spider man | the m0vie blog

Does Whatever a Spider Can: Do Chronicle and Kick-Ass Render The Amazing Spider-Man Moot?

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Darren

We still have a few months to wait before Marc Webb reboots Sony’s Spider-Man franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man. Despite some tonal worries, I’ll admit Webb has quite a talented crew assembled – Andrew Garfield is on the cusp of stardom, and Emma Stone is a bit ahead of him. However, I can’t help but wonder if Webb’s film might be a few months too late. After all, haven’t Kick-Ass and Chronicle offered a fairly solid deconstruction of the iconic web-slinging superhero? Is there really enough left to be said in the Spider-Man origin story when we’ve already seen it picked apart and subverted so often and skilfully?

Webb's Spider...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, batman, bryan singer, clark kent, Emma Stone, fantastic four, Gwen Stacy, kick-ass, lizard, marc webb, mark millar, Peter, peter parker, sam raimi, sony, spider man, stan lee | 4 Comments »

Ultimate Comics: Doomsday (Hardcover) (Review)

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Darren

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, I’m taking a look at some of the stories featuring the characters over the past half-century.

Ultimate Comics: Doomsday is a bit of a weird beast. After the events of Ultimatum, Mark Millar’s Ultimates was relaunched both as Ultimate Comics: Avengers and the clunkily-titled (and written) Ultimate Comics: New Ultimates, while Ultimate Spider-Man became Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men spun off into Ultimate Comics: X. That meant that the only on-going series that hadn’t fed into a relaunched series was Ultimate Fantastic Four. Perhaps it’s understandable, since the series was arguably the weakest of Marvel’s Ultimate reimaginings of popular heroes, suffering from adapting Marvel’s most innocent scientific heroes in a grim and hyper-modern context. Ultimate Comics: Doomsday collects three miniseries (Ultimate Comics: Enemy, Ultimate Comics: Mystery and Ultimate Comics: Doom), which tell a gigantic crossover crisis set in the shared universe that the “ultimate” characters inhabit, but it’s really just a vehicle to allow Brian Michael Bendis to play with the left-over bits and pieces from Ultimate Fantastic Four.

This little Spider...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: brian michael bendis, marvel, Rafa Sandoval, spider man, stan lee, Ultimat Comics: Doomsday, ultimate comics, ultimate comics spider-man, Ultimate Comics: Doom, Ultimate Comics: Doomsday, Ultimate Comics: Enemy, Ultimate Comics: Mystery, Ultimate Doom, Ultimate Doomsday, Ultimate Enemy, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, ultimate marvel, Ultimate Mystery, Ultimates | 2 Comments »

Second Chances for Sequels…

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Darren

What if you have to pee when you’re on fire?

It’s awesome.

I have a confession to make. I am actually kinda looking forward to Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. The trailer looks like it could be either off-the-wall over-the-top brilliant, or mind-numbingly terrifying, but promises to be interesting either way. Still, the taint of the original Ghost Rider, perhaps the weakest comic book adaptation of the past decade (and there have been some weak adaptations), hangs around the title, and I can’t help but wonder if my dislike of the original film should somehow mute my anticipation for the sequel. After all, I’ve seen the concept fail on screen before, so why should I feel even a hint of excitement for a follow-up to a ridiculously crap film? Appropriately enough, with sequels, is it once burnt and twice shy?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man, Brian Taylor, film series, ghost rider, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, marc webb, Mark Neveldine, Movie, Movies, nicolas cage, Peter Fonda, sam raimi, sequels, sony, spider man | 2 Comments »

The Joy of Movie Fest…

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Darren

So, the inaugural Movie Fest is over. It was an amazing (and successful) attempt to bring pop film to Dublin, organised by Vince Donnelly and the team at movies.ie. Vince should really and honestly be proud of what he accomplished, because spending the weekend at the festival was the most enjoyable weekends I’ve had in quite some time. There’s something about that sort of communal celebration of cinema that makes these sorts of festivals and conventions so popular, the idea of drawing together movie fans of all ages and backgrounds to share in a unique experience. As a huge film nerd, I do have to concede a giddy thrill at the idea that this is “hardcore.”

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man, Cowboys & Aliens, Fright Night, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, marc webb, movie fest, movies.ie, spider man, total recall, zombieland | Leave a comment »

Why Does It Matter That Spider-Man is Black?

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Darren

It’s interesting the odd way that comic books occasionally overlap with the mainstream. Mainly, it appears to be when a death is involved, like the coverage that Ed Brubaker’s The Death of Captain America inspired, or the pop culture impact of Grant Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. (or even Jonathan Hickman’s death of Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four). These week, we’ve had a minor media storm over something a bit different: a new character taking an established identity. Most mainstream media outlets weren’t interested in the resurrection of Bucky Barnes to replace Steve Rogers, nor Dick Grayson donning the cowl in Batman & Robin. However, there’s been a storm in a teacup brewing over the fact that the new lead in Ultimate Spider-Man is black.

