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seriousficI'm taking a cue from Cracked in trying to write freakishly enticing article titles. But I'm serious, if these ideas were followed, they would have actually saved money and resulted in a better movie.
One of the big problems surrounding Spider-Man 3 was that for a story revolving around revenge and forgiveness, it had four whole characters all expressing almost the same point: Peter wants revenge for Uncle Ben, Harry wants revenge for his father, Sandman ends up wanting revenge for... I guess his daughter died because Peter stopped him from robbing banks which would've let him pay for a cure to be developed for a disease in a matter of days? Or something? Even Eddie wanted revenge on Peter. With the final lesson being that villains can be nice people too. You'd think Peter would've learned that after the last two villains he fought turned out to be sympathetic. And Eddie was unrepentantly evil, so I guess he should've unlearned that lesson instead of... relearning it?
Also, the way the film chose to get Peter to a place where he wanted revenge was to invoke Uncle Ben's murder, which came off as contrived. So, some other options.
1. Flint Marko was responsible for the deaths of Peter's biological parents. It's true the audience isn't as invested in them as Uncle Ben, but a quick flashback could at least make you sympathize with Peter's feelings of loss and anger (if that's too much to ask, have an emotional scene of him visiting their graves). And if it's too contrived that Peter would lose three members of his family to violent crime (it is), say Marko was a drunk driver, arsonist, or some such.
2. Have Harry attack MJ to get to Peter. Instead of an annoying subplot about Peter and Mary-Jane having drama, then MJ getting kidnapped at the end like always, Harry goes for MJ right off the bat. Don't fridge her; that would make Harry too unsympathetic. But if she were traumatized or severely injured, even unintentionally (Harry goes to confront MJ, accidentally freaks out when he's with her), then we have a vengeful Peter and no reset button hit on their relationship. Plus, we can have the subtext that with MJ out of commission, Peter is a worse man, thematically selling the audience on the importance of their relationship. When MJ wakes up, she forgives Harry and encourages Peter to work it out peacefully.
3. Harry creates Sandman. Just to get away from the "nice guy gets zapped by wacky science experiment" origin, have Harry create his own pet supervillain (possibly choosing Flint because of his connection to Peter, see point one. That makes more sense than someone Peter hates randomly getting superpowers, right?). Harry orders Sandman to kill Spider-Man, Sandman turns out to be a Spidey fan and balks, trying to simply rob banks to get money for his daughter's treatment (originally, Harry offered to use Oscorp resources to find a cure). So ironically, Sandman is more noble than the vengeful Spider-Man, as he just needs the money for his daughter. Which is the point Raimi was going for. Also, it seems like a logical progression for rich bitch Harry to try sending someone else to do his dirty work before trying a weird chemical on himself to get superpowers.
4. Have Mary-Jane tell Harry how Norman Osborn died. Harry won't listen to Peter, but MJ is a third party. She can convince him in a big "Acting!" moment for everyone involved. She could even have been trying to tell him this earlier when he freaked out and hurt her, making him more inclined to listen to her now, also strengthening the theme. MJ's forgiveness of Harry leads to Harry's forgiveness of Peter, which saves the day. This also gives Mary-Jane a nicely feminist "hero moment" without some dumb Michael Bay moment of her grabbing a shotgun and going to town.
5. Kill Sandman's daughter. After she passes away, possibly at the hands of a desperate Harry, Sandman finally gives into vengeance, turns into a kaiju monster, and goes after Spider-Man. Only with Harry's help can Peter defeat him. Harry dies saving Peter, redeeming himself, and Sandman gives up after an impassioned plea from Peter, leading to the 'dust in the wind' ending. We see the lesson that Peter learned, that vengeance doesn't solve anything, and see how he applies it in not seeking revenge for Harry's death. Theme!
6. Simplify the symbiote. Have Professor Connors be studying the symbiote, for whatever reason, when Peter happens by the lab. The symbiote notices Peter's a superhuman and escapes to bond with him. Much less random than a meteor landing. The symbiote in this scenario can be a science experiment Connors is giving an opinion on or an alien lifeform he's been sent (say, a sample from a NASA probe that no one knows is alive until Peter walks in). Peter gets rid of the symbiote--and that's it. The general audience think the church bell killed it, while comic book fans know that as soon as Eddie walks into a confessional, it's back on. Just have a shot of it flowing into a crack in the stone, seemingly dead. Then the next movie can spend the first act on Eddie's grievances with Peter before he goes to the church and gets slimed. We can also quickly turn it into a buddy movie, with Peter applying the lesson of forgiveness he learned in this movie to team up with Venom and go after Carnage.
