THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: Gets an Incomplete?

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

TASM is “partially” the Spider-Man movie I’ve been waiting for since the Raimi trilogy folded, but it is not an unflawed film by any means.  It feels “Incomplete”... to say the least.  I have disliked the Raimi films since their inception (But, I give Spider-Man 2 a pass.) because of their manufactured reality that mimicked  the Burton Batman films right down to the overpowering theme song and also because of the schulby nature of Parker throughout the series.

 

 

Andrew Garfield is the right choice as Peter Parker and he owns the movie from the moment he shows up in the reflection of a trophy cabinet at midtown high.  I like Mark Webb’s emphasis on Parker’s intelligence as well as the effort to make him more relatable to a modern audience.  Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy also perfectly anchors the movie keeping it from descending into complete mediocrity with her balanced, measured performance that perfectly meshes with Garfield’s own. One thing I’m particularly happy about is that we didin’t have to watch Stone getting kidnapped by the villain forcing the hero to save her repeatedly time and time again. These two actors (Their personal relationship not-withstanding) have the ingredients to make for an interesting series of films based on chemistry alone.

 

 

 

Rhys Ifans  is sadly given little to do as Curt Connors (a.k.a The Lizard) other than perform a “Paint-by the-Numbers” mad scientist role.  It is with Ifans that I believe the filmmakers were the laziest in terms of character development.  The scientist has a missing arm that he longs to regrow … and that’s just about it (For his human half anyway.).  The Lizard actually weakens the movie considerably. Even the design of this creature is lazy and uninspired. I feel that perhaps a Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Stan Winston or even KNB should have been retained to realize the character. The CGI used to realize the “villain” cause an immediate disconnect once it pops up on the screen.

 

 

Don’t believe me? Watch the Lizard’s rampage at Parkers high school and tell me the movie doesn’t change tone when he appears walking around that hallway corner twelve feet high. It feels like a cheap version of a Harryhausen film.

From looking at the Lizard footage, I believe the movie would have been serviced better if the bulk of its plot would have focused on Peter’s efforts to locate and bring his Uncle’s killer to justice with the Lizard element surfacing in the last third of the film as an off kilter abject lesson on the dark side of Peter’s gift. A similar device was used in an equally flawed, but just as entertaining film called the Incredible Hulk when Bruce Banner finally meets a fellow scientist (Samuel Sterns / The Leader) who has irresponsibly cloned his gamma irradiated blood. This scientist is accidentally exposed to a portion of it and is mutated into an alien looking creature (Geek term: SIX FINGER / OUTER LIMITS) for his troubles.

 

 

I would have like to see a little more “Seth Brundel” in my Curt Connors than another stock portrayal of a mad scientist. Connors had a family that also served to anchor him to his humanity. This element is missing from the film and the overall product suffers for it.  Marvel comics characters have often been referred to as “cheesy” by other reviewers …that could be true in some instances, but Spider-Man has one of the best rouge’s galleries in comics aside from DC’s Batman.  Webb should have given Connors a little more thought, in this film The Lizard feels kind of included as a studio mandate.

 

The supporting characters in TASM are a mixed bag as well. Martin Sheen is more than likable giving the character of Uncle Ben a more grounded portrayal and makes him more than the one note “red shirt” Cliff Robertson portrayed. His relationship with Sally Field’s Aunt May feels natural and real.  Honestly whenever I saw the version of this couple from Raimi’s trilogy, I heard violins playing.

 

Dennis Leary isn’t done any favors either by Mark Webb’s shooting script and is just given the thankless job of the “misguided cop that’s out to stop the hero” routine that’s been around in cinema since the 50’s. Leary doesn’t really feel like Gwen’s dad and I was hoping that he would be allowed one of his signature rants during the picture’s running time. Nope, sadly Leary is introduced and killed off in a single film making his casting feel like a wasted opportunity.

 

 

I understand the film’s Batman’s Begins type ethos and I just would have preferred that Webb take the real world esthetic further by making this Spiderman more urban, rawer and definitely more …”New York”.  I wasn’t particularly fond of the score for this film as it was more hit than miss … I would have preferred "Serenata” by Atomic Mix Lab,” Rise of a Hero” by Sonic Symphony and definitely “Aurora” by Mark Petrie as a signature theme. Sony should have just coughed up the money on that last one. Famous producer Jerry Bruckheimer once commented that including the song Gangstas Paradise with the snooze fest that was Dangerous Minds drove up that movie’s profits. Basically James Horner’s soundtrack feels like a temp track and leaves the film with this “incomplete” aura.

The movie is entertaining, but it just feels like something is missing. Based on the strength of Garfield and Stone’s performance and chemistry, Sheens heart and this more faithful interpretation of the web slinger… I’d give the film 3 Stars.

But the poorly conceived Kurt Connors / Lizard, tragic misuse of Dennis Leary and the forced ending knocks this movie down to 2.75 Stars.

I would say better luck next time but reports and photos from the set of the sequel have been less than stellar.

More on that later in another article.

