Here it is, the actual release of the trailer that I had a very bad version of yesterday. Now you can see all the details that you might have missed before. I'm curious what you all think about this trailer. Marc Webb gave an interview the LA Times about his reinvention of the character and his vision for the film. Hit the jump to read more about what he said and why I am excited.
Ever since the reveal of the costume and the new long-legged Spider-man logo I've had the feeling that they were going for a more punk rock version of Peter Parker. When Marc Webb is asked about his reinvention of the character he touches briefly on why that decision was made:
"Peter Parker is a science whiz. If you look back to the early Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comics, he’s a nerd with big glasses. The idea of what a nerd is has changed in 40 or 50 years. Nerds are running the world. Andrew Garfield made a movie [called "The Social Network"] about it. Nerds are no longer pariahs and knowing how to write computer code is longer a [mocked] quality. What was important in those early comics was this notion that Peter Parker is an outsider and how we define that in a contemporary context. That, I think, was one of the challenges for us — getting Peter Parker’s outsider status to be current. Peter Parker is a real kid. He’s not a billionaire. He’s not an alien. He’s a kid who gets picked on and gets shoved to the outside. The 90-pound weakling, that’s who Spider-Man is when he gets bit. So much of the DNA of the character is the fact that he was a kid when he got bit. He is imperfect, he is immature and has a bit of a punk rock instinct. In his soul he’s still a 90-pound weakling even after [the transformative bite]."
It seems that Marc Webb has acknowledged that we live in a bit of a post-The Social Network world. I'm not sure if this was a contributing factor to his casting of Andrew Garfield but it is an interesting bit of almost meta-commentary. It seems that in order to get back to Lee/Ditko's version of Spider-man it needs to be updated and changed to fit a modern context.
Spider-man was famously updated and released in a modern world in 2000's "Ultimate Spider-man," a book which just ended its 2nd volume with the death of the titular character. The influence of "Ultimate Spider-man" seems apparent. Marc Webb addresses it here:
"I love a lot of the 'Ultimate Spider-Man' artwork and story lines, there’s a lot more of an adolescent, playful quality. And I think that’s a big part of Spider-Man universe and hasn’t really been explored cinematically before."
"It’s less based in Steve Ditko world and probably closer visually and more influenced by 'Ultimate Spider-Man' but it is also very much a world of our own devising."While the trailer features an almost entirely CGI ending, inspired by the video game Mirror's Edge, Marc has pointed towards a different kind of action and choreography in the film:
"One of the things we tried to do was keep the stunts more grounded physically and that was a huge challenge because you have a character whose abilities are superhuman. How do you do that in a way that’s convincing and real? We had a really great stunt team, the Armstrongs, who were vigilant in the creation — with Andrew — of a physical language that felt grounded but also extraordinary. We spent months and months and months developing rigs so he could swing in a way that wasn’t computer-generated. Obviously there’s going to be enhancements and CG [sequences], but it’s based in a physical reality and that’s a new technique [for this film brand]. When you walk out of the theater, I want the world you see to resemble what you saw on the screen. Part of the joy of cinema [is that] you make the impossible look real. I wanted it to be more grounded and more realistic and that went for the emotion of the scenes, the physical action and wardrobe."You can read the rest of the article here. What do you think of this new trailer and the relaunch?
I think Mark Webb is out of date with the youth of today. I'm glad to hear he's put some thought into the re-imagining of Spiderman but smart nerds clearly still exist, facebook did not get rid of them and they don't have haircuts straight out of Twilight.
ReplyDeleteI like seeing more wire work and realistic action scenes but then you make a 5-10 minute POV running scene which is entirely computer animated. Placing this type of scene in movies hasn't worked and will continue to not work. If I wanted to see an animate spider-man, I would pick one of the many animated versions. This movie was reported to have a lower budget than the previous, I hope they did not waist it in this scene meant to bring the audience in. Unfortunately for this viewer, it only distanced him from this movie.
I agree that maybe the POV sequence may not have sold the style of action that is going to be in the movie, but rumor has it that the POV sequence was made just for this trailer. Personally, I found it to be an effective way to slowly build up anticipation for the reveal of the character at the end.
ReplyDeleteThe reason this film has a lower budget than the other ones is the main purpose for the reboot, and not a negative. With returning creative talent like Riami, McGuire, Dunst, etc. the price to create a "Spider-man 4" was getting too expensive. With a new cast, director, etc. Sony/Columbia could spend less on the film than they would have before.
The word is that they are very excited about Marc Webb's interpretation, which I understand has you a bit worried (I feel the opposite about his ability to connect with the youth of today), and they pumped more money than they had anticipated into the film.
Time will only tell as to how successful and well received the film will be. Word out of comic-con is overwhelmingly positive from the people fortunate enough to see the extended 10 minute clip but color me cautiously optimistic.
I can agree with you that the POV scene makes a good revelation scene, perhaps I am too blinded by being a fan of the last series of movies and hold misplaced resentments towards Sony for creating a reboot so soon that leads to my cynicism for this movie. I don't doubt Dir. Mark Webb as much as I hold doubt for Sony looking out for the concept of the little web slinger. Some believe it was Sony that led the way to Sam Rami's disaster of a film called Spiderman 3.
ReplyDeleteI like that they are modeling this serious off of the ultimate universe and giving him actual web slingers. Hopefully, they will give him the witty mouth that they have been missing in recent movie reincarnations and stay away from changing the concept of a Spiderman movie too much.