Forget VENOM! Here Are All The Other Times Sony Screwed Up SPIDER-MAN And The SPIDER-VERSE
Venom is being panned by those who saw it at last night's premiere but if you think dropping the ball with that movie is Sony's worst error, guess again. Hit the jump for a recap of their biggest blunders.
Earlier today, we learned that Venom, well, sucks. While we haven't seen the full reviews yet, reactions on Twitter have been abysmal and all the signs are pointing to Sony Pictures screwing up this fan-favourite character for the second time. However, I think it's fair to say that none of us should be surprised because the studio is responsible for a lot of major blunders in its so-called "Spider-Verse."
Over the past decade or so, Sony has dropped the ball on characters, creative decisions, and entire movies. While Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 were hard to fault, it was all downhill from 2007's Spider-Man 3 and the future even looks bleak for the characters who inhabit the wall-crawler's world. Should Peter Parker be taken out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who knows what will become of him!
Here, you'll find an in-depth look back at the many times Sony has screwed things up in Spider-Man's world and to check out this entire list, all you guys have to do is click on the "View List" button below.
The Not So Sinister Six
Sony was determined to rush Sinister Six into production even if that meant scrapping their origin stories and revealing that Norman Osborn was responsible for the creation of their weaponry. They probably thought that this tease was exciting but why should we care about Doctor Octopus when he would probably have ended up being just a random guy given these extra arms by The Man in the Hat?
Proving just how clueless the studio was, one preview for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 revealed that the Venom symbiote was supposed to be among these hidden "weapons" but that was later removed for reasons which have never been made clear. This villainous team should have been assembled slowly but Sony wanted to rush it out by 2016 before even The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was set to be released.
Electro's New Look
Honestly, what was the thought process that went into this monstrosity? While there's precedent in the comic books and animated TV shows for Electro being made entirely of electricity, he's never had bright blue skin and putting Jamie Foxx in this hideous make-up only served to hinder his performance. Unfortunately, that ended up being terrible anyway because all he did was spout off awful cheesy one-liners.
Comparisons were made to Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin and they were undeniably appropriate because the excitement surrounding Foxx playing this powerful villain disappeared the second we saw him in action. The classic yellow and green suit would have looked a great deal better.
Oh, And The Lizard's New Look Too
Honestly, what was the thought process that went into this monstrosity? Wait, am I repeating myself? The Lizard was another major disappointment when he appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man. While Marc Webb clearly took inspiration from his earliest comic book appearances and that high school battle was pretty spectacular, the villain still looked completely and utterly awful.
When the first footage was shown at Comic-Con, fans spent months debating whether or not The Lizard had a snout and, well, he ultimately did not. That meant he was able to talk but stopped him from looking remotely fierce and Sony dropped the ball on this beloved bad guy in an unforgivable way.
Avi Arad's Venom Obsession
Venom has always been one of my favourite comic book villains, so I fully understand producer Avi Arad's desire to bring the character to the big screen. Why he thought it would be a good idea to force Sam Raimi to include Eddie Brock in Spider-Man 3 is hard to say, though, and both the director and Arad himself have since admitted that the threequel's failings were a result of Venom being crammed in.
For someone who claims to love Venom so much, it's amazing that Arad doesn't seem to understand what makes the character tick and he's continued to push for a standalone adventure for the past decade. That's despite the fact that Venom without Spider-Man is a massive mistake.
Spider-Man: Skater Boy/Creepy Stalker Dude
Infuriatingly, Sony's characterisation of Spider-Man only worsened in The Amazing Spider-Man movies. While Spider-Man 3 was an epic fail in terms of how it dealt with the symbiote's influence on Peter Parker, the new version we met in 2012 was a hipster skater who listened to Coldplay and was actually one of the cool kids in school rather than the unpopular geek that was easy to relate to from the comics.
Things took a turn for the worse in the sequel when Spidey decided to start tracking Gwen Stacy around the city like some sort of creep rather than, you know, fighting crime and being a superhero.
Green Goblin x 2
Say what you will about the costume he wore in Spider-Man but Sam Raimi's Green Goblin was nothing short of fantastic. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there as the version we saw in Spider-Man 3 was a total letdown (especially after the way Harry Osborn's story arc played out in Spider-Man 2), while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 made things even worse with another awful take on Harry Osborn.
This time, he became the Green Goblin before his father and was half mutant/half costumed villain and 100% total goon. How anyone at Sony could have looked at the comic books and thought that would be a fitting look for the character is impossible to say and it's no wonder Dane DeHaan has pretty much faded into obscurity since. Alas, he's another great villain sadly ruined by this incompetent studio.
Uncle Ben's Killer? Sandman, Of Course!
