Wednesday, November 22, 2006

"Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Steals whatever a spider can"

I've said, before, that the Spider-Man movies seemed heavily "inspired" by the Superman movies of the 1970's and 1980's. The trend continues:

1st movie
Superman: Main character's father passes away. He feels guilty.
Spider-Man: Main character's father figure passes away. He feels guilty.


Not so bad. Though there are other similarities, the above is consistent with Spider-Man's established history.

2nd movie
Superman: Main character reveals his identity to his girlfriend. He loses powers. He gets them back.
Spider-Man: Main character reveals his identity to his girlfriend. He loses powers. He gets them back.

This one seemed like too much of a coincidence, for me.

3rd movie
Superman: Main character turns semi-evil. He wears a darker version of his costume. He becomes good, later.
Spider-Man: Main character turns semi-evil. He wears a darker version of his costume. We assume he becomes good, later.

C'mon, now.


I know the Superman movies are pretty old, now, but they were enormously popular. It makes sense to draw inspiration from them, but this seems rather excessive - though not enough to keep me out of the theater.


In thirty years, I guess they'll make another Spider-Man movie where he disappeared for a long time, then came back to discover... Well, I'll stop there in case some of you haven't seen Superman Returns, yet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw the 1st Spidey (on DVD). I skipped the second one but the 3rd one looks pretty good. I may even go to the theater to see it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Miz JJ said...

I am like chele. I saw the first, but skipped the second. Kirsten Dunst as the heroine was too much of a stretch for me.