 

Shadowgeek 2013.

HAIL TO THE KING: Jack Kirby, an Appreciation

BIGGER than LIFE .... That's how I'd describe the creative contributions of one Jacob Kurtzenberg also know as JACK KIRBY. We must not forget what he meant to the the medium, what he meant to the business ... how his influence survives to this day. Jack Kirby, a modern day bard ... Story teller sophisticate.

Jack Kirby sometimes just doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves. On of the reasons I created this fansite is that I’d had my comments deleted on more than one occasion by AICN (Aint It Cool News) and SUPERHEROHYPE.com … Regarding the later was a paticular comment I posted in response to a number of uninformed trolls ripping the Kirby Estate for suing Marvel Comics and parties involved.


I don’t know who these faceless people were but I was alarmed that the lack of knowledge about what Kirby means to the modern CBM & a good chuck of pop culture was being missed.




His name may not be familiar with people outside of BABY Boomers to Generation Xers … Some people don’t realize his art, his story telling voice and his blue collar lineage revolutionized the medium. Kirby was always about the “story”. Everything he illustrated was in service of advancing the narrative. Unlike today, if you saw a BIG FLASY SPLASH PAGE …it was meant to convey a sense of the fantastic, meant to be BIGGER than LIFE.

 

Kirby didn’t have the “self promotional” skills or moxie of STAN LEE (Who married into Timely Comics which would later become MARVEL.). Jack was a literal meat-in-potatoes type worker who could crank out twenty-four pages after being given a three line narrative.

 

JACK KIRBY is the FATHER of the MODERN

COMIC BOOK.



Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994), born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor. Growing up poor in New York City, Kurtzberg entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s. He drew various comic strips under different pen names, ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1941, Kirby and writer Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics. During the 1940s, Kirby would create a number of comics for various publishers, often teaming with Simon.

 

After serving in World War II, Kirby returned to comics and worked in a variety of genres. He contributed to a number of publishers, including Archie Comics and DC Comics, but ultimately found himself at Timely's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, later to be known as Marvel Comics. In the 1960s, Kirby co-created many of Marvel Comics' major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk, along with writer-editor Stan Lee. Despite the high sales and critical acclaim of the Lee-Kirby titles, Kirby felt treated unfairly, and left the company in 1970 for rival DC Comics.

While working for DC, Kirby created his Fourth World saga, which spanned several comics titles. While these and other titles proved commercially unsuccessful and were canceled, several of their characters and the Fourth World mythos have continued as a significant part of the DC Comics universe.

Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured into television animation and independent comics. In his later years, Kirby received great recognition for his career accomplishments, and is regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium.

 Highlights other than the Fantastic Four include: Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, the original X-Men, the Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom, Galactus, Uatu the Watcher, Magneto, Ego the Living Planet, the Inhumans and their hidden city of Attilan, and the Black Panther — comics' first known black superhero — and his African nation of Wakanda. Simon and Kirby's Captain America was also incorporated into Marvel's continuity with Kirby approving Lee's idea of partially remaking the character as a man out of his time and regretting the death of his sidekick.

 

THE RETURN of CAPTAIN AMERICA

 

 Kirby continued to expand the medium's boundaries, devising photo-collage covers and interiors, developing new drawing techniques such as the method for depicting energy fields now known as "Kirby Dots", and other experiments.Yet he grew increasingly dissatisfied with working at Marvel. There have been a number of reasons given for this dissatisfaction, including resentment over Stan Lee's increasing media prominence, a lack of full creative control, anger over breaches of perceived promises by publisher Martin Goodman, and frustration over Marvel's failure to credit him specifically for his story plotting and for his character creations and co-creations.
He began to both script and draw some secondary features for Marvel, such as "The Inhumans" in Amazing Adventures and horror stories for the anthology title Chamber of Darkness, and received full credit for doing so; but he eventually left the company in 1970 for rival DC Comics, under editorial director Carmine Infantino.

In 1979, dissatisfied with Marvel's treatment of him, and with the company's refusal to provide health and other employment benefits, Kirby left Marvel to work in animation. In that field, he did designs for Turbo Teen, Thundarr the Barbarian and other animated television series. He also worked on The Fantastic Four cartoon show, reuniting him with scriptwriter Stan Lee.

 

In 1987, Kirby, along with Carl Barks and Will Eisner, was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

. . . Jack was the single most influential figure in the turnaround in Marvel's fortunes from the time he rejoined the company ... It wasn't merely that Jack conceived most of the characters that are being done, but ... Jack's point of view and philosophy of drawing became the governing philosophy of the entire publishing company and, beyond the publishing company, of the entire field ... [Marvel took] Jack and use[d] him as a primer. They would get artists ... and they taught them the ABCs, which amounted to learning Jack Kirby. ... Jack was like the Holy Scripture and they simply had to follow him without deviation. That's what was told to me ... It was how they taught everyone to reconcile all those opposing attitudes to one single master point of view.

