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EXCLUSIVE: Davis Guggenheim Directing a ‘Drunk History’-Inspired Michael J. Fox Documentary

Michael J. Fox has built quite the legacy in Hollywood. Many fondly remember his work on projects like Family Ties, Back to the Future, Spin City, and many more. He recently even appeared in series like The Good Wife and had his own series title The Michael J. Fox Show. It hasn’t been easy for the actor since he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He became a strong advocate and his foundation has helped fund research into the disease since 2000. Such a history is worth telling, and we can exclusively share that director Davis Guggenheim is going to adapt a project based on the retired actor’s life.

It won’t be your everyday documentary, as the director is adding a new spin. Instead of recreating his life or simply retelling it through archival footage, the project will be inspired by Drunk History. As such, various actors will dramatize different times in the actor’s life. The inspirations of the previously mentioned show lie in how some scenes will be without dialog under narration and lip-sync. It’s currently eyeing a production start in February of 2022.

The casting process is currently underway and it’s a promising concept to take a different approach with a documentary on someone’s life. Guggenheim has worked on projects ranging from An Inconvenient Truth, Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, to Waiting for “Superman”. He also has quite a bit of experience in television, such as NYPD Blue, ER, Alias, and Deadwood. It’ll be interesting to see how this project comes to life and retells his life story.

December 13, 2021
‘Hawkeye’ From Page to Screen: Episode 4

With Episode 4 ‘Partners, Am I Right?’ Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye is now moving into its third act. Unlike previous episodes where we could find entire sequences taken straight out of the Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye comic run (introducing Lucky in episode 1, Clint and the Tracksuit Mafia in episode 2, the car chase and trick arrows in episode 3), these references were now a bit more subdued.

Flipping the script
Going back to the trick arrows theme that we focused on last week, we got a reference showing us how, at times, the series has managed to flip the script on the comic run. There’s a small gag in issue #3 that starts off with Clint praising the qualities of his Boomerang Arrows. Kate, on the other hand, doesn’t really see the point or how they could ever come in handy on the field. Later on while facing the Tracksuit Mafia, who have a machine gun to Clint’s head, Kate is asked not to engage and to ditch the arrow she has pointed at the Bro who has Clint. She complies, shooting it way above the Mafia Bro’s head, only for the arrow to come back and hit him in the back of the head, thus saving Clint. ‘Boomerang Arrow. It comes back to you in the end.”

‘Hawkeye’ #3 (2012)

‘Hawkeye’ #3 (2012)

In the show that initial discussion goes the other way around. Boomerang Arrows aren’t a real thing but Kate kinda wishes they were. Clint, as Kate did in the comic run, doesn’t really see the appeal of having an arrow you shot coming back to bite you in the ass. Kate then mentions there might have a little bit of dodging involved. This might still be setting up a payoff down the line when a Boomerang Arrow is actually used in action but, for now, it serves as an example of how the series is approaching the Clint / Kate dynamic differently than the comic run. In the books, Kate was always the more level-headed of the two. Clint, a single guy living alone in NYC struggled to get his shit together and was often given crap about not doing the right thing. As we’ve been watching in the tv show, things are very differently portrayed.

Marvel Studios’ ‘Hawkeye’ Episode 4

‘Hawkeye’ #9 (2013)

This might be due to a number of factors with one being that, with the show being used to introduce Kate Bishop to the world, you still need to allow the character to have enough room to grow in upcoming projects. There would be no point in presenting Kate in the place you want her to be in five years from now. Just think of the amount of development you’d have to skip over. At the same time, the series, unlike the comic run, had to deal with preestablished Clint Barton’s background, both in terms of his family life and his past avenging. Even if the comic approach of making the young protégé being the sane one was a welcomed one, both the past and future of the MCU strongly benefit from approaching the Barton / Bishop relationship the way the show does.

Marvel Studios’ ‘Hawkeye’ Episode 4

LARPers helping out
In a pretty good self-aware and self-deprecating bit of storytelling, we got introduced to the LARPers in episode 2, ‘Hide and Seek’. Episode four brought them back in a more active role, making them a part of Clint and Kate’s.. guild? If there’s one thing that the Tracksuit Mafia has over our heroes is strength in numbers and the LARPers could just be the missing pieces in order to level the playing field in the upcoming episodes.

