**Update: Upon further analysis, what the hell is Spider-Man swinging from in this latest poster?
There’s a lot I love about Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man movies (and very little I love about the third). For me, 2002’s Spider-Man was the first time a comic book film was able to conjure up the feelings I got when paging through its funny book counterpart. Raimi’s original film made several deviations from Peter Parker’s extended comic book arc (organic web shooters being a notable example), but he nailed the tone. I don’t get that feeling from Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, arriving in theatres July 3rd. Oddly enough, one of the things making me uncomfortable is one of the few things the film is mirroring directly from the comic book. And it’s front and center in this new international poster:
Raimi (and James Cameron before him) recognized the challenge in Parker’s webbing being anything but organic. If Parker were to be able to create such a thing synthetically, he’d be of much greater use to the world as an inventor. Think about it, that webbing would be one of the most important technological achievements of our time. It would be revolutionary as an adhesive and Peter Parker would be a billionaire many times over. In a live action setting, there’s something selfish about Spider-Man sitting on this one thing that could improve the world exponentially.
So aside from setting itself apart from Raimi’s films, I don’t see the purpose of webbing going the synthetic route. Everything else about this film feels like a departure from Spider-Man’s overall mythos (the darker vibe, no sight of JJ or the Bugle, Parker as a brooding skateboarder), so this slavish adherence to this single aspect sticks out.
Nothing about the lead-up to this film has clicked for me, from its announcement to the latest trailer and now this poster – a sentiment I suspect is shared by a lot of Spider-Man fans.
Do you think The Amazing Spider-Man will click with audiences? Or did Sony move to reboot too quickly?