Why on Earth is this such a big deal?

The only colours I associate with Spider-man are blue and red...

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: batman r.i.p., brian michael bendis, Death of Captain America, dick grayson, Donald Glover, ed brubaker, grant morrison, Jonathan Hickman, luke cage, marvel comics, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, spider man, ultimate comics spider-man, ultimate spider man | 3 Comments »

Emo Spider-Man & Going Against the Nerd: It Isn’t Easy Being Geek…

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Darren

The Amazing Spider-Man trailer debuted during the week and it was… kinda okay, I suppose. Nothing too shocking or gripping or incredible, and nothing to push it too high on a “must see” list that includes The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers as two massive hits for my superhero fix. However, I was surprised at the rather immediate response from relatively mainstream sources to “emo Spider-Man.” Even non-geeks seem to have picked up on the fact that Peter Parker in a hoodie hunched over a text book is not a good sign. Surely Spider-Man III taught us that “goth Spider-Man” is not a good idea?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Andrew Garfield, Batman in film, brian michael bendis, counter-culture, emo, films, geek chic, geek culture, high school, marc webb, Movies, punk rock, sam raimi, secondary school, spider man, stan lee, sub-culture, the amazing spider-man, the amazing spiderman | 15 Comments »

I’m A Marvel… or Am I A DC? I Can Never Tell…

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Darren

I’m about half-a-year behind on this, I must confess. Back in January, the wonderful Katie over at Stories That Really Mattered asked a bunch of bloggers to come out in favour of one of the two major comic book companies, with an open invitation for other members of the community to participate. I’d like to pretend that I took so long to consider my own response because I’m cool (and cool people arrive late to the hottest parties), but the truth is I’ve just been a bit run off my feet these past few months. I was never cool, but I’ve learned to accept that.

However, in this season of blockbuster comic book movies, I thought it might be interesting to reflect on whether I am a bigger fan of Marvel, or DC. Given how close both are to my heart, expect a fair bit of waffle. Okay, a bit morewaffle than usual.

Let's not cloud the issue...

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: comic, comic book movies, comic books, dc comics, fantastic four, Gail Simone, justice league, Marvel Comic, marvel comics, Movies, Paul Cornell, robert downey jr, spider man, superhero movies, wonder woman | 11 Comments »

The Trouble With Trilogies: Why Superhero Fanchises Have Trouble With the Third Instalment…

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Darren

So, it turns out that The Dark Knight Rises has a top secret ending. That’s very interesting, and I wonder what it could be. A few obvious possibilities have popped into my head, but there’s one facet of this news which really fascinates me: this piece of information gives weight to the suggestion that Nolan is going to give his superhero franchise a definitive ending, something that perhaps explains why we don’t really have a “classic” superhero trilogy yet, despite the fact that quite a few comic book characters have pushed well past the third film. So will Batman be able to do what Superman, Spider-Man, the X-Men and even another Batman have failed to do before him? Will he craft a complete and wonderful trilogy?

Batman really wants to know what the ending is...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman forever, Batman in film, Christopher Nolan, closure, conclusion, endings, film trilogies, films, george lucas, Movies, spider man, spider-man 3, star wars, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Godfather Part III, trilogies, Wachowski Brothers | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Spider-Man III

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Darren

This is a post as part of “Raimi-fest”, the event being organised by the always wonderful Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck.

Spider-Man III has a lot of problems. I’ll get to a couple of them in a moment. However, the single biggest issue with the movie seems to be that nobody seems especially interested in making it. It’s a feeling that it’s hard to back up with substantive evidence, but there’s just this general sensation that the film wasn’t the product of the same love and enthusiasm that made the first two films so refreshing. It almost seems like the movie was made out of a sense of obligation, rather than because anyone wanted to be there. It seems that they didn’t really care.

Back in black?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Avi Arad, brian michael bendis, Christopher Young, danny elfman, films, flint marko, green goblin, harry osborn, hollywood, Movies, peter parker, sam raimi, sandman, spider man, spider-man 3, spider-man iii, stan lee, symbiote, venom | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Evil Dead III – The Army of Darkness

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Darren

This is a post as part of “Raimi-fest”, the event being organised by the always wonderful Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck.

It’s interesting how concrete the shift in genre is between the original Evil Dead and the final part of the trilogy. It’s grown from a bona fides video nasty into a dark age comedy I actually wouldn’t have too much trouble watching with my family. I think I’m significantly fonder of the third instalment in the series than most other reviewers are, but it’s a film which is solidly and consistently fun – pure, random, non-sensical fun.