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MATT RAUB: Spider-Man 3 Review

MATT RAUB: Spider-Man 3 Review

So here we are, one day before the highest anticipated film of 2007, Spider-Man 3, gets released into a record 4,252 theaters. I, just like about a billion other fans, couldn’t wait to see this flick, mostly because this is the film where we get the infamous Venom as a villain, along with a laundry list of other storylines. But before I get too deep into that, lets break it down. Usually when reviewing comic book movies, I like to break the critique down into three separate sections: the Acting, the Story, and the FX.

Lets begin with my least favorite part of the entire film: the acting. Now I may be a bit jaded, but I’ve never really got into having Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. This is where doing a book or comic adaptation gets funky, because originally the character’s voice and overall demeanor is up to their interpretation. A perfect example of this is the [[[Harry Potter]]] film franchise. The casting of those films were almost spot-on with the fan’s interpretation of the characters, and they didn’t even have the visual aids that comic books have.

With that said, in my head Spidey was the nerdy, quiet kid before bitten by the radioactive/genetically enhanced spider, but then gains self-confidence while still keeping his puerile attitude towards life. This is how we get the wisecracking interpretation in modern books. But with Maguire’s performance, we are constantly treated to the somber, “woe is me” Spider-Man who, granted, still jumps, swings, and does whatever a spider can, but in between those periods is constantly in a state of teary-eyed misery. Even in the second film where he is convinced that being Spider-Man is a curse, and trashes the costume, he still looks like at any moment, he could burst into tears. Some could attribute this to Maguire’s incredible range, but if I wanted that, I’d go see Seabiscuit again.
 
Spider-Man is the comic relief of the New Avengers, and even in the Ultimate books, he may cry, but when he’s in the suit, he’s a regular swinging Henny Youngman. The same goes for this film, in the times that the mask isn’t on (which is way too much to begin with), his eyes are constantly filled with tears.

Moving on to our leading lady, Kirsten Dunst, I have a whole different problem. In the first film, I was starting to get into the idea of having a non-supermodel quality Mary Jane Watson and by the end of the second film, I was completely sold, though she looked like she hadn’t eaten since Jumanji. And just then, as if it was her master plan to get us all to love her, and then crush us, in a press junket for Spider-Man 2, Dunst was quoted in saying that her ideal plot for another sequel would be where our webbed hero dies in the first act, and the rest of the film is about Mary Jane coping in the modern world with an unborn Spider-Baby as a single mother. Some of you remember this quote as “The Day We Started to Hate Kirsten Dunst.” I don’t know what it is about female actors and preaching their ideas when the majority of the audience paying attention to them are people who could care less about them. We go to superhero movies to see [[[superheroes]]], not their girlfriends.

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Weekly wrapup

Weekly wrapup

Big week this week– the end of 52, the wrapup of Wonder Man, Buffy #3… what else?

We want to hear from you, argue back and forth the way we’re supposed to. Kick it off in the comments section, and let’s see what worked and what didn’t.

(Artwork from the newspaper comic Retail; copyright 2007 Norman Feuti. All Rights Reversed.)

Iron Man’s all shiny!

Iron Man’s all shiny!

Thanks, Entertainment Weekly!  This is the shiznit!

Okay, I know lots of people out there liked the old square tincan one, but this — this is sleek and brassy and colorful and… well, it just looks like I’d picture Iron Man’s armor looking.

Kudos to FX guy Stan Winston, who designed them to fit on a real-life and, we’re figuring, increasingly sweaty Robert Downey, Jr.

Also?  IESB has some video from the set of the Iron Man movie.

Spider-Man 3 boots are made for crawling

Spider-Man 3 boots are made for crawling

Remember how we reported sales of Spider-Man 3 bootlegs in China? And then how we reported Sony said that wasn’t so? Well, Sony lied. Kind of.

There certainly were Spider-Man 3 DVDs being sold in China, at one buck a pop – as reported. However, if you bought one and popped it in your player, you were likely to have seen Dan Aykroyd’s 2001 teevee comedy blockbuster Earth vs. the Spider.

Caveat Emptor.

First Spider-Man 3 review

First Spider-Man 3 review

Hours away from the moment when Spider-Man 3 lights up the screen, we’ve got your first review – and virtually spoiler free! Plus news on the return of a 60’s classic comic series, more High School Musical, Young Frankenstein, King Kong, making Family Guy "family safe" and we drag out The Runt for an encore!

Come on. The ticket line is too long anyway. Just press the button!

Dark Horse Ark Movie

Dark Horse Ark Movie

Columbia Pictures plans to produce a film based on Mark Verheiden’s story, The Ark.  The producers are Neal Moritz and Mike Richardson.  Verheiden will adapt his story.

Moritz is already working on The Green Hornet and Evan Almighty.

Verheiden and Richardson, you’ll recall, did Timecop as a comic, a movie and a TV show.  They also worked on The Mask. Mark’s the current writer on Superman/Batman, is an executive producer on Battlestar Galactica, finishing work on the new Bruce Campbell biopic, and a long-time comics fan.

