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Like, oh, smashing through almost every box office record
ever? Screw the X-Men. I wanna talk about Spider-Man.
This was, hands down, one of the best comic to film
adaptations ever, AND a damned good movie to boot. It
remained incredibly faithful to the source material, and was able
to keep everything simple enough for anyone new, who had
never picked up a comic, understand what the deal was with this
guy.
One of the things that I feel greatly helped this film was the
decision to stay as close as possible to the original source
material for the characters.
This is a trend Ive noticed more in DC movies than Marvel.
Since almost any DC property is transferred to a visual, moving
medium by the same folks, DCs owners, AOL Time Warner,
theyre able to cross-reference themselves, and do origins right.
With Marvel, it seems like no two companies own more than a
handful of characters. So, whenever they make plans for a new
movie or tv show, unless the character is one of Marvels
original stable, the origins have to be changed.
This is best exemplified by the Venom movie that was
wandering around Hollywood some five, ten years ago. Since
the rights to Spider-Man were tied up practically everywhere,
and with everyone, they couldnt even mention him in the movie,
or use him in Venoms origin.
How do you do Venom justice without any connection to
Spider-Man? The character brought to screen wouldnt be
Venom, but some pissed off guy with a funky living costume. It
wouldnt be right.
Pretty much any character from the last twenty years is tied
in somehow with some other character, making a lot of Marvel
movies a real pain to make.
By contrast, lets look at DCs upcoming "Birds of Prey"
series. Theyre actually showing Oracle in her days as Batgirl,
being shot by Joker, even showing Batman and Catwoman
briefly, and sticking with the origins of the characters as closely
as they can.
Sure, some things need to be changed that just wont
translate well from the printed page. The X-Men costumes are
a prime example of this. Wolverine would look silly in bright
canary yellow. And Green Goblins costume from the comics
would also have much the same problems. Not that what they
ended up with was much of an improvement. Under the
circumstances, and thinking about it, the costume does manage
to make sense, though. Maybe some in-movie explanation as to
the aesthetics behind the look of the armor would have been
helpful, but not necessary.
By staying as close to the source as Sony did, it also allowed
them to make the movie as accessible as possible. This movie
was more about Peter Parker, than Spider-Man, just like the
comics. This makes the movie far more appealing once youre
sitting in the theater. You care and empathize with the Peter,
since he exemplifies the typical kid in high school, with everyday
problems, and gifted with great powers and abilities that allow
him to face many of those problems, something many people can
hook into.
All in all, Marvel and Sony, with the help of a big fan being
behind the movie, and some excellent casting, made a movie that
pleases both the diehard fans (Well, most of them. There are
still a few with great big sticks up their collective asses, and
complaining about the movie violating continuity, but that is a
whole other rant), and for the newbies to jump into and enjoy
just as much.
Heed this lesson, Marvel! Learn it well! Because all those
people going to the movie cant all be wrong.
In a brief bit of X-Stuff, the word reaching me about various
aspects of the sequel are sounding most prominent, from casting
to story. Heres hoping we get a good sequel.
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