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May. 5th, 2014 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficI probably shouldn’t try to rewrite the plot to Amazing Spider-Man 2, since it doesn’t really HAVE a plot, just stuff that happens. You could take Electro out of the movie entirely and it wouldn’t affect the story in any way whatsoever. Really. Try it. But anyway, I’ll give this the old college go. It’s like seeing a man have a heart attack in a crowded restaurant. You just want to do something, anything, to help the guy.
My big thought here is Harry Osborn. In the comics, he is of course defined by his toxic relationship with his father. In the movie, his father is Chris Cooper, Chris Cooper dies after forty seconds, and none of this really seems to have an impact on Harry other than putting him in charge of Oscorp. He doesn’t seem to have any childhood abuse or daddy issues, it’s all about him suddenly having this disease, because chronic illness makes you evil I guess.
So what are the three Ses? Simplify. Streamline. Smooth out. We’re making a movie for children, really. Let’s get rid of Electro altogether. We can keep the Rhino stuff as bookends, that—sorta works. Again, the problem here is that the first movie screwed up things so much that it’s like trying to save a date after you’ve vomited on your girlfriend. But hey, we’re in this together, you and I. With you believing in me, we can save this movie.
Okay, Electro’s out of the picture. Who’s our villain? Harry Osborn’s Green Goblin, obviously. He drives the plot, he kills Gwen Stacy, the focus should be on him. The movie does a little right by it, even if it has to retcon Harry into being Peter’s old pal that he never talked about or mentioned ever. But their man-date early on works until the next time Harry sees Peter and suddenly Harry’s a supervillain in training.
What I would like to do is stretch out the renewed friendship with Harry, and Peter’s issues with Gwen, over the movie. No dumb corporate intrigue, no mystery about Peter’s parents, just three young people and their emotions. Ah, but where does the superhero action come in, you ask? Well, here’s what I would like to do. Add Felicia Hardy into the mix as a bit of spice. As Black Cat, she’s pulling robberies that Spider-Man tries to stop, giving us exciting chases through the city, sexy fights, so on.
It’s the classic Peter/MJ/Gwen love triangle with Felicia in the MJ role. Let’s be innovative and give MJ a rest after an entire trilogy of her being the love of Peter’s life. We can also incorporate Felicia into the Oscorp storyline by having her go undercover as Harry’s assistant-girlfriend-whatever to case the joint for a job. Imagine the fun scenes of Peter recognizing her, not being able to do anything about it as Peter Parker, them jibing with each other with hints that they know who the other is…
But all the while, Norman Osborn is dying and Harry is getting desperate for a cure. To make the plotting even tighter, we can pull Peter and Gwen together on this. As a favor to his friend, Peter agrees to work on the cure at Oscorp, with ex-girlfriend Gwen and flirty Felicia. And I guess, okay, we can pay off the dumb Peter’s parents stuff a little bit. In the movie, this doesn’t work AT ALL—we find out Norman Osborn killed Peter’s mom and dad, *choke*, but then Norman’s already dead and Harry had nothing to do with it and Oscorp is shifty enough without being involved in the Parkers’ deaths.
Here, I don’t know how this all would come together. My thinking is that Peter finds out Norman killed his parents and refuses to continue work on the cure. Like, ‘oh, Norman died three days ago? Too bad, I just figured out how to save him! Star Trek V!’ It would be really morally ambiguous, but one of the cool things about Spider-Man is that he’s not Superman; he doesn’t always do the right thing. As long as this is portrayed as Peter being uncool in the extreme, it’ll work. I’m thinking a scene where he confronts Norman, “I know you killed my parents. Too bad; if you hadn’t, maybe I would tell you how to save yourself.”
Of course, unbeknownst to him, Harry is suffering from the same condition as Norman and is, of course, super-fixated on being a good son, saving Norman, finally earning his love and respect, blah blah daddy issues-cakes.