Marvel Studios’ ‘Hawkeye’ Episode 4

The comic run didn’t feature these characters but still managed to deliver Clint and Kate the help they needed by having Barton’s neighbors step up and help out. Throughout the series, we get to see Clint, hesitantly at first, connect with his neighbors to the point where their well-being becomes as important to him as his own. He helps one of them (Grills, sound familiar?) reconnect with his dad and even babysits Simone’s kids. At the end of the series, as the Tracksuits prepare one final attack on their building, everybody plays a part in defeating them, some with more success than others.

‘Hawkeye’ #1 (2012)

‘Hawkeye’ #7 (2012)

In a show that has been so much about family, be it through Clint’s point of view (where you value what you have) or through Kate’s (where she learns that there’s family to be found outside the typical idyllic entity) the development of a family-type unit with the help of LARPers found along the way seems like a welcomed prospect for both characters.

December 13, 2021
REVIEW: Amazon’s ‘With Love’ Uses the Holidays to Tell the Struggles of Love

Amazon’s With Love is a series that focuses on the Diaz family. Over the span of five episodes, the series covers Christmas Eve (Nochebuena), New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Independence Day and Day of the Dead before circling back to Christmas Eve a year later. Upon first meeting the Diaz family, it’s clear that while this is a lovely bunch of people, some of them are dealing with some personal issues over the holidays. Whether it be a recent break-up, a wife craving affection or a cousin fearful of love there’s a story we all can relate to. By the end of episode one, it’s hard not to wonder where these stories will go and how they’ll possibly be wrapped up in a series meant to skip months at a time. Shockingly? It works.

With Love does not have a single main character. This truly is an ensemble cast. Each character is important to the story and receives a fair amount of screen time. More impressively, though, along with juggling such a big cast, the series somehow manages to smoothly transition between stories. The downside to this method is, sometimes, the story gets told off-screen and then we’re thrown into the after of it all. This is something that becomes quickly apparent thanks to the fourth episode. While I do enjoy the premise, I do wish the series filmed some backstories to fill in the gaps. Sometimes, viewers need to see the story unfold rather than hear about it after the fact. It’s the one flaw With Love suffers from.

If you’re a sucker for Christmas movies or cheesy romantic comedies, With Love will be something you’ll want to devour. It’s all about romance; the messiness of it and the truths people refuse to believe at times. We see what happens when parties give up, we see what happens when others refuse to. Yes, there’s heartbreak, but With Love isn’t about selling tragedy. It’s a series about growth and learning to accept our screw-ups. It’s one of the strongest elements of the series. The characters do experience some major growth over the course of five episodes. The Lily (Emeraude Toubia) we meet in the first episode is a far cry from the woman in episode five. There is one character though, that doesn’t get to show as much growth as one would hope, though. Desmond Chiam‘s Nick is a delight in this series, although I wish he had more of a storyline.

While most shows work best with at least ten episodes, With Love manages to succeed partially because of its five-episode order. Yes, as stated, the series could benefit from some flashbacks. Ultimately, though, the year timeline forces the writers to tell a tight, cohesive story. There isn’t room for a filler episode because each episode moves the story forward. The only downside is, by the end of the fifth episode, you’ll want to spend more time with the Diaz family. Unfortunately, though, until a second season is ordered, it remains to be seen whether or not viewers will get that chance.

Full of young talent like Toubia, Chiam, Mark Indelicato and Vincent Rodriguez III, With Love is a present you’ll gladly want to unwrap this holiday season – especially if you’re a fan of Hallmark movies.

With Love debuts on Dec. 17 only on Amazon Prime.

December 13, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Rhys Ifans Comments on ‘No Way Home’ Return

Spider-Man: No Way Home finally swings into theaters this week and fans are eagerly anticipating not only the ending of the first MCU Spidey trilogy, but putting to rest all the crazy rumors that have swirled around this film for over a year. Promotional material for the film put a rest to any doubts that the film would feature villains from Sam Raimi and Marc Webb’s Spider-franchises as they heavily featured Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman and Lizard. One doubt that has remained front and center for fans, however, is if Thomas Haden Church and Rhys Ifans returned to play Flint Marko and Curtis Conners, respectively.

Ifans’ Conners proved a key character in The Amazing Spider-Man, not only as the villain but as link between Peter and his father. While the Lizard was an outright villain, Conners was a bit of tortured genius and Ifans played the role well. Ifans is playing another tortured genius, Rasputin, in the upcoming film The King’s Man. Our own Hunter Radesi interviewed Ifans today and asked the actor if he was in fact the man behind the Lizard again for Spider-Man: No Way Home. With a big grin on his face, Ifans responded:

Well you know, like most Christmas presents, the good thing is not knowing what’s in them until it’s time to open them.

