Sam Raimi—whose Spider-Man 3 was godawful and he knows it—would love to work on a Marvel superhero movie. If Marvel were asking, that is. Or if not, whatever. He doesn’t even care, you know? Wait, is he mouthing, “Call me?” and making a phone out of his hand?
Yes, just when Spider-Man thought he was free of the evil that attached itself to him and sucked out all that was good about him, Raimi wants into the Marvel movie fold Spidey has finally become a part of. Of course, it’s not like I think Raimi should never work again just for some Spider-Man badness, but I really don’t think that what the Marvel movies are missing is his directorial touch.
And it seems that Raimi doesn’t, either, though he mentioned he’d still love to lend a hand with the character in an interview with The Week:
I messed up on the third one, I think they’re so complete now, Marvel. They probably don’t need me anymore. But if they needed me? I’d love to. It’s great to be wanted.
But here’s the thing: Raimi didn’t just mess up the third one. Even the first and second, which are still watchable, have their share of unwarranted goofiness/camp, and neither got Spidey’s personality even close to right, instead opting for turning him into a fairly generic, Superman-esque hero type who punched his way out of problems. Say what you will about the Amazing Spider-Man movies (and how bad the second one was), but if you look at the first one compared to Raimi’s first Spider-Man outside of the context of being a huge retread, it’s a superior Spider-Man movie (with the notable exception of the “New York City helps Spider-Man” moment, which Raimi’s movie did much better).
Marvel’s movie universe, while not as dark, “gritty,” and overwrought as DC’s tend to be (which I also enjoy), takes itself just a bit too seriously for Raimi’s sensibilities. I’m sure he could tone it down and make a good Marvel Cinematic Universe if he wanted to, but he’s had his shot, and it just didn’t quite hit the mark.
(via Screen Relish)
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