was unnecessary to tell the origin story all over again. Vanderbilt should have been given the chance to write the screenplay outright as he had never written a film like this before it most definitely would have had the different feel the franchise needed.
Mistake Number Three: Fans Never Giving It A Chance.
Sony does deserve a lot of the blame for what happened with this franchise, however they are not entirely to blame for what happened. Ever since the inital announcement of this franchise fans absolutly hated it. I want you to go back dear reader, remember back to January 2010. Here are some of the comments from that article to help jog your memory of the initial response to the announcement.
The hate for this franchise started here and never stopped. People calling it horrible, one of the worst decisions ever made for a comic book movie. All before the first film had even casted their Spider-Man yet. More and more complaints came along the way to the films release, Andrew Garfield being a terrible Spider-Man because he wasn't Tobey Maguire, The Lizard looking like a Goomba, Spidey's costume looking like a basket ball. It all stemmed from one simple idea, people wern't ready to see the Sam Raimi franchise end like it did. That is a fine reason to have an initial anger to the idea of this reboot, however as made very clear above that's not what happened.
Fans should have given the film a fair shot before giving it all the hate that it had, nobody seemed to want this franchise to succeed, aside from a vocal minority, either because they were still disappointed that the Raimi franchise had ended, or they wanted Spider-Man to be back at Marvel, and didn't care about the actual films themselves for the reason that they wern't apart of the MCU. However, we'll get more into that at a later point.
The Amazing Spider-Man
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The film is released on July 3rd 2012. Fans had been wanting to know what Sony would do with this new version of Peter Parker for 2 years and now they finally got to see it. The film was given a mostly positive response from critics as well as the general public, given a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film for the most part is praised for its cast as well as its directing. People praising Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man for the most part, the chemistry between Emma Stone and Garfield, as well as some of the choices made by director Marc Webb, including the POV web swinging sequences.
However the film is criticized heavily for being very similar to the 2002 film, however that was from the critics and general public, what doomed this film from the get go was what was mentioned above, the fans who never let go. Constant complaints still continued, now including criticizing Peter's characterization including calling him a hipster, complaints on the costume, as well as the dark tone the film had and the untold story element brought into the film.
Due to this the film was still widely considered a success, however it made the least amount of money compared to any other Spider-Man film up to that point. Something could have been salvaged for the franchise up to this point. However Sony had noticed a lot of the fans complains, which brings us onto the next film, where the real trouble begins.
Mistake Number Four: Pandering To Fans/Losing The Original Vision.
This is where things really started to fall apart, I can have respect for a studio and a franchise for taking chances, for trying to do something different with a character that they own. As some concept art released for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 shows the original idea for that film and all future films was to continue in the same tone, ideas and even the same costume as the first Amazing Spider-Man. However, fan reactions got to the producers at Sony, the complaints from the fans in regards to the last movie changed so many things of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The costume and the tone being the biggest example of this.
With the exception of the main actors from the previous film there is nothing consistent between these two films within the same franchise, the costume is different with no explanation, the films tone is more reminiscent of The Avengers or even the previous Spider-Man franchise as opposed to the darker tone they went with in the first film. It's very clear from these elements the movie would have been a very different beast had fans accepted the changes Sony had originally wanted to make at that time, although the success of The Avengers is another reason to blame for this change.
Sony's main concern with this film almost seemed to be to please the fans of Spider-Man who hated The Amazing Spider-Man. By changing almost every element they hated, even Peters character was changed, the skateboarding element of his character was completely removed. With this idea seeming to be in the forefront this movie was dead on arrival, Sony should have stuck to their guns. Keeping a consistent franchise as opposed to trying to please everyone, those fans that didn't like the last film might have still hated this one, but people who liked the first film could have enjoyed this film as well, allowing the franchise to continue.
Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time: Building A Shared Universe
Just like I mentioned above, The Avengers influenced a lot about this film, however, the biggest element that it influnced were the plans going forward with this franchise. Marvel had proven that the idea of a shared universe was not only a successful one, but one that made them a lot of money, which Sony needed at the time. So again, like with Avi Arad, from a business standpoint, mapping out a universe for The Amazing Spider-Man franchise was not a terrible idea. There are a lot of characters and stories that stemmed from Spider-Man that could be used to make an expansive universe with plenty of different films about different characters.
