Monthly Archives: June 2010

Now, this could change within seconds after I post this, but for the time being it looks like Josh Hutcherson, the 18-year-old star of…  something, I’m sure… is going to be the next Spider-Man in director Marc Webb’s franchise reboot, and I’m left wondering if all this VERY young blood is good for the franchise, which is very close to my heart.

An unknown is filling out the costume this time around.

After all, Spider-Man has been my hero since I picked up The Spectacular Spider-Man #231 at the Walgreen’s by my house in February, 1996.  That was first grade, folks.  That issue, among tons of other mid-’90s issues of Spider-Man and X-Men, still resides in my blue Batman: The Animated Series backpack I’ve had since kindergarten.

As you can tell, I grew up with the webslinger, and I was quite pleased with the first two Sam Raimi-directed films in the series, before the atrocious third offering, which was ruined by too much studio interference (and Topher Grace).  I didn’t think Raimi deserved to go, but alas, he did, and that’s when Sony brought (500) Days of Summer director Webb aboard to redo the entire thing with a new cast by bringing Spidey back to high school.

That’s all well and good, but I’ve seen nothing from anyone involved, unless you count this Green Day video Webb did back in the day.

The man’s got some talent based on those nifty little slow-mo parts, but it doesn’t speak to his ability to choreograph crazy aerial fight scenes or anything like that.  I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, though, based on reviews of (500) Days of Summer. It seems Webb will be able to get to the bottom of who Peter Parker is as a person, which is always a good sign that a summer blockbuster won’t just be about the spectacle.

Slinging into theaters in 2012, Josh Hutcherson.

It’s Hutcherson’s casting which leaves me a little more scared.  He’s got the right look and is actually still in his teens, so there won’t be any of the usual people-in-their-thirties-playing-teenagers stuff going on, but the only time I’ve ever seen him on-screen is in TV previews for Journey to the Center of the Earth, which, like most things involving Brendan Fraser, looked awful.

The kid must have some chops, or else he wouldn’t have received the role.  He’ll have to bulk up a lot, though, to look like a super hero.

My main hope for the newbies involved is that they don’t just do another lazy retelling of Spider-Man’s origin story, especially since the first movie only came out in 2002.  Audiences are not stupid and they don’t need to be given a slight variation on something they saw very recently.

Hopefully the rumors are true that the Lizard will be the bad guy for the reboot and it will involve Peter, already with his powers, working for the Daily Bugle and dealing with being a kid with superpowers, how all the best classic Spider-Man stories were told.

I’m sure the studio’s done its homework with tons of screen testing for Hutcherson and I bet Webb gave a great pitch to get his version off the ground, but I can’t help but be a little worried the film franchise of my favorite hero of all time will be going down the drain, Batman & Robin-style.

The trailer for The Green Hornet, starring Seth Rogen, was released today, and for something I was looking forward to, it doesn’t look too impressive.

Coming in January: a shoulders shruggingly good time, The Green Hornet.

The movie, an adaptation of the ’60s TV show written by Rogen and his friend Evan Goldberg and directed by Michel Gondry, has been buzzed about for a couple years now, but delays, first in finding an actor to play Kato, among other things, have caused its release date to be pushed back several times, and now it’s not coming out until January, which is a sign nobody at the studio has faith in its ability to make money.

Based on the trailer, I can see why.  Rogen is generally a funny guy who may have suffered a bit of overexposure after all the Apatow movies he’s starred in, but he seemed excited about trying on a different role: that of an action hero.  It’s clear Rogen prepared admirably for the role, having lost a ton of weight, and it seems the movie’s supposed to have funny parts to utilize Rogen’s comedic abilities, but those moments felt a little flat in this, particularly the “will you follow me on this adventure” line.

Of course, I could be completely wrong about this movie’s prospects, as director Gondry has an extremely stylized eye, as was apparent in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of the coolest movies of the last decade.  His followup, Be Kind, Rewind, had its moments and was overall pretty entertaining.  And all those White Stripes videos he did rock, too.

But you should stop listening to me expound about something that hasn’t even been released yet and make up your mind for yourself.  Here’s the trailer for The Green Hornet.

Disney confirmed today Sam Raimi, director of the Spider-Man and Evil Dead films, is directing their prequel to the Wizard of Oz, and I’m kind of left scratching my head over the decision.

Yep, he's handling the Wizard of Oz (Photo courtesy of nndb.com).

Sure, Raimi’s established himself in the last decade as capable of handling large-budget studio films with the first two Spider-Man movies (let’s not talk about the abomination that was the third one), but I’m not convinced he’s the right guy to take on the land of Oz, mostly because his films never have the tone I think of when I remember Wizard of Oz.

Raimi’s tone is more pure irreverence, like the Ash-on-Ash battle from Army of Darkness, or flat-out goofiness, like the massive facepalm that was the emo Spidey scene.  They’re funny, sure, but do they fit in with what we know about the Great and Powerful Oz?  Not really.

I don’t know if Raimi has it in him to reign in his jokey tendencies to make a movie that shouldn’t be played as a punchline.  He’s got the right kind of whimsy for the job, but I, along with legions of other people who grew up on the MGM classic, will be kind of disappointed if he doesn’t take the source material seriously.