What's up everyone this article is a part 2 to my Amazing Spider-Man 2 film review which if you want to you can read here
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MARVELFREEK/news/?a=100074. In this review I gave this movie a pretty positive review but as I thought about it I started to analyze exactly what flaws it had that made the movie so disliked by critics and fans alike. Then I started to back track the series to see why and how it all seems to have all gone for so many fans. That is why it took so long for me to get this article up on this site because I wanted to get my thoughts straight. Now let me say that I do NOT hate this new franchise but I do recognize the flaws it has. I just do not let it ruin my enjoyment of the films. What I have compiled is a list of theories and ideas, that I would love if you guys could discuss in the comments, that may or may not be the reason as to why Marc Webb's Spider-Man franchise has become such a split franchise among the fans.
1. Directorial style
Okay so one of the resons I think this franchise is so plit is well, to put it plainly, totally different directorial styles and approaches. Now I know this is an obvious one but hear me out. Raimi was already a more accomplished director and has dealt with the lowest of budgets with Evil dead and also more higher budget films like Darkman. This man knew how to action scenes and heroic feats pretty well. Now Webb has also given us some pretty amazing Spider-man action scenes. It's one of the things I praised the most in the most recent outings. But unlike Raimi this was Webb's first forray in to big action and it just so happened to be with one of the most rrecognizeable superheroes and superfero films in the world. So what we get to experience with him is him growing as a bigger budget director. The much more large thing that separates these two is that Raimi is old school 60's Spidey. This is what most of the audience is most familiar with in terms of villains and story. Raimi really cornered the market on that department leaving Webb and company to try and do something 'different', as it always is with this type of genre. What we got was the lesser known, Ultimate Spider-man origin and direction. Now everyone on this site knows that story and tone and whether or not Webb captured that or not is not the point of this article. Now as you can see they had very different ideas in how to approach this franchise;one old the other new. Whether this has worked with the people is beyond me but it is a GREAT segway to the next theory.
2. Generation gap
Now everyone knows Hollywood only cares about that mean green (no not Hulk) money; and rights of course. It is, more or less, these reasons we got a new franchise and why Raimi and company left. That and Raimi cared about what he wanted to do and wanted to give us a great movie but couldn;t make the deadline. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that a large reason this new franchise is having issue getting footing is that there is a slight genreation gap. Personally, I spent my young childhood on the Raimi films. Those movies are the reason I got into comics and why Spider-man is my favorite hero. When the new franchise came out the age or Peter ran parallel to mine and many others and those teenage problems he went through in the first one with girls and forgetting things and just trying to be more responsible were relatable to me and made me love the character even more. Now I still love and respect the Raimi movies but the point I am trying to make is that some of the problems and habits the new Peter Parker has (except using Bing) can be seen as more relatable to this generation than the older ones (I think, I am no authority on this) . Now for those who spent their young adult lives with the Raimi franchise most likely relate to that Peter more as well. It is a matter of arguing ideals of different genreations of people and no one is either wrong nor right. Now that does not mean that there are not fans of the older films that are my age. That goes into an idea of just enjoying that more classic, streamlined 60's storyline that Raimi so eloquently translated. Some may like that more than the ultimate direction and that's fine. It is hard to argue two separate ways of thinking but this theory may only appeal to a small percentage of people.
3. Oversaturation
I remember the good old days when there were two trailers for a film and never a teaser for a trailer. I was really hoping that after the first film Sony would have pulled back a bit on marketing this film. Instead we got four trailers; four! What is worse is they showed almost half of the movie in every trailer and TV spot so nothing would be left to surprise. They really could have kept Harry being the Goblin a surprise since he was only there for six minutes. But I digress. What I am trying to say is that this franchise so far has REALLY shot themselves in the foot with this and even cutting scenes that may or may not be integral to plot. This really aids in the hate this franchise gets because when you see the 'wow factor' scenes in the theater you simply think "I saw this already" and that is no way to see a movie such as this. Not to mention the constant TV spots. It is almost like the studio does not have faith in this themselves so they cram it down the media throats of many people to remind us to see this. It is a real shame because the franchise does not need to do all that and it would actually benefit them if they did not.
4. Trying to keep up with Marvel studios
Marvel Studios has really put a stranglehold on the studios that hold the properties of the characters they want back. Sony is the one that seems to be buckling under the pressure. Ever since Marvel has started to cross theor properties and succeed, everyone wants a piece of the pie. What sony plans on doing is making sinister six and the lead up was the last Spider-Man film. The screenwriters thought it would be a good idea to shoehorn this plot device in with at least three others just for a future film. The problem? By trying to set up for the future you fail to stay true to what you have and focus less on what is here in the present. So what we got was a throwaway lead up like Iron Man 2 with hardly any weight as standalone film. Because of this I started to think "What if the Webb series came out before the Raimi series? Would there be as much backlash?" While story wise it would still be a bumpy road, I think that if Webb came out with his films first it they would have been a little more well put together because they do not haav pressure fromMarvel and Fox to out do them as much. We wouldn't have to worry about pointless open lines for other movies and each film would have been able to focus on itself as a film and nothing more. Which would aid this current franchise.But hey that's why they call it an idea right?
So, after all of this rabble what truly is up with the Webb Spider-Man franchise? Well it goes without saying that poor writing and Avi Arad pushing so much are a given but I also feel that the series is also at the mercy of the times. Being a reboot the world was not ready for or even wanted, having marvel studios succeed with these less than well known characters and having poor marketing strategies and the onset of franchise fatigue, it is hard to succeed. I for one hope the franchise does well and if we are lucky the rights will switch to marvel and hopefully the story and cast just move over to the new studio and get fixed so we aren't subject to ANOTHER reboot.
In closing I would like to point out that I am not an authority in any of this; they are just some ideas I had that I wanted to share so I have no idea if they are correct or not. So what do you all think? Do you have anything to add to the ideas? Agreements? Disagreements? Or a new Idea entirely? I am eager to hear your thoughts and until next time. I'm out.