At some point in all this, the Osborns figure out that Spider-Man is the key to curing themselves. Harry asks Peter to find Spidey, but no can do. So Harry uses the Osborn fortune to put the word out, newspapers, billboards, TV ads. He wants to talk to Spider-Man. Peter, of course, wants nothing to do with Oscorp, knowing what they’d be capable of with a viable cross-species. Time passes. Harry gets desperate. Finally, he puts a bounty on Spider-Man’s head, and we get a good-sized action sequence of some minor villain—Kraven the Hunter, the Shocker, whatever—going after Spider-Man.
Peter is having none of this. He goes to Harry as Spider-Man, tells him to cut that shit out before innocent people get hurt, or next time he’s playing offense.
Third act: Norman Osborn is on his last legs. Harry, mad with grief and desperation, experiments on himself and becomes the Green Goblin. Norman dies anyway (or… does he?). Harry uses Oscorp weaponry and goes on a rampage to draw Spider-Man out and get revenge. Here we pay off the audience’s patience in waiting for two acts for the fireworks, as this is basically one big conflict. We can even give Harry some henchmen (Oscorp is a private military contractor, let’s say) to up the stakes. Spider-Man and the Goblin clash. Spider-Man is unmasked and Harry either personally or by proxy goes after his loved ones. Peter gets the drop on him, disables him, and races against time to save Aunt May and Gwen. Felicia helps out somewhere, even if it’s just getting some civilians to safety.
Think of this as 24 on steroids. For over thirty minutes, Spider-Man is rushing through the city, disarming bombs, saving people, rescuing his loved ones from kidnappers, all while the Green Goblin pops up, cackling as he hit-and-runs Spidey at the worst possible moments. For all his efforts, Spider-Man comes up short. Gwen dies. Spider-Man puts Harry in a coma in the ensuing fight, but can’t bring himself to kill him. Still, for now, Harry is out of the fight, giving the audience some closure.
We get a version of the epilogue from the film, though I’d prefer it if there was an indication that Peter was erring on the side of Spider-Manning too much rather than not at all. Raimi did the Spider-Man No More stuff in his sequel already. The big takeaway here is a variation of that famous moment where MJ drops the party girl act and comforts Peter; this time, it’s Felicia, having figured out Peter’s identity in the big battle. Peter’s big moment of bravery is in choosing to live again, as Peter Parker, not in beating up bad guys.
And we should probably get rid of the bit with the little kid dressed as Spider-Man trying to take on the Rhino, c’mon. Also, if I had my druthers there would be no Rhino in the promotional materials, it’d entirely be a cool surprise for the fans. Maybe play up the mysteriousness of who’s behind the Rhino, has Harry woken up and is just using the coma as a cover, is Norman still alive, who’s pulling the strings at Oscorp? That’s something for next time, but for now, the chapter’s closed.
By the way, I think the theme here would be tragedy, people’s reactions to it, trying to avert it, live with it, forget it, whatever. In the movie, Gwen’s recently lost her fucking father, but it never really comes up. She seems more broken up about being on the outs with Peter. So I’d really like a scene where all four of our principals are just getting coffee, talking about their parents. Gwen’s dead father, Peter’s dead uncle and missing parents, Harry’s disapproving father—even Felicia, much as she hates to admit it, has turned to crime as a coping mechanism to feel closer to her dead, cat burglar daddy. They all have different ways of dealing with tragedy and Peter’s arc is learning himself, from all the people around him, good and bad, how to do it. Not to be brought down by it like Harry, but to live up to Gwen’s example—to survive with the sadness, to express it, to be strengthened by it, and finally, to let it go.
And, on a capes and tights note, you have a good variety of superhero action in this even without Jamie Foxx. I know, right? We have the opening truck assault—we can keep that pretty much as it is in the real movie, just without the bit where Gwen tells the audience “Imma gonna die” and the ridiculous fight against Paul Giamatti slows down like it’s all dramatic. Then the chase with Black Cat. The second act setpiece where Peter fights any villain you can name and it can be as unique and as cool as the concept artists can make it. Then the third act, where you can just go wild: Spider-Man having to fight inside the Parker residence to save Aunt May, fighting Green Goblin in the air, fighting alongside Black Cat, fighting to save Gwen.