While Jaime Foxx and Alfred Molina seemed all too happy to talk about their time in the film, Ifans was definitely a little less forthcoming. With the aforementioned actors returning for their roles, it’s hard to imagine that Sony and Marvel Studios didn’t do everything in their power to bring Ifans and Church back as well. With just 4 days until the film’s debut in theaters, we won’t have to be left wondering much longer.

December 12, 2021
Murphy’s Team-Up, Volume X: Comfort Movies and TV Shows

John Sabato

Favorite comfort show would have be Parks and Recreation. It’s one that absolutely never gets old and I can watch it over and over. In fact I have, I’ve seen Parks and Recreation like 11 times. I watch it less now due to it no longer being on Netflix, but it’s the characters and their progression throughout the series that makes it so special to me.

Nathan Miller

My favourite comfort film is 1979’s The Muppet Movie. I think it’s the first film I remember watching and probably caused my love of roadtrips. Not only are The Muppets themselves incredibly comforting in their humour and life lessons, but the songs are brilliant. “The Rainbow Connection” still makes me misty-eyed and “Movin’ Right Along” is also a really great roadtrip sing-along. The film itself is one of the few origin films that I truly love, because of how much it commits to the verisimilitude that makes The Muppets great in general. There are also some cracking cameos that still hit decades later. The whole film is a warm embrace and a reassuring pat on the shoulder to keep at the things that make dreams come true.

Mary Maerz

My comfort movie is Hunt for the Wilderpeople. I only watched it back in the day (2016) because I knew some random guy named Taika Waititi was directing Thor: Ragnarok, so I was curious about his other films. Long story short, Hunt for the Wilderpeople is now probably my favorite non-Marvel movie of all time. Sam Neill and Julian Dennison are incredible in the lead roles and bounce perfectly off of each other. Dennison is the reason the film is so funny, and Rachel House’s serious-but-absurd child welfare services officer is dry humor at its finest. Even through some darker themes and scenes, the movie manages to feel so wholesome overall.

Nicole Sobon

My comfort television show is Criminal Minds. It’s admittedly, not the greatest, however, the earlier seasons are enjoyable, even if ridiculous at times. The ensemble cast is great, and I have a connection to the series that makes it a comfort for me. When I’m not working here or at my day job, I write books. One of those books, Program 13, ended up being quoted in a Season 8 episode of Criminal Minds – episode 13, “Magnum Opus.” Needless to say, since then, Criminal Minds has become a comfort series I revisit at least once a year when I “can’t” find something to watch, or simply don’t want to commit to a new series.

Joseph Aberl

If it comes to comfort shows, there is enough to choose from. For some, it’s a show they’ve seen over and over again or something they can turn on while turning off their brain to take it easy. In my case, it’s more the former, as my comfort show is the sitcom Friends. I somewhat have a tradition where I rewatch the show once a year, especially made easier now with the option to binge it on Netflix, to get my mind off of things. There’s a strange familiarity returning to these characters and their stories even if some aspects of the show I have a hard time sitting through. Still, it was something I always fall back on if I have met a point where I don’t know what to watch or even do with myself and has stayed as such to this day. And if that doesn’t work, I tend to just watch a random cooking competition.

December 12, 2021
REVIEW: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Is Great If You Ignore A Lot Of It

Welcome back to 2014. The year was marked by several phenomenal Marvel films including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. It had only been a couple of years since The Avengers debuted, so the comic book movie landscape was full of excitement and promise. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 also happened to be released in 2014.

The day before it was released, if you had told anyone that within the next two years the Spider-Man franchise would yet again be rebooted with an entirely new British Peter Parker, you would’ve sounded pretty silly. But then after audiences got the chance to see it, you would’ve sounded like a Sony executive. Full disclosure, TASM 2 is one of my favorite Spider-Man films, because if you ignore all of the bad stuff, it’s actually not a bad movie.

I do think Andrew Garfield is a phenomenal Spider-Man. He’s the funniest, his quips are great, and overall his masked person has the most personality of any live-action Spidey. He also had some great street-level action scenes early on, and they play up the conflict between that and his normal life. This version is actually well-connected to New York City and crime-fighting, unlike a certain Iron Space Avenger Spider (but maybe that’s your thing). However, I will not even suggest that Garfield is an ideal candidate for Peter Parker – whenever someone called him “Peter”, it threw me off. That was a grown 30-year-old man, both literally and in on-screen presence.