7. Have Kaiju!Sandman attack the Daily Bugle. This is just a thought, but instead of having MJ in danger for the umpteenth time, have the Sandman rampaging through the city, attacking the Daily Bugle. The audience cares about the characters there just as much as MJ, and it would be really fun to have J. Jonah Jameson as a damsel in distress.
8. Have Harry responsible for Peter's fall from grace. Okay, so it is an organic progression that after two movies, New York has learned to trust Spider-Man and made him a hero, and Peter can get a big head from this (although what this has to do with the theme of him being vengeful I don't know. Maybe the symbiote feeds on general bad behavior, like leaving the caps off toothpaste?). This should still tie into the plot. Have Harry run a smear campaign which takes away Peter's beloved fame, making him more angry and vengeful. Harry should be coming at Peter from all sides!
9. Eliminate Gwen Stacy's character. What's the point of introducing this character two movies after the Green Goblin? So she can be killed off in a different circumstance, only now she isn't even the woman Peter loves, but just a good friend? If you're going to do a temptation subplot, use Black Cat. That's actually an easier sell--Gwen wouldn't go after Peter when he's with MJ, but Black Cat wouldn't know that Spider-Man's in a relationship. Hence, Black Cat hitting on him is more sympathetic than Gwen hitting on him. Not that Felicia should show up in this movie; we're still playing with Peter's fear of losing MJ.
So it goes A. Peter wants MJ, but can't have her. B. Peter wants MJ, gets her. C. Peter has MJ and their relationship is still in the "first blush" cutie stage, then he almost loses her. D. (Spider-Man 4, if it ever gets made) Peter and MJ have been together long enough for problems to develop in their relationship.
That's much better than Peter and MJ getting together, then immediately being at loggerheads, wouldn't you say?
10. No amnesia storyline. This is a really blunt way to get Harry out of commission while the movie does other things (see: Sandman spending half an hour in a drainage pipe). If you're not going to deal with Green Goblin just yet, have him play possum to lure Peter into a false sense of security. Or just have him struggling with the decision to go after Peter until the plot's ready. More thematic material--Harry tries to forgive Peter, but can't, which is the beginning of the end for him.
One of the big problems surrounding Spider-Man 3 was that for a story revolving around revenge and forgiveness, it had four whole characters all expressing almost the same point: Peter wants revenge for Uncle Ben, Harry wants revenge for his father, Sandman ends up wanting revenge for... I guess his daughter died because Peter stopped him from robbing banks which would've let him pay for a cure to be developed for a disease in a matter of days? Or something? Even Eddie wanted revenge on Peter. With the final lesson being that villains can be nice people too. You'd think Peter would've learned that after the last two villains he fought turned out to be sympathetic. And Eddie was unrepentantly evil, so I guess he should've unlearned that lesson instead of... relearning it?
Also, the way the film chose to get Peter to a place where he wanted revenge was to invoke Uncle Ben's murder, which came off as contrived. So, some other options.
1. Flint Marko was responsible for the deaths of Peter's biological parents. It's true the audience isn't as invested in them as Uncle Ben, but a quick flashback could at least make you sympathize with Peter's feelings of loss and anger (if that's too much to ask, have an emotional scene of him visiting their graves). And if it's too contrived that Peter would lose three members of his family to violent crime (it is), say Marko was a drunk driver, arsonist, or some such.
2. Have Harry attack MJ to get to Peter. Instead of an annoying subplot about Peter and Mary-Jane having drama, then MJ getting kidnapped at the end like always, Harry goes for MJ right off the bat. Don't fridge her; that would make Harry too unsympathetic. But if she were traumatized or severely injured, even unintentionally (Harry goes to confront MJ, accidentally freaks out when he's with her), then we have a vengeful Peter and no reset button hit on their relationship. Plus, we can have the subtext that with MJ out of commission, Peter is a worse man, thematically selling the audience on the importance of their relationship. When MJ wakes up, she forgives Harry and encourages Peter to work it out peacefully.
