It’s been nearly two decades since we got the debut of Spider-Man on the big screen, we have gotten five movies with two different directors and two different Spider-Men. Now we are moving on to our third director, third Spider-Man and even a new studio. So, let’s take a look back at all the ways the previous movies failed and show Marvel how they can make this the best Spider-Man we have seen on the big screen yet.
1. Don’t overload the movie with villains and plots!
The ultimate downfall of the last two franchises was that there was way too much going on in the last film of each respective series. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 are some of the most convoluted and disastrous movies I have ever seen. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, there was three villains, a plot about Peter’s parents that went absolutely nowhere, and they were trying to set up future movies. It was a completely incoherent mess and upset many fans of the franchise. All Marvel has to do is keep things simple, nobody wants a movie packed with villains unless it’s a Sinister Six movie and even that’s a risky idea. We aren’t there to see an action fest; we want to see the character of Spider-Man and the problems he has to deal with, and we can’t focus on that if there is too much going on.
2. Stray away from the origin story!
We already know the new Spider-Man movie is going to be set after the tragedy that creates Spider-Man, he has already been Spider-Man for a few months, and we won’t have to sit through 30-40 minutes of stuff we have already seen before. All they have to do is not try and force it in a different way, flashbacks, Peter dealing with the guilt of the death of Uncle Ben and other reminders of that we don’t need. We all know what happened, so please just leave it alone!
3. Make Spider-Man the charismatic character we all know and love.
One of the best parts of The Amazing Spider-Man movies was Andrew Garfield’s performance as Spider-Man. It was almost as if he took the character of Spider-Man right out of the comic books, he had charm, he used witty remarks, and he was legitimately funny. Tobey Maguire would throw the occasional joke out, but his delivery wasn’t there. It always came out the same; I loved Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, but not so much as Spider-Man and I loved Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man but not so much as Peter Parker. Neither of them was the perfect Spider-Man and Peter Parker, and hopefully, Tom Holland can nail the role and take note from the two actors who played the high school nerd while also making the character his own.
4. New villains!
We have seen Green Goblin twice, and we almost saw Doc Ock twice if that tease at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was anything to go off of. It’s time to bring in some different villains like Kraven the Hunter, Morbius, or Mysterio, and then later down the line, we can see a villain like Venom or Carnage be introduced. A character like Morbius may be too similar to The Lizard, but there are so many possibilities with someone like Kraven or Mysterio. In most Spider-Man movies, we see Spider-Man hunting the villain. Imagine seeing an onscreen Kraven played by Gerard Butler hunting down Spider-Man, tracking his every move and eventually coming across his true identity. It could create some amazing tension and amazing scenarios, just thinking about it gives me goosebumps!
5. Utilize Spider-Man’s powers for clever film making and amazing action scenes!
Something no one talks about is the clever use of Spider-Man’s powers and how they incorporate it into the film in the two previous franchises. Look at the spider sense sequence in the Times Square fight in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. People are fleeing the area from Electro, and they are all running towards some sort of life ending hazard, the problem is Spider-Man only has one available webshooter because the other is broken. We quickly see him analyze the situation using his spider senses, we then see him jump into action using his wits to defuse the situation, he puts his thumb over his webshooter allowing the web to spread to multiple angles and save all the people in danger at once. We have also seen him use his speed and agility to dodge danger like Green Goblin’s bladed grenades. There are endless ways to make Spider-Man look like the bad-ass he is on-screen, using his powers to the film makers advantage is just one way to make this happen.
There you have it, five ways to make a Spider-Man not suck. There are obviously many more ways to make a good Spider-Man movie, but we can’t possibly fit that into one article, so let us know in the comments what you think would make a good Spider-Man film!