There's nothing wrong with making changes to the source material; Marvel Studios does it all the time. However, Sony took things a step too far in Spider-Man 3 when we learned that Uncle Ben wasn't actually gunned down by the robber Peter Parker allowed to get away in the first movie. Instead, the Sandman was the one who murdered him in what had to be one of the most idiotic and convoluted twists to ever grace the big screen. This also pretty much made the wall-crawler's origin worthless.
Everyone Gets A Spinoff
While Sony deserves credit for allowing Marvel Studios to take control of Spider-Man for a while, they clearly aren't happy with the money they're making from those movies because the green light is now being given to any and every spinoff you can imagine. Morbius the Living Vampire is up next, while Silver & Black fell apart and is now going to be two standalone movies...or so the studio says.
This is no great surprise as Sony has been trying to do this since The Amazing Spider-Man days. Remember when they were plotting an Aunt May movie which would have made her a secret agent?
The Untold Story...Remains Untold
One of The Amazing Spider-Man's biggest selling points was that it would tell "The Untold Story" about the wall-crawler's origin. While hints of that ended up in the movie, extensive reshoots removed most of it either because it all ended up being nonsensical or because Sony simply wimped out. The latter possibility would explain why this reboot felt like a carbon copy of Spider-Man in many ways!
Regardless, it's thought that the original plan was for it to be revealed that Peter Parker had his spider powers since he was a child and that his parents experimented on him somehow, and there was supposed to be some sort of big mystery surrounding their whereabouts. What a dumb idea, though!
Avi Arad And Matt Tolmach Are Still Employed
Despite realising that The Amazing Spider-Man franchise was the wrong direction to take the character in (mostly due to the baffling creative decisions made by producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach), Sony Pictures has still seen fit to leave these two buffoons in charge of the rest of the wall-crawler's world. Kevin Feige wants them nowhere near the wall-crawler and after screwing up the Venom movie, it appears as if Morbius and a host of other character are next on their hit list. This is truly baffling.
The Death Of Gwen Stacy
I know some of you guys were happy with how this was handled but I don't think it's at all unfair to say that Sony dropped the ball on one of the most touching and memorable moments in comic book history in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. There was nothing special about the way Gwen was killed off here and it was just a total waste of Emma Stone, an actress who was actually mishandled in both of these movies. On the plus side, though, she was set to return. Wait, did we just say "plus" side?
The Amazing Spider-Man 3
Right, good luck getting your head around this. Not a huge amount is known about The Amazing Spider-Man 3 but what we do know is that a number of Peter Parker's loved ones would have been resurrected, while the decapitated head of Norman Osborn (which was understandably cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2) would have somehow resulted in him being transformed into a Goblin.
Gwen Stacy, meanwhile, was scheduled to return as Carnage in a plot point lifted from the Ultimate line of comic books that didn't work there and certainly wouldn't have been improved upon in this threequel. It's not hard to see why this didn't happen but it's almost as if Sony wanted to kill any and all interest in Spider-Man, so thank goodness some execs saw sense and reached out to Marvel Studios.
And WTF Was The Deal With Spider-Man 4?
If Sony was a person, it would be an old man slowly losing his mind. That's the only way to explain Spider-Man's fall from grace after Spider-Man 2, one of the best superhero movies of all-time. While Spider-Man 3 was bad enough, the planned fourth instalment would have introduced The Vulture and Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. Black Cat. So far, so good, right? Well, this Felicia would have become "The Vulturess." That baffling change aside, the movie fell apart because Arad wanted to cram Lizard in.
Scrapping Those POV Scenes
The teaser trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man was extremely unique as it took place from the point of view of Spider-Man. Bear in mind that 3D movies were still quite popular back in 2012 and Marc Webb talked frequently about including POV scenes in the movie in what was clearly a bold move to differentiate this reboot from what had come before while also putting us in Spider-Man's shoes.
Sadly, these ended up being scrapped for reasons which have never been made clear and that's a shame because it would have made this otherwise average Spider-Man movie something worth getting excited about. Sony wasn't looking to break the mould and was happy with delivering mediocrity.
Venom Too, Apparently
I know what the headline says but how can we really forget Venom? While it was pretty obvious from that first teaser trailer that the movie wouldn't be any good, there's really no reason why it couldn't be at least somewhat decent even without Spider-Man around. Instead, Sony has taken the character in a bizarre direction which is already earning the scorn of critics and likely kills the chance of a sequel.
What's really infuriating is that the movie doesn't revolve around Venom doing battle with Carnage; even if this movie had been a one-off, it would have been fun seeing that battle in live-action but Sony instead decided to hold off for a sequel that's now unlikely to ever happen. But hey, at least we get to see Eddie Brock squaring off with, uh, Riot? There's really no excuse for a screw up this massive.