How a director with the last name Webb could not land a Best Picture Academy Award nomination for a Spider-Man movie is beyond me. The best guess of why this didn’t happen is a note I jotted down when re-watching the movie: “This plot is dumb.” But sometimes to truly appreciate a film, you have to ignore the plot – that’s just life. With the holidays approaching, the right thing to do is forgive and forget. However, there is no question that the fact that the Rhino fight scene – which played dramatically and was highlighted in every single trailer this movie ever put out – was never even a real scene is absolutely unforgivable and you are right to still be upset about it.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was plagued by the “okay, so we just did a whole Spider-Man franchise a few years ago, so how do we make it way too obvious that this is different from those?” disease. Make no mistake, this is not the same as the Goblin disease Harry Osborn had to deal with – what better way is there to enjoy a “different” Green Goblin than to actually make him a goblin? It’s art. But Harry for sure has some issues at the end of the film, the guy looked rough, mostly just greasy, but Greasy Goblin is just angry that introducing his character as some guy that Peter hasn’t seen or talked to since middle school maybe wasn’t the best choice.

“This plot is dumb” because none of the major potential plots seem to belong in the movie. This means that the movie is less of a story and more of a smattering of ideas. But if Jackson Pollock can make it work, surely Spidey can too. I have a hard time deciding if the loose idea of the Richard and Mary Parker story was just bad at face value, or just misunderstood. But after typing that sentence I realized I understand it and I’m pretty sure it’s just bad. In any event, starting the movie with what felt like an hour (it was probably more like ten minutes) of these flashbacks was not ideal. Then, throughout the movie, it’s clear it has no real importance to the actual movie, but Peter will remember it at times so that there can be montages.

The parents’ “plot” really only served to technically create Greasy Goblin via syringe, but yet Greasy Goblin seemed to only be there to … actually, I have no idea why. Perhaps only to technically pretend to be an emo bad boy with Electro for a hot minute – even though I’m pretty sure Electro didn’t actually need help jumping into an outlet – and maybe give Gwen Stacy a slightly more comic-accurate death.

Electro was, in theory, the main villain. He’s easily my favorite part of the movie, both ironically and genuinely. Max is a lot – he’s cringy, awkward, hard to look in the digital eye. It worked well for what the character was supposed to be, but I have no idea how intentional some of it was or if it just worked out in post-production somehow. Obviously, his transformation into a member of the Blue Man Group (but with more eel inspiration) is one of the most memorable things from TASM 2, and yes, it is rough. I’m pretty sure Jamie Foxx actually nailed his performance. But with lines like “It’s my birthday!” as he tries to fry some men, women, and children, it gets hard to tell.

Obviously, at the heart of this movie is the relationship between Peter and Gwen Stacy even if he stalked her way too much. First of all, part of the reason why TASM 2 is secretly good is that they did indeed kill Gwen. Not only does this introduce a darker element from the comics, but at the time it seemed inconceivable that a superhero movie would just (fairly violently) kill off a lead romantic interest, let alone Emma Stone. Unfortunately, the movie spent almost all of its run time leading up to this heartbreaking moment by making sure the two lovebirds were broken up. I’m not sure why that makes much sense, but maybe they needed to make sure they had enough time for Greasy Goblin to have his fake story.

Despite the mess that is the majority of TASM 2, this movie had some gnarly visual effects and a Hans Zimmer score. If you generally only pay attention to these two things, the film is phenomenal. Spider-Man’s swinging and action scenes were stunning. While the action scenes were fun, there were very few. An inappropriately large amount of the movie was spent watching people talk. Still, the final power plant scene was wild. It did not fit the tone of the rest of the movie whatsoever, but it was campy, dramatic, over-the-top, and I had a great time with it. TASM 2 loved its slow-motion, and I remember being in awe when I first saw it in IMAX.

Finally, Hans Zimmer really brought it. More importantly, he really brought it for Electro. I think TASM 2 thought: “how do we make sure people know Electro is Jamie Foxx and that Jamie Foxx also does music?” The answer was for the score to go hard for the character by diving into his head as the music’s base. The Times Square Electro scene, in particular, is a musical playground. It’s so great.

