MovieChat Forums > The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) Discussion > This and S3 have elements to avoid in fu...

This and S3 have elements to avoid in future spiderman/superhero movies

posted 9 years ago by coolslowhand
6 replies | jump to latest

(1) Once the superhero gets his/her boy/girl, don't have the other break up with them.

"Superman Returns" was ridiculous with Lois Lane in a love triangle with Superman and...... a regular guy. Then, in S3 and this film we see Mary Jane/Gwen "break up" with Spiderman. Once the two have gotten together, most of the interest in seeing them together is finished. More importantly, it makes the superhero look really weak - because, even with superpowers and saving the city/world, you get broken up with (and turns it into a bad soap opera)

(2) The unnecessarily sympathetic villain. Some villains have sympathetic backstories (Magneto, Mr. Freeze, Dr. Octopus, etc.) to either allow them to teeter between good and bad or show how a brilliant mind went foul, or for the hero to want to save them and tragically be unable to, but most of the great villains do not. For some reason, SM 3 tried to make sandman half-likeable and audiences hated it. in this film, electro is turned into some idiot/halfway sympathetic villain, and it doesn't work either. What is the point of this?

(3) Osborne overload. Too much of them in these 5 movies. They are important characters, but it was too much for most viewers.

(4) How many times will we see spiderman "quit" being spiderman or superman quit being superman? Are we supposed to feel sorry for them? This storyline was only really compelling with Batman, since, after all, he was only batman because of his personal obsession. For someone with superpowers to stop using them doesn't become compelling.....

[–] Dark_Sithlord 9 years ago

They have to avoid the "girlfriend taken hostage" trope. Raimi overdid it in his trilogy, and it got played out in Webb's movies too. I believe it's possible to raise the stakes for the hero without having a loved one's life in danger if the writers use some imagination.

[–] coolslowhand 9 years ago

Very good point. That and the "one last score" for the criminal are the most overplayed angles.

A great hero fights a great villain because they are a hero - they don't need additional motivation.

For some reason, they feel the need to make Spiderman fight sympathetic villains only to "save" a loved one. It'd be much better to watch him fight evil villains because, well, he is a hero.........

You know, saving the city can be kind of important.........

[–] AndrewGS 9 years ago

Angst is a big part of the stories and characters but it's easy to go overboard with it. In this film Peter actually broke up with Gwen and I thought that really hurt it and diminished interest in whether they would get back together.

I thought the problem was having Harry without Norman, that felt like too much of a waste.

Agreed that there was way too much of trying to make the villains sympathetic.

[–] ee_dixon 9 years ago

Mary Jane only broke up with Peter because Harry forced her to or he would kill Peter. What is stupid is that she went along with it despite Peter being Spider-Man. Peter/MJ's relationship in Spider-Man 3 as a whole was poorly written, confusing and contradicts the ending of Spider-Man 2.

[–] coolslowhand 9 years ago

Exactly - and it was such lazy writing

A much better idea would be to have her break up with him because VENOM demanded it, and she realizes Peter isn't strong enough to beat Venom. Thinking Peter couldn't defend her from Harry was a little hard to believe.

[–] ee_dixon 9 years ago

It could've worked HAD they made things more clearer and put more emphasis towards it. Have Mary Jane go along with it to avoid either of them getting hurt, Mary Jane hears about what happens to Harry and she distances herself from Peter for real this time which leads to the Jazz Club.

Venom should've been after Gwen.