Just to increase suspense and kick this all off, I would like to point out that this is my first article on ComicBookMovie.Com. I've been a visitor to this site for a bit over a year now and am glad that I have finally gotten around to contributing. So, let's continue on with the good stuff.
Let us all take a moment and fondly remember the Sam Raimi Spider-man movies. One of my favorite parts of those movies was seeing the villains come to life. The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Venom, and "New-Goblin". Although they may not have been realized in the best way possible, there they were up on the silver screen and there was naught we could do about it.
The big mistake made with all these villains, the one fudge-up they all have in common, is their relationship to Peter Parker, a.k.a., the Amazing Spider-man. We are led to believe throughout the Spider-man films that Spider-man is alone in this world of super-heroism (at least in New York) and so he alone is responsible for defending the fair city from the likes of super-villainy. We are also led to believe that the five fore-mentioned instances of super-villainy are the only ones to have occurred. I may be jumping to conclusions here, but this is what I have drawn from what I have seen in those movies.
Now, as I said earlier, the one thing all these villains share is their relationship to Peter Parker. In Spider-man, the Green Goblin, a.k.a. Norman Osborn, is the father of Peter's best friend. This by itself was believable, seeing as Mr. Osborn is in charge of a large scientific company that is doing all kinds of crazy experiments to try and make a super-soldier. When you watched it, you were all like "Oh, that is believable." And then you threw up when you saw the Mighty Morphin' Goblin Ranger zooming around on his glider.
In Spider-man 2 we are introduced to Otto Octavius, who eventually becomes the villainous Doctor Octopus. Peter happens to be doing a term paper on Octavius. Peter's best friend happens to be the head of a mega-corporation that is sponsoring Octavius' newest scientific venture, which happens to be taking place in New York. You overlook all these coincidences because the rest of the movie is superb and it all flows smoothly, but the fact that Peter was able to meet Octavius just before the accident and actually BE THERE while it occurred is mighty lucky of him. Not to mention the fact that the ONLY two people Spider-man fails to save are Octavius and his wife. Ah well, I enjoyed myself, Molina was a good Ock, so it's fine.
And then we have Spider-man 3. Here is the big one. 3 villains all stuffed into one adorable, emo little package. "New Goblin" is Peter's best friend. This makes sense to us because it has been building since the first film and so it is actually expected. At first Flint Marco seems like he'll be a solid villain who is just out to do what he is out to do, but it turns out he accidentally killed Spider-man's uncle. Oops. And Venom. Erm. Yeah, Eddie Brock worked with Peter for a short time. That, however, is not the biggest convenient coincident. The symbiote, housed in a meteor, happens to crash right next to the only super-powered being on the planet. I can understand why it is attracted to him once it is there, but anybody who has a basic understanding of probability knows that this happenstance is virtually impossible.
The big mistake all the Spider-man movies up to now have made? ALL of the super-villains are intimately connected with ONE person, who also JUST SO HAPPENS to be the only super-hero on the planet. I understand why this was done in the movies, it adds quite an element of drama into the story and a healthy dose of a multi-layered conflict between the two characters. However, for me and perhaps anybody else who may have noticed, it really starts to edge over the line of suspension of disbelief. I am happy to see all of these characters on the big screen, even if they are not reaching their full potential, but let's stop and think for a moment on all the villains that DON'T have a personal connection to Peter. Yep, you guessed it. Pretty much all of them.
The Lizard is the villain in the upcoming "The Amazing Spider-man". His personal connections to Peter are quite obvious in the comic books, but we cannot say for sure how the movie will portray a relationship, if any. I only hope that in the future installments of the franchise, the writers, directors...whoever the heck is in charge, doesn't pull all of this same stuff. Sandman didn't have to kill Uncle Ben to amp up the drama. Not to mention, Harry doesn't have the education or experience to run OsCorp effectively.