All in all, TASM 2 is just as lovable as the rest of Spider-Man movies, but sometimes love is hard work. The ending of the movie was magnificent, we see Peter’s montage through some dark times only to emerge as Spider-Man again in the city’s time of need. This movie had some of the best Spider-Man swinging and action sequences that currently exist, both in terms of visuals and Garfield being a fantastic Spider-Man. While we will never truly know how The Amazing Spider-Man 3 would have played out, the fact that the mystery of Peter’s parents’ story remains unresolved does not keep me up at night.

December 12, 2021
How To Fix ‘Eternals’

With a framework spanning the cosmos, a source material that would rival any Hugo Award-winning novel, and an ambitious visionary helming the project, Eternals should have been a critical homerun for Marvel Studios. Yet, one look at its Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores will show how the film has been anything but. The film has been described as a mixed bag that’s neither artsy enough to please director Chloe Zhao’s fans nor is it native to the MCU magic fans have been accustomed to for a decade.

There’s a lot to like with the film; its scope is so propulsively cosmic that it ticks all the boxes for every deep-cut comic nerd; the Dragon Ball action sequences are exhilarating to watch; certain characters make for nice additions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite the good things it has, the film is held back from reaching the MCU’s apex by some creative decisions. Here are some fixes we think would make Eternals a better film.

A GOOD CENTRAL PROTAGONIST

Eternals is hamstrung by its lack of a good central protagonist. The film’s de facto protagonist, Sersi, just isn’t likable enough for MCU audiences to latch onto. Gemma Chan’s stoic ho-hum performance certainly doesn’t help Sersi’s arc and her millennia-long romance with Ikaris, played by an equally wooden Richard Madden, is as cold as a long winter. What you get is an ensemble whose parts are greater than its sum, made worthwhile by the smaller supporting characters.

Not the least of those greater parts is Lia McHugh’s criminally underused Sprite, an Eternal whose arc is the most interesting one in the entire film. As an immortal being trapped in a child’s body, Sprite is a character whose pathos runs deep within the confines of the film’s framework. Central to the film’s emotional core are the lives of these immortals and their struggles fitting into a world that’s meant to die before them. The notion of a child standing in the face of eternity is fascinating to explore. The movie only mildly alludes to her painful journey living thousands of years as a child with no semblance of maturity and it ends up feeling like a missed opportunity.

Making Sprite the protagonist makes for inherently complex storytelling. Not the least of which, the MCU ends up having its first child protagonist pre- Ms. Marvel. Hugh’s role in the job is mostly thankless but she ends up drawing eyes towards Sprite and a brief exploration of her journey.

JUST SET IT IN THE PAST

Other than using the Snap as the starting point of the plot, Eternals really has no business being set in the present. By far the most beautiful moments in the movie take place in the past as we not only see these gods find their humanity in ushering new civilizations but we also see them lose faith in their purpose as they watch worlds fall. So much of their journey takes place in the past that’s almost baffling to see them posit the crux of the film in the present day. In the present day, their arcs feel so distant and detached from where they came from and it hurts the way audiences engage with them. Having the film set in the past puts the characters’ arcs into focus and makes it more tangible.

It’s not hard to imagine a version of this script where the same story takes place completely in the past. You can take the exact same premise – the world-ending threat of the Celestial egg hatching – set it centuries back and have the same exact outcome. The only loss would be the film’s heavy expositional idea of billions of people suddenly reappearing triggering the Celestial awakening but even from a micro perspective, it’s a tangential connection at most. The catalyst for the awakening could be rewritten into something more relevant to the past, be it a historic calamity or some MCU mumbo jumbo.

GIVE KRO SOMETHING TO DO

Like Black Widow before it, Eternals is another Phase 4 project to do an awful job in handling its antagonists. Even the spin they give Ikaris doesn’t hit as well as they spend little time justifying his villainous turn by not exploring his pathos. The de facto villains of the piece, Kro and the Deviants, get the shorter end of the stick.

The Deviants are first treated as mindless cannon fodders, made more artificial by shoddy CGI that would make Steppenwolf and Parademons look like breakthroughs in VFX. They pose as superficial threats to the ensemble with Kro being the sole exception. When Kro transforms himself into a thinking being, the mindlessness that originally defined them is undone brilliantly. It’s a pivotal moment that establishes there might be more to these cannon fodders than meets the eye.