My big thought here is Harry Osborn. In the comics, he is of course defined by his toxic relationship with his father. In the movie, his father is Chris Cooper, Chris Cooper dies after forty seconds, and none of this really seems to have an impact on Harry other than putting him in charge of Oscorp. He doesn’t seem to have any childhood abuse or daddy issues, it’s all about him suddenly having this disease, because chronic illness makes you evil I guess.
So what are the three Ses? Simplify. Streamline. Smooth out. We’re making a movie for children, really. Let’s get rid of Electro altogether. We can keep the Rhino stuff as bookends, that—sorta works. Again, the problem here is that the first movie screwed up things so much that it’s like trying to save a date after you’ve vomited on your girlfriend. But hey, we’re in this together, you and I. With you believing in me, we can save this movie.
Okay, Electro’s out of the picture. Who’s our villain? Harry Osborn’s Green Goblin, obviously. He drives the plot, he kills Gwen Stacy, the focus should be on him. The movie does a little right by it, even if it has to retcon Harry into being Peter’s old pal that he never talked about or mentioned ever. But their man-date early on works until the next time Harry sees Peter and suddenly Harry’s a supervillain in training.
What I would like to do is stretch out the renewed friendship with Harry, and Peter’s issues with Gwen, over the movie. No dumb corporate intrigue, no mystery about Peter’s parents, just three young people and their emotions. Ah, but where does the superhero action come in, you ask? Well, here’s what I would like to do. Add Felicia Hardy into the mix as a bit of spice. As Black Cat, she’s pulling robberies that Spider-Man tries to stop, giving us exciting chases through the city, sexy fights, so on.
It’s the classic Peter/MJ/Gwen love triangle with Felicia in the MJ role. Let’s be innovative and give MJ a rest after an entire trilogy of her being the love of Peter’s life. We can also incorporate Felicia into the Oscorp storyline by having her go undercover as Harry’s assistant-girlfriend-whatever to case the joint for a job. Imagine the fun scenes of Peter recognizing her, not being able to do anything about it as Peter Parker, them jibing with each other with hints that they know who the other is…
But all the while, Norman Osborn is dying and Harry is getting desperate for a cure. To make the plotting even tighter, we can pull Peter and Gwen together on this. As a favor to his friend, Peter agrees to work on the cure at Oscorp, with ex-girlfriend Gwen and flirty Felicia. And I guess, okay, we can pay off the dumb Peter’s parents stuff a little bit. In the movie, this doesn’t work AT ALL—we find out Norman Osborn killed Peter’s mom and dad, *choke*, but then Norman’s already dead and Harry had nothing to do with it and Oscorp is shifty enough without being involved in the Parkers’ deaths.
Here, I don’t know how this all would come together. My thinking is that Peter finds out Norman killed his parents and refuses to continue work on the cure. Like, ‘oh, Norman died three days ago? Too bad, I just figured out how to save him! Star Trek V!’ It would be really morally ambiguous, but one of the cool things about Spider-Man is that he’s not Superman; he doesn’t always do the right thing. As long as this is portrayed as Peter being uncool in the extreme, it’ll work. I’m thinking a scene where he confronts Norman, “I know you killed my parents. Too bad; if you hadn’t, maybe I would tell you how to save yourself.”
Of course, unbeknownst to him, Harry is suffering from the same condition as Norman and is, of course, super-fixated on being a good son, saving Norman, finally earning his love and respect, blah blah daddy issues-cakes.
At some point in all this, the Osborns figure out that Spider-Man is the key to curing themselves. Harry asks Peter to find Spidey, but no can do. So Harry uses the Osborn fortune to put the word out, newspapers, billboards, TV ads. He wants to talk to Spider-Man. Peter, of course, wants nothing to do with Oscorp, knowing what they’d be capable of with a viable cross-species. Time passes. Harry gets desperate. Finally, he puts a bounty on Spider-Man’s head, and we get a good-sized action sequence of some minor villain—Kraven the Hunter, the Shocker, whatever—going after Spider-Man.