3. Harry creates Sandman. Just to get away from the "nice guy gets zapped by wacky science experiment" origin, have Harry create his own pet supervillain (possibly choosing Flint because of his connection to Peter, see point one. That makes more sense than someone Peter hates randomly getting superpowers, right?). Harry orders Sandman to kill Spider-Man, Sandman turns out to be a Spidey fan and balks, trying to simply rob banks to get money for his daughter's treatment (originally, Harry offered to use Oscorp resources to find a cure). So ironically, Sandman is more noble than the vengeful Spider-Man, as he just needs the money for his daughter. Which is the point Raimi was going for. Also, it seems like a logical progression for rich bitch Harry to try sending someone else to do his dirty work before trying a weird chemical on himself to get superpowers.
4. Have Mary-Jane tell Harry how Norman Osborn died. Harry won't listen to Peter, but MJ is a third party. She can convince him in a big "Acting!" moment for everyone involved. She could even have been trying to tell him this earlier when he freaked out and hurt her, making him more inclined to listen to her now, also strengthening the theme. MJ's forgiveness of Harry leads to Harry's forgiveness of Peter, which saves the day. This also gives Mary-Jane a nicely feminist "hero moment" without some dumb Michael Bay moment of her grabbing a shotgun and going to town.
5. Kill Sandman's daughter. After she passes away, possibly at the hands of a desperate Harry, Sandman finally gives into vengeance, turns into a kaiju monster, and goes after Spider-Man. Only with Harry's help can Peter defeat him. Harry dies saving Peter, redeeming himself, and Sandman gives up after an impassioned plea from Peter, leading to the 'dust in the wind' ending. We see the lesson that Peter learned, that vengeance doesn't solve anything, and see how he applies it in not seeking revenge for Harry's death. Theme!
6. Simplify the symbiote. Have Professor Connors be studying the symbiote, for whatever reason, when Peter happens by the lab. The symbiote notices Peter's a superhuman and escapes to bond with him. Much less random than a meteor landing. The symbiote in this scenario can be a science experiment Connors is giving an opinion on or an alien lifeform he's been sent (say, a sample from a NASA probe that no one knows is alive until Peter walks in). Peter gets rid of the symbiote--and that's it. The general audience think the church bell killed it, while comic book fans know that as soon as Eddie walks into a confessional, it's back on. Just have a shot of it flowing into a crack in the stone, seemingly dead. Then the next movie can spend the first act on Eddie's grievances with Peter before he goes to the church and gets slimed. We can also quickly turn it into a buddy movie, with Peter applying the lesson of forgiveness he learned in this movie to team up with Venom and go after Carnage.
7. Have Kaiju!Sandman attack the Daily Bugle. This is just a thought, but instead of having MJ in danger for the umpteenth time, have the Sandman rampaging through the city, attacking the Daily Bugle. The audience cares about the characters there just as much as MJ, and it would be really fun to have J. Jonah Jameson as a damsel in distress.
8. Have Harry responsible for Peter's fall from grace. Okay, so it is an organic progression that after two movies, New York has learned to trust Spider-Man and made him a hero, and Peter can get a big head from this (although what this has to do with the theme of him being vengeful I don't know. Maybe the symbiote feeds on general bad behavior, like leaving the caps off toothpaste?). This should still tie into the plot. Have Harry run a smear campaign which takes away Peter's beloved fame, making him more angry and vengeful. Harry should be coming at Peter from all sides!
9. Eliminate Gwen Stacy's character. What's the point of introducing this character two movies after the Green Goblin? So she can be killed off in a different circumstance, only now she isn't even the woman Peter loves, but just a good friend? If you're going to do a temptation subplot, use Black Cat. That's actually an easier sell--Gwen wouldn't go after Peter when he's with MJ, but Black Cat wouldn't know that Spider-Man's in a relationship. Hence, Black Cat hitting on him is more sympathetic than Gwen hitting on him. Not that Felicia should show up in this movie; we're still playing with Peter's fear of losing MJ.
So it goes A. Peter wants MJ, but can't have her. B. Peter wants MJ, gets her. C. Peter has MJ and their relationship is still in the "first blush" cutie stage, then he almost loses her. D. (Spider-Man 4, if it ever gets made) Peter and MJ have been together long enough for problems to develop in their relationship.
That's much better than Peter and MJ getting together, then immediately being at loggerheads, wouldn't you say?
10. No amnesia storyline. This is a really blunt way to get Harry out of commission while the movie does other things (see: Sandman spending half an hour in a drainage pipe). If you're not going to deal with Green Goblin just yet, have him play possum to lure Peter into a false sense of security. Or just have him struggling with the decision to go after Peter until the plot's ready. More thematic material--Harry tries to forgive Peter, but can't, which is the beginning of the end for him.
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Date: 2011-10-13 01:52 pm (UTC)