Chapter 985 Unlimited Potential
Many years later, when people returned to the unique genre of superhero movies, everyone knew that the emergence of "Spider-Man" changed history. This is the long history of movies. It is the first film in the film to have a box office of more than 100 million US dollars in its opening weekend, setting a monument with its unparalleled performance.
However, in these bustling discussions, if you are not paying attention, you may often overlook the existence of "Spider-Man 2".
If "Spider-Man" made major Hollywood studios realize the value of superhero comic copyrights, then "Spider-Man 2" made producers and directors realize that superhero movies can still be like this Shoot.
On the one hand, Sam Raimi’s exploration of the character of Peter Parker is refreshing and fully demonstrates the director’s love for the original comics.
On the other hand, as a popcorn movie, Sam Raimi cleverly integrated his bad taste as a horror movie director into the picture, setting a precedent in the battle scenes, including Doctor Octopus awakening in the hospital and Spider-Man saving the subway. The play has become a classic that people talk about.
The latter, in particular, is still a well-deserved classic even after many years later when genre films have completely exploded, shooting techniques have become increasingly mature, and whimsical ideas have emerged one after another.
These factors are also important reasons why the movie has become a classic.
However, as the soul of the movie series, Peter Parker undoubtedly bears the key responsibility in this movie.
For actors, "Spider-Man 2" can be said to be a rare opportunity to show off their acting skills.
Even in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" series, Christian Bale did not get such a large number of performance opportunities to show his inner drama.
In the previous life, in the version of "Spider-Man 2" that Anson was familiar with, Sam Raimi relied on the box office blowout of the previous film to get a lot of initiative from Sony Columbia Pictures and was able to start filming according to his own ideas.
Not only did he incorporate the horror movie expression techniques he is good at into the shots, he also calmed down and endured, spending a lot of plots and shots focusing on Peter Parker's inner struggle and suffering.
It is no exaggeration to say that, except for Ang Lee's version of "The Hulk", there is no other superhero movie willing to spend so much time focusing on the psychological arc of the protagonist——
Zach-Schneider's "Watchmen" doesn't either.
The reason is simple and intuitive.
"The Hulk" pounced.
To be precise, the filming of "Hulk" was before "Spider-Man" detonated the box office. In April 2002, the film was shot in Arizona.
With the help of Ang Lee, who has reached the peak of his career with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", took over the job after the film project went through four directors. Universal Pictures gave Ang Lee full creative freedom, especially after "Spider-Man", they even He is full of expectations for this work.
However, Ang Lee failed to find a balance in commercial blockbusters. This investment of 140 million U.S. dollars cost more than 30 million U.S. dollars at Universal Pictures. After extensive publicity and promotion, it was released in June this year, with a final box office of US$130 million in North America and US$245 million worldwide
Disappointed.
Not only was it a hit on the street, after the box office dividends were distributed, Universal Pictures lost more than 70 million US dollars, making it the most tragic hit on the block in 2003.
In addition, the box office performance of "Spider-Man 2" in its previous life was also lower than that of the first part of the series. Of course, the movie still made money, but it was still inevitably disappointing compared with expectations.
So, after that, Hollywood studios had the impression: Don’t discuss the inner struggles of superheroes in depth. No one wants to see superheroes encounter mid-life crises.
Later, "Spider-Man: Into the Parallel Universe" and the drama version of "Daredevil" overturned this impression. This is another story. My eyes returned to "Spider-Man 2".
Sam Raimi gave sufficient plot, footage, and time to focus on Peter Parker's psychological state and growth arc. It is more complete and clearer than the previous film. This kind of patience is really rare in genre movies.
Not only in superhero movies, it is also uncommon in other types of movies.
As you can imagine, this gives the actors enough space to build the character-
The character's state, the different struggles at each point in time, and the timing and method of final transformation.
Movies allow actors to construct a flesh-and-blood character!
However, in the parallel world of his previous life, Tobey Maguire messed up.
In the first movie of the series, Peter Parker is a boy next door facing the troubles of adolescence. This kind of performance is in line with the color of school movies and soap operas, which is Tobey Maguire’s strength. Mission accomplished.
In the second movie of the series, Peter Parker has to face not just growing pains, but life and reality. The situation is obviously much more complicated, justice and evil, ego and ego, Responsibility and selfishness, money and love, etc. These questions may not be answered in a lifetime. Countless sentient beings are trapped in the cage of reality, so naturally it is not that simple.
Faced with such a complex and profound dilemma, it is not enough for Tobey Maguire to still act in the way of a youth campus romance movie.
To be precise, it was actually a disaster.
In the movie, Peter Parker faces many dilemmas and moments of conflict between heaven and man. Sometimes he can't think of an answer, sometimes he is on the verge of collapse, and sometimes he is helpless and helpless. Different emotions are complicated. It comprehensively displays the plight of this young man who has just emerged from society.
However, Tobey Maguire always has an expression with wide eyes and tears. Even if it is not as exaggerated as facial paralysis, it is not far away.
The complex and profound emotions evolved into a single line of grievance and confusion under his processing, and then... nothing more.
Originally, grievance and confusion are also correct emotions; but if the whole process is grievance and confusion from beginning to end, that would be bad.
There is no character edge, no performance context, no character arc, and no growth and change is shown until the ending. It always looks like aggrieved and humiliating, which results in the characters always standing still. For the movie, this is a complete disaster.
In fact, in the early stages of his career, people were not aware of this problem of Tobey Maguire, but after "Spider-Man 2", his shortcomings were fully exposed, and it became a problem that he never had in his career later. A threshold that can be broken through.
In a sense, Toby is also a vase, a baby-faced vase.
So, can it be said that Toby's performance ruined "Spider-Man 2" and caused the movie's box office to be inferior to its predecessor?
Anson wouldn’t say that. After all, Toby’s neighborly temperament does give Peter Parker an irreplaceable quality, but there is no doubt that Toby’s performance limits “Spider-Man 2” , failed to bring out the full potential of Sam Raimi's well-written script and characters.
If the potential is fully tapped, can "Spider-Man 2" rewrite history?
Anson is not sure, because there are too many influencing factors behind the movie box office. In this time and space, "Spider-Man" has reached a new level, a height that is difficult to surpass.
But Anson wanted to give it a try.
(End of this chapter)