Quote: Gil Kane (Re: Jack Kirby)

For almost a decade, Kirby provided Marvel's house style, co-creating with Stan Lee many of the Marvel characters and designing their visual motifs. At Lee's request, he often provided new-to-Marvel artists "breakdown" layouts, over which they would pencil in order to become acquainted with the Marvel look.

Kirby... created a new grammar of storytelling and a cinematic style of motion. Once-wooden characters cascaded from one frame to another — or even from page to page — threatening to fall right out of the book into the reader's lap. The force of punches thrown was visibly and explosively evident. Even at rest, a Kirby character pulsed with tension and energy in a way that makes movie versions of the same characters seem static by comparison.

    Op-ed piece (New York Times on Kirby’s Death)"

"I want to acknowledge the deep debt I owe in this and everything else I've ever written to the work of the late Jack Kirby, the King of Comics.
Michael Chabon, (After word to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.)

 

 

Jacob Kurtzberg ( Jack Kirby)
(August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994)

!! DEDICATED TO THE KING!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When did it become a CRIME to be a FANBOY ?

I grew up during the very late seventies throughout the eighties and I for one consider myself lucky and a better fanboy for it. During those early times I was taken by my parents to see JAWS, STAR WARS, KING KONG, and ISLAND of DR.MOREAU (with Burt Lancaster & Peter York), SUSPIRIA and for me the POP CULTURE ICON, well for me anyway …. SUPERMAN the MOVIE.

Those were REALLY GREAT times to be a kid (I still remember my cousin having a door sized poster of Superman taped to his wall. With the advent of EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and SUPERMAN 2, the studios really began their big although plodding at the time; March towards making COMIC BOOK MOVIES a modus operates. These movies Big Cash Cows for Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox changed the way things were done and SUMMER became the official time of the POPCORN MOVIE.

During the eighties there were more than a few missteps with FLASH GORDON, SUPERMAN 3 & 4 and probably most infamous of that era … “HOWARD the DUCK”. You know something funny; fanboys still went out and watched these films, still filled enough seats to give them some kind of profit (Who do you really think were filling the seats for Howard the Duck, soccer moms?). Case in point is that we have always done our part to support these films in one way or another (at the theatre or home rentals).

Well …

Somewhere along the line between the mid to late nineties and today… things have changed drastically. Most could probably look to AICN as the progenitor of FANBOY mainstream culture. Harry with his many behind the scenes scoops and internet leaks of script details drove the suits to distraction. My favorite all time post on Harry’s site regarded the upcoming X-Men movie at the time and was titled something to the effect of: “When it Rains, It Pours”.

Harry had what studios later claimed to be a pic of Hugh Jackman’s stunt double in a black, pleather looking costume was the epitome of bland bastardization. I really feel like that post was Harry’s finest moment. I credit that post with making industry standard statements made by actors/ actresses to the effect of “THIS IS TRUE TO THE SPIRIT OF THE MATERIAL” (even if it’s not).

Harry was so good at what he did, so good at being a human virus that he made the studios sit up and take notice. Some have even accused him of accepting so much swag that he has effectively become a studio shill, so to speak. Legions of fanboys and girls have been given license to voice their disgruntled nature in ill numerable comments sections across the world.

This also has opened a veritable PANDORAS BOX of CEASE and DESIST letters and an unknown number of GAG ORDERS regarding these CB movies. Currently the summer of 2010 has got to be one of the most miserable movie going summers I’ve experienced in a long time. There just wasn’t a lot to do in regards to the movies. IRON MAN II, I felt dropped the ball for being too full of itself (and not in a good way). I’ve read numerous retorts from actors, directors and producers at the rabid nature of the fanboys re: whichever property they’re adapting to the big screen. I’ve grown tired of reading comments from studio heads about changing the nature of comic book properties for the big screen.

I think most people are smart enough to realize that it’s generally a mixed bag when you are going into the CB movie business.

It’s just that HONESTLY…you REALLY get TIRED of hearing this spiel from studio heads that more likely than not have no CREATIVE IMAGINATION whatsoever. Some guy’s that is a Business an Economic major’s REALLY gonna TELL a DIEHARD FAN that it’s actually better if their FAVORITE comic book character wears a black leather jerkin?

Fanboys are just trying to say one BASIC THING… we now live in an age where it is literally possible to put anything up on the BIG SCREEN.

When you purchased the intellectual property for a lot of these films, did you really feel they needed to be fixed? Kind of like buying an Edsol huh?


People are passionate about things that they LOVE.

A lot of FANBOYS ... REALLY LOVE COMIC BOOK MOVIES DONE RIGHT!!

Before I go back into the shadows, I’d just like to leave all of you studio heads, actors, producers and suits one little tidbit.


“WHEN COMIC BOOK MOVIES ARE DONE RIGHT, THEN AND ONLY THEN DO THEY CROSS CULTURE AND APPEAL TO THE MAINSTREAM PUBLIC.”

…you want the dolla, dolla bill yall …. Follow this CAN’T LOSE mantra.

SHADOWGEEK10
August 14,2010




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