The problems arose with how it was approached with this film, seeming to focus more on building their new universe as opposed to making the film a good film, with hints of a bigger world to help establish the universe they wanted to build. Trying to go too big in such a short amount of time. Instead of building up to something like The Sinister Six and have that be the end game like Infinity War for Marvel, they decided to just throw it in with the only build up to it being at the end of this film, thus having it feel forced.
Sony should have properly thought out what they were building up too like how Marvel Studios and DC have been doing with their films, allowing each film to have its own story and focus more on telling that story than setting up other ones. With a more focused narrative the film would have been able to tell its story properly and thus even if the franchise still would have ended here, we would have had a sense of finality, like the Raimi Spider-Man films.
Mistake Number Five: The Marketing/Being Too Confident.
This is the biggest mistake of the film in my opinion, and it caused the downfall of this franchise. The amount of money spent on the marketing of the film. Now of course you want it to be known that your film is out there. You want to get the audiences attention. But like everything, there are some points where enough is enough. The movie had a budget of about 255 million dollars, which already is a huge investment for this type of movie, it has also been reported that the marketing for this film cost around 185 million dollars. That means this film cost approximately 440 million dollars, which means Sony needed this movie to make big money at the box office in order for their investment to be worth it.
However they believed that due to how similar the film was going to be to the Avengers, and due to the fact that Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes in history. They believed that would be enough to save the film financial wise, thus allowing them to continue this franchise. There were problems that they should have paid more attention too. The biggest one being that for a Spider-Man movie the majority of the profits come from the merchandise for the movie, and at the time, Sony didn't own the merchandising rights to Spider-Man anymore, having sold those rights to Marvel around the same time as The Amazing Spider-Mans release date. When you don't have that huge crutch to save your movie you should be a bit more careful in how you spend your money.
Sadly, due to Sonys overconfidence in the property the film did not meet expectations they thought it would. While we don't know the exact amount of money Sony made from the film it has been made very clear that if Sony made any profit at all from it, they didn't make a whole lot. Sony should have held off on what they showed, as due to the amount they showed a lot of fans believed the entire film had been shown, thus causing less people to see it. A smaller more low key marketing campaign more similar to the first film probably would have done the film a lot of good.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The film was released on May 2nd 2014. The film received very mixed reception, receiving criticism from both fans and critics for the film being overstuffed, having an inconsistant tone, and not focusing on its own story. The film was still praised for Andrew Garfields portrayal as well as the quality of the romance and special effects, like the film before it. This film receiving a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unlike the last film this was not considered a success, for reasons stated above, as well as it currently being the lowest grossing Spider-Man film ever made.
However fans were a lot more harsh to the film then the general audience and critics, like before, the film being compared to Batman and Robin, the film being called one of the worst comic book movies ever made. Not only that, the people that disliked this film solely for it not being apart of the MCU not only remained, but more people who shared that sentiment seemed to come into the public eye.
Looking To The Future.
This franchise has now ended, and a new one set in the MCU is coming, fans have gotten what they wanted, and we should be happy for what we have now. However, that doesn't mean the previous franchise should be discarded, and receive the amount of disdain and hate that it does. Everyone has their own personal opinion and I'm not going to argue with people on how I personally feel about the movie, however, these films are not on the same level as Batman and Robin, or Steel. Regardless of whether or not you like these films they are not on the same level as a film that killed the genre for several years.
Despite those films failures the comic book movie genre is not only still going, it's stronger then ever before. Even if you dislike these films we have to at least give it a touch of respect for doing something different with the franchise. Maybe even seeing this film as a necessary evil. As without this franchise I can assure you, Spider-Man would not be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
If everything would have gone according to plan Sony would currently be developing Spider-Man 5 or 6. Tobey Maguire would still be Spider-Man and we wouldn't have had a spider-man film for the past 5 years. Plus this franchise had potential, what killed it was fans wanting it to desperately to be something it's not, as well as producers who didn't know what they wanted with the property, changing it constantly to fit what was popular. So from now on whenever you think of these Amazing Spider-Man films, don't necessarily think of them as these awful movies that shouldn't exist, think of them as a necessary road to get Spider-Man back to where he truly belonged all along.