Peter is having none of this. He goes to Harry as Spider-Man, tells him to cut that shit out before innocent people get hurt, or next time he’s playing offense.
Third act: Norman Osborn is on his last legs. Harry, mad with grief and desperation, experiments on himself and becomes the Green Goblin. Norman dies anyway (or… does he?). Harry uses Oscorp weaponry and goes on a rampage to draw Spider-Man out and get revenge. Here we pay off the audience’s patience in waiting for two acts for the fireworks, as this is basically one big conflict. We can even give Harry some henchmen (Oscorp is a private military contractor, let’s say) to up the stakes. Spider-Man and the Goblin clash. Spider-Man is unmasked and Harry either personally or by proxy goes after his loved ones. Peter gets the drop on him, disables him, and races against time to save Aunt May and Gwen. Felicia helps out somewhere, even if it’s just getting some civilians to safety.
Think of this as 24 on steroids. For over thirty minutes, Spider-Man is rushing through the city, disarming bombs, saving people, rescuing his loved ones from kidnappers, all while the Green Goblin pops up, cackling as he hit-and-runs Spidey at the worst possible moments. For all his efforts, Spider-Man comes up short. Gwen dies. Spider-Man puts Harry in a coma in the ensuing fight, but can’t bring himself to kill him. Still, for now, Harry is out of the fight, giving the audience some closure.
We get a version of the epilogue from the film, though I’d prefer it if there was an indication that Peter was erring on the side of Spider-Manning too much rather than not at all. Raimi did the Spider-Man No More stuff in his sequel already. The big takeaway here is a variation of that famous moment where MJ drops the party girl act and comforts Peter; this time, it’s Felicia, having figured out Peter’s identity in the big battle. Peter’s big moment of bravery is in choosing to live again, as Peter Parker, not in beating up bad guys.
And we should probably get rid of the bit with the little kid dressed as Spider-Man trying to take on the Rhino, c’mon. Also, if I had my druthers there would be no Rhino in the promotional materials, it’d entirely be a cool surprise for the fans. Maybe play up the mysteriousness of who’s behind the Rhino, has Harry woken up and is just using the coma as a cover, is Norman still alive, who’s pulling the strings at Oscorp? That’s something for next time, but for now, the chapter’s closed.
By the way, I think the theme here would be tragedy, people’s reactions to it, trying to avert it, live with it, forget it, whatever. In the movie, Gwen’s recently lost her fucking father, but it never really comes up. She seems more broken up about being on the outs with Peter. So I’d really like a scene where all four of our principals are just getting coffee, talking about their parents. Gwen’s dead father, Peter’s dead uncle and missing parents, Harry’s disapproving father—even Felicia, much as she hates to admit it, has turned to crime as a coping mechanism to feel closer to her dead, cat burglar daddy. They all have different ways of dealing with tragedy and Peter’s arc is learning himself, from all the people around him, good and bad, how to do it. Not to be brought down by it like Harry, but to live up to Gwen’s example—to survive with the sadness, to express it, to be strengthened by it, and finally, to let it go.
And, on a capes and tights note, you have a good variety of superhero action in this even without Jamie Foxx. I know, right? We have the opening truck assault—we can keep that pretty much as it is in the real movie, just without the bit where Gwen tells the audience “Imma gonna die” and the ridiculous fight against Paul Giamatti slows down like it’s all dramatic. Then the chase with Black Cat. The second act setpiece where Peter fights any villain you can name and it can be as unique and as cool as the concept artists can make it. Then the third act, where you can just go wild: Spider-Man having to fight inside the Parker residence to save Aunt May, fighting Green Goblin in the air, fighting alongside Black Cat, fighting to save Gwen.