Now – Classics from the UK

Now – Classics from the UK

Remember how last Sunday I was lamenting the lack of comics based on classical literature by, say, "Virginia Woolf or a Bronte or two?"  Well, via Down the Tubes comes news of a new UK-based company starting up to tackle even more classic literature in a graphic format.

Classical Comics hopes to have its first titles up and running by next year, and lookie here (at right), Jane Eyre will be one of them!  (Not only that, but it will be adapted by Amy Cozine — great to see more women writers turning to comics!)

CC’s first adaptation, of Shakespeare’s Henry V, should be out this October.  Forbidden Planet International  has some sample pages.  Also planned are adaptations of Macb— er, The Scottish Play, as well as Dickens’ Great Expectations.  Which definitely describes my hopes for this company.  The more ways we can reintroduce cool books by dead writers to new readers, the more we can immortalize their wonderful prose.

Spider-Man 3 breaks more records

Spider-Man 3 breaks more records

Variety reports today that Spider-Man 3 set opening day records in 10 of the 16 markets in which it opened yesterday.   In Italy, for example, it earned $4 million, beating the previous record of $2.5 million, held by The DaVinci Code.  Sony invested $3.3 million in marketing there.

In France, SM3 earned $6.8 million, ahead of Star Wars: Episode III.  In terms of ticket sales, that’s 175,334 for Spidey, 124,664 for the Sith.

Records were also set in Germany, Belgium and Egypt.

I’m figuring if I go Monday, I might be able to get a seat.

JOHN OSTRANDER: You say it’s my birthday

I share my recent birthday with a bunch of notables; unfortunately, the most famous is Adolf Hitler. I thought it would be it would be good to use the day in part for some ruminations – where I am, where I’ve been, what I foresee, fear, et al. Actually, I can do that any day of the year; a birthday is really just a number and some of what we ascribe to that date is arbitrary. Still, might as well make use of what we got.

One thing that is about my birthday fixed is that I share it with my twin brother, Joel. Joe and I are fraternal twins; we don’t look alike, sound alike or even sometimes think alike. Joe is a conservative Republican and I decidedly am not. Joe is a life member of the NRA; I decidedly am not.

However, when I called him on our shared birthday – which I always do – he picked up the phone and started doing his Elmer Fudd imitation, which I also did. It’s the way we start every phone conversation, usually with Elmer singing something inappropriate. We’ve been doing this long before Robin Williams did. We agree that Elmer is vastly unappreciated and has an extraordinary range, from the Stones and Springsteen to show tunes (he has an affinity for Lerner and Lowe – Fudd doing “Why Can’t the English Teach Their Children How To Speak?” from My Fair Lady may be the definitive rendering of that song). He also can do Shakespeare, especially Hamlet, and could play Stanley in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire; “Stehwwwwwaaaaaa!”

That is part of what forms me – family. In addition to Joe I have three sisters – Marge, Jane, and Pat. All wonderful people and all of them have dirt on me – as I do on them. I have an Aunt Helen who is going to 100 years old in June; her father also lived to be 100. So there is that in my DNA, although my father died much younger than that.

We lived across the street from the Roman Catholic church that I attended; I literally played in its shadow. While these days I am something on an agnostic – my gag is that I’m not dogmatic about it – I am very specifically a Roman Catholic agnostic. The god I have questions about is the image formed by the Roman Catholic upbringing. I was raised pre-Vatican II, back in the days when the Masses were in Latin. That also may be in my DNA.

I’m one of the baby boomer generation. I can’t quite remember a time before television but I remember a time when it was all in black and white. I can still reel off the names of most of my favorite shows – Zorro, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Ernie Kovacs (I was a strange kid), Fractured Flickers, Beany and Cecil, Garfield Goose (a Chicago kids TV show), Jack Paar when he had on Oscar Levant or Jonathan Winters (I was a very strange kid) and others. I remember the British invasion; as an early teen, I ushered at the Beatles concerts in Chicago. I was resistant to the Beatles until I saw A Hard Days Night; that’s when I became a fan. All part of my cultural DNA.

I got into theater because a Catholic girls H.S. was looking for boys to be part of their next production. A girl I liked attended that school and – well, c’mon. Being one of a few boys inside a girls’ high school? Of course you’re going to go there. I almost never saw the girl but the teacher/director – Mrs. Crawford – thought I had potential. I discovered the stage and that would form a great part of my life for the next almost twenty years. It also helped make me into the writer I am today.

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Spider-Man shovels it in

Spider-Man shovels it in

Spider-Man 3 has already earned nearly $30,000,000 and it hasn’t even opened in the United States.

The blockbuster-in-making has taken in a bundle in such places as France, Italy, South Korea and Hong Kong, according to the Associated Press. You may have heard it’s opening in the States on Friday.

Then again, you may already be in line for the midnight showing.