We have an actual title for the 2012 Spider-Man reboot: "The Amazing Spider-Man".
This is exactly what I wanted to hear! Very early rumors said that the movie would be based on the Ultimate Spider-Man line of comics. I hate the Ultimate Marvel comics. I can't really give a specific reason why. I just don't like the reworks for most character backstories in the Ultimate universe. So when I heard that the next Spidey film would be a reboot, I was kind of glad. The first two Raimi films were not bad, but I didn't like that they ignored Gwen Stacy in the first movie. The third movie was so bad that I really just didn't want that story line to continue any more.
When I heard rumors that the new movie would be directed by Marc Webb I was excited. He also directed 500 Days of Summer, a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed for being one of the few romantic comedies out there that doesn't give us a dumbed-down, unrealistic happily-ever-after ending. I was even ok with the rumors at the time that the movie wouldn't even have a super-villain and that it would be more of a teenage, high school drama than a true superhero movie.
Then the Ultimate Spider-Man rumors started to circulate. "Oh no", I said. "Please don't let this be an Ultimate Spider-Man movie!" The incredibly awesome "Spectacular Spider-Man" television series had already been canceled by Disney because they wanted to pursue an Ultimate Spider-Man series instead. Please don't let that happen to the movies too!
I also can't say that I was a big fan of the first official photo of the Spider-Man costume. I like that Andrew Garfield is such a scrawny dude (it fits the Spider-Man character very well). But the costume looks so ... different. And complicated. After having been to anime conventions and seeing the kinds of costumes that cosplayers come up with, I could accept that a high school student living in his slightly underpriviledged aunt and uncle's house could theoretically create such a costume.
So the news that the film will be titled "The Amazing Spider-Man" is the best news that I could have possibly heard regarding this movie!
But that's not all we got! Sony also recently released new official photos of the new Spider-Man costume.
So yeah, the costume definitely does look a bit too complicated. Too many interweaving patterns. The costume looks - I don't know - "busy". And I don't like the red stripe going down the side of the pants that is visible in some of the leaked photos from the set.
Even though the costume looks like something that Peter Parker possibly could have constructed (he's a pretty resourcefull and brilliant guy!), it doesn't look like something that Peter Parker would have designed. Its complicated and overly-stylized. Remember, Peter Parker is an uber-nerdy science kid. Coming from his science and engineering background, he's probably more likely to try to keep things as simple and basic as possible. He probably wouldn't add all these extra lines and angles and curves. Ben Reilly (Peter's clone during the '90s) would. But not Peter Parker.
I'm going to reserve judgement on the costume until I can see it in motion though. Its also supposedly designed for 3-D, since the movie is actually being filmed in full 3-D, so I'm sure it will look good in 3-D Imax.
But there is one little detail of the costume that I definitely think is an improvement over the previous films' costume (and possibly one of the reasons why a reboot was deemed necessary):
ARTIFICIAL WEB SHOOTERS!
This is one of the things that was sorely lacking from the Raimi movies, as they are one of the symbols within the comic books of Peter's brilliance.
I do have one criticism about the web shooters though: Why the heck would Peter put them outside the costume?! The whole point in putting them underneath the glove (I had always assumed) was to hide the fact that they were artificial to the bad guys. If the bad guys know that his web-powers are aftificial, that gives them a possible competitive advantage because it exposes a weakness of Spider-Man's. I hope this is something that gets changed, since putting the web shooters inside the gloves makes much more sense.
Other than that, the addition of artificial web shooters is a huge step up (in terms of authenticity) from the previous Raimi movies!
Additional details that make this movie look very promising (from the perspective of a hardcore Spidey fan):
- There will, in fact be a villain, and he has been confirmed to be The Lizard! Can't wait to see an official photo of what he's gonna look like! I hope they actually have a physical Lizard costume and won't rely exclusively on CGI.
- Actresses have been cast to play the parts of both Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy.
- An official photo shows the actress portraying Gwen Stacy attending a funeral (her father's?).
- An actor has supposedly been cast to play the part of Nels Van Adder. Van Adder, if you don't know, is a research assistant for Norman Osborne who was the first test subject for the Green Goblin formula. Even if we don't see the Proto-Goblin as a villian, this could possibly be a set-up for a Green Goblin sequel! One in which the Gwen Stacy character will be alive and in a romantic relationship with Peter Parker? A relationship that may be unstable due to Gwen blaming Spider-Man for the aforementioned death of her father? And which may come to a tragic end?
2012 can't come soon enough!
UPDATE 07/10/2012: A review of The Amazing Spider-Man is here.