But there isn’t, even though there should be. The film eventually reveals that the Deviants were just as manipulated and used by the Celestials, putting them on the same path as the main Eternals. But Kro’s evolution into a thinking being doesn’t hold weight when all he does right until the end is just trade punches with the main characters, who are keen on fighting the Celestial that ruined the Eternals and Deviants.

Not giving Kro a shred of narrative dignity is what ultimately ruins the character. If they had allowed the character space to interact with the protagonists in a meaningful way, the film would’ve had an interesting approach to villains. Perhaps they could team up to fight Ikaris. Perhaps the Eternals would’ve been able to find a way to evolve them from being predators. The whole ethos of the team is ensuring the survivability of a race of beings. To be able to rehabilitate these creatures would be to fulfill their original destiny in much more meaningful ways.

Eternals hits Disney Plus on Jan. 12, 2022.

December 12, 2021
REVIEW: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Is the Perfect Superhero Film for the ‘Twilight’ Generation

The Amazing Spider-Man was always facing an uphill battle. Marc Webb‘s reboot of cinema’s most iconic superhero franchise came on the heels of an upsetting Spider-Man 4 cancellation and was attempting to establish everyone’s favorite wall-crawler for a whole new breed of teenager. It was never going to please everyone, and it certainly lived up to that expectation. The film debuted in 2012 to a stream of mixed reception, with some praising the Andrew Garfield-led film for its modern take on the title character and others ripping it apart as a hollow recreation of Sam Raimi‘s original masterpiece. Upon yet another rewatch, I’ve discovered that the movie, while flawed, may be more misunderstood than actually all that bad. In fact, it may have been the perfect superhero movie for the generation taking over cinemas when it released, even if hardcore fans missed it at the time.

I couldn’t be more aware of the fact every Spider-Man movie has been reviewed to death. Perhaps it would be better to think of this as a retrospective, just a year shy of The Amazing Spider-Man‘s decennial anniversary. Doing this requires an understanding of 2012’s film landscape. Comic book movies had only just truly reached mainstream popularity, and the highest grossing films at the box office were mostly adaptations of young adult novels. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 had just dominated the cultural hive mind only a year prior to Amazing‘s release, and one of the only movies to outgross the film in its actual release year was The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Not far behind was The Hunger Games, and although it wasn’t a money-making juggernaut, The Perks of Being a Wallflower managed to capture the minds of 2012’s teens and critics alike. Before long, theaters would be filled with hormonal youth, cash in hand to see movies like Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars on the big screen.

Sure, The Avengers also came out in 2012. However, the impact that film would have on the future of Hollywood and the format of superhero movies could not have been known when Webb and screenwriter James Vanderbilt were crafting the story and tone of The Amazing Spider-Man. There had to have been a reason Sony hired a director best known for his work with romantic comedies to helm their spider-reboot, and it’s because they were creating a new take on Peter Parker designed to appeal to the same masses who would turn out for Katniss Everdeen and Edward Cullen. In this regard, the studio and creative team succeeded.

Andrew Garfield‘s portrayal of Parker is often knocked for being “too cool” and lackadaisical. Yet, he fits right in with the effortlessly attractive and sullenly charming crowd of early 2010’s protagonists. Garfield‘s Peter is not just angry about his life and the deaths of those he loves, he’s angsty instead. His chemistry with Emma Stone, whose Gwen Stacy is still considered a top-tier rendition of the character, is not only incredibly agreeable to watch, but filled with the same pulpable tension as any forbidden teenage love story. The film presents us with two attractive, intelligent characters teeming with lust, who will continue to battle their own fates in an attempt to truly be with each other. That is the crux of the entire plot, a dramatic romance supporting a story that involves giant lizard men and plenty of spandex.

It’s true that this often leads to moments that conflict with the comic book ideals of Spider-Man’s mythology, but it’s no more or less committed to its own bit than the Raimi films before it. Part of the appeal of The Amazing Spider-Man is the way it so desperately wants to birth its own filter for the wall-crawler’s universe. As much as I love the current Spider-Man entries, they do tend to lack the definitive look and feel that the franchises before them managed to achieve. It’s hard to genuinely insult Amazing for its specifically dark coloring and nearly full-blown emo tone when you consider how unabashedly it doubles down on those things. There is not a corny moment that’s any more or less cheesy than some of the comical scenes in revered adaptations likes Spider-Man 2; the difference is that 2012’s goofball actions and dialogue are written for a different audience than the one seated in 2002. When that 2002’s Spider-Man is taken as the standard, 2012’s becomes a hard pill to swallow.

I’m not saying that this movie is perfect by any means. Rhys Ifans puts together an admirable performance as Dr. Curt Connors, but his work is undermined by poor character development. A side story involving Peter’s parents having mysterious backgrounds feels unnecessary and overcomplicated, taking away from Martin Sheen and Sally Field as the best Uncle Ben and Aunt May we have seen on film. Based on his actions, everyone should have figured out Peter was Spider-Man almost immediately. Yet, beneath all the complaints you’ve heard a million times, there’s actually a superhero movie based in love that’s campy in a way only the early 2010’s could have pulled off.

December 11, 2021
The Pulse: Collecting the Biggest News of the Week of December 5th-11th
Marvel Rumor Round-Up

As I said on Twitter, we have entered the Wild West age of Marvel Studios’ projects being spoiled. At this point, no spoiler is too big and multiple projects had big spoilers leaked this week. You can check them out here:
Cowboy Bebop Gets Whac-A-Mole’d At Netflix

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the iconic sci-fi anime series, Cowboy Bebop, is dead after one season. Read our review before it becomes a collector’s item.

Michael, not Kenny, G. to score ‘Thor 4’

Michael Giacchino, who has scored at least a half dozen Pixar projects and a handful of Marvel Studios projects, including all the Spidey films, revealed he is now scoring Thor: Love and Thunder. Wait until you guys find out about his next project for Marvel! It’s a howling big deal.

Let There Be More Venom

Sideshow Amy Pascal confirmed this week, to literally nobody’s surprise, that the studio was developing a third Venom film. The two films have inexplicably built a huge fanbase and made a metric shit ton of money, so a third film, featuring Tom Holland, would probably somehow become the biggest money maker of all-time for Sony.

‘Wonder Woman 3’ Headed for a Potential 2024 Debut

WW director Patty Jenkins has been on, off, in and out of a lot of films recently. A new report from one of the trades indicates that she’s still on Wonder Woman 3 and that it’ll start production in 2023, making a 2024 release date a possibility.

Destin Daniel Cretton Signs a Ryan Coogler-esque Deal with Disney

Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton signed a new deal with Disney that will see him develop, among many other things, the Shang-Chi sequel and a Disney+ Shang-Chi spinoff.
December 11, 2021
Destin Daniel Cretton Updates Progess on ‘Shang-Chi’ Sequel

Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings became a critical and financial success for Marvel Studios during the ongoing pandemic. To no one’s surprise, a rumored sequel was officially given the green light recently, with Destin Daniel Cretton returning to write and direct. Cretton, who is also developing a Disney+ series that spins out of the events of the first film, recently gave an update on the Shang-Chi sequel in an interview with Collider.

As is often the case, it turns out that conversations that took place during the production of the first film ended up being the genesis of a potential sequel; however, as Cretton told Collider, sequels aren’t guaranteed until Marvel Studios’ execs see how the first project is received by fans:

While we were shooting, we were throwing around joke ideas of what a sequel could be. But with Marvel, it really is gauging to see how people react to the movie and also gauging what the experience of making the movie was. We had such a good time on it that it would’ve been a shame not to have a sequel, so I’m very excited to.

And Shang-Chi was incredibly well-received. Audiences lauded the acting, action and fantasy elements and were immediately hungry for more. That demand gives Cretton an opportunity to more fully develop some of those idea thrown around during production on the first film, ideas that, as it turns out, made their way into the first film as potential sequel set-ups:

There are a lot of ideas that we had in the opener, and some of those ideas are planted as questions, by the end of our movie. There are things that we potentially want to explore in the future. Everything changes so much, so it’s hard to say how many of those ideas will actually make it to the finish line, but there are many of them there.

With all that prep work having been done, it would seem that Cretton’s sequel script might be well underway. However, Cretton told Collider that is far from the truth. When asked about the work he’d done on the script, the writer/director had this to say:

I’ve done [zero]. It’s a fun place to be right now. Everything is a possibility. We’re just tossing very loose ideas around and we’ll start to hone in on something, hopefully.

During the interview, Cretton also expressed his excitement to be able to continue working with both Marvel Studios and the cast and crew of the first film. His new deal with the studio should excite fans of the first film as we can look forward to great content for years to come.

Source: Collider

December 11, 2021