They can't do a Spider-man without Maguire, Dunst and Raimi! Gylennall (I can't spell it) is a good actor but Maguire is amazing in these films and people would notice. Also, Raimi's visual/campy humor style is what makes these films unique! I don't know if 6 films is such a great idea. I'd hate to see such a good series (so far) get destroyed by bad decisions like this.

If they follow the comics, Harry is more ruthless than Norman. He takes it so personally, and he attacks everything that Peter holds dear. He'd kill Aunt May, MJ and destroy Ben Parker's grave without batting an eye. I hope this works well in part III, Franco seems like he could do it.

I never noticed Curt Conners had a missing arm in the film and i even looked for it. I guess I wasn't looking hard enough, but I don't know many other people that noticed it, either. I think the Lizard and/or Venom and/or the new Green Goblin would be great for the thrid. Green Goblin is kind of a given, and the Lizard seems most likely, so I can't wait for it.

The writing was excellent. Even movies I really like have moments of bad dialogue (Star Wars prequels, etc.) The romance story was actually believable to me, good chemistry with the cast. The vision of Uncle Ben was heartwrenching, and there were great little subtle moments ("this is really heavy"). I think Dunst had a fabulous performance (I can't get her performance in Interview With the Vampire out of my mind, that was fabulous) as was the whole cast. J.K. Simmons doubled me over with laughter on several occasions.

Raimi has stated that Goblin in 3 will not be a retread. He's going to be more ruthless. And if the first two movies have anything to say, I trust Raimi to pull off yet another fantastic movie.

Yeah, Jameson is never Venom. In the cartoon one of his space flights is used as a ride for the symbiote to travel to Earth. Eddie Brock is the guy who became Venom and is the rival journalist. You can read up on how it came to be in the comics here...

- EXTERNAL LINK -

Also Harry was never the HobGoblin either :), you can also read up on the various Hobgoblin and Green Goblin incarnations in the link above as well. They just never die off!!!!

And much like you guys I thought the writing was excellent. I then looked up the writers and they had a Pulitzer prize winner and an Oscar winner as part of the writing team.

Actually, if you watch Spidey 2, you'll notice that Connors is already missing his right arm. No setup required on that one.

Also, with the whole Harry Osborne thing (now I didn't read the comics so I could be wrong), didn't Harry become the Hobgoblin? As I recall, the Hobgoblin had a completely different costume than the Green Goblin in the comic books, but used the same gadgets.

I think Venom could be done in a PG-13 environment. I mean, c'mon, that operating room scene was pretty creepy, so I think Raimi could reign it in enough.

As for more than one villain in the next film, I think that's something Raimi has a hard time getting his head around. In an interview, he stated that at one point he had more than one villain set up for Spidey 2 and as many as three in one draft, but the story suffered. I think this is the most important aspect of these films: the undeniable focus on story.

Sean (...of course, it's much more difficult to focus with beer goggles on...)

Yes, Sony wants up to "Spider-man 6". See the June 2004 issue of "Premiere" (the one with Kirsten Dunst on the cover). However, as someone else noted, Raimi, Maguire, and Dunst are signed through "Spider-man 3" only.

By the way, isn't John Jameson supposed to be the Wolf-man and NOT Venom (who's supposed to be a rival journalist???).

Curt Conners losing a limb wouldn't be hard to do. I could seriously see this character coming into play. We'll have to see... it almost makes me wonder if Raimi, or Stan Lee put all of these plot possibilities in there to throw us all off for the next one.

As for the CG being up to par for Venom, I only have one thing to say... Industrial Light & Magic. Many movies have contracted out to ILM for CG. However, as we're all probably aware, CG doesn't come cheap... especially when you're talking about ILM!! However, there are many studio's out there that are capable of the job. I think ILM would make it COMPLETELY believeable, but it could look goofy if they used their current CG crew. For the most part I saw only a few flaws in Spider-man 2's CG. Eddie pointed out the helicopters at the end looking like they came out of a video game... however, I didn't notice it. Since Venom is still only a "possibility" for a future plot, and seeing as how Spidy 2 just debuted less than 2 weeks ago... I think we've got some time before ANYONE is going to worry about it.

Being that the Goblin costume got "run through" in the first Spidy, Harry may have to make his own. I could see them "re-vamping" the costume for Harry's appearance as Gobby. I've heard a lot of people complain about how much of a joke the Goblin mask looked. I didn't really have a problem with it. To make it believeable, all it could be is a mask, as well as it looked pretty cool to me. It looked like the artists went strait off of the look from the comic books!

I think you're right about the villain thing. I think if they introduce 2 villains into the next film, Web-head would need some help. If they do that, they'll have to be EXTREMELY careful not to wander into "hokey" territory. We could wind up seeing the next title being "Spider-man and Friends". While that title is nostalgic, today it would be ridiculous!

I don't know what the deal is with the land lord's daughter. I got the feeling that her whole "cake offering" scene as well as her blatantly obvious interest in Peter, HAD to be significant! But I couldn't see how it was. It seemed to peter out (no pun intended) towards the end of the movie.

As far as Spider-man losing his powers, there are those of us here that think it has a referance to an inability to perform sexually (e.g. "shooting blanks")... I don't buy it... but who knows. I think if you look for something hard enough, you'll find what you're looking for, even if it's not there.

As for 6 Spidy films... well, you'd have to ask Eddie on that one. He's the one that made the comment. See his post on 04-15-2004 in this thread. As much of an advocate of keeping the same actor in an established roll as I am, I understand why they eventually move on. Spider-man doesn't need Toby to continue past a 3rd movie. As much as I'd like to see him stay. Sean had made mention that Sony was in talks with Jake Gyllenhaal (of October Sky, and The Day After Tomorrow) to be the next Spidy. Oddly enough Gyllenhaal is Kirsten Dunst's real life boyfriend. Coincidence? Probably not. I agree that if they go beyond a 3rd it "could" get "silly". However, as I mentioned... if they were to save a "Venom" introduction for the 4th... that would spark my interest no matter if the 3rd was lame or not!

- Josh :D

You're right on the girlfriends. They completely skipped Gwen Stacy (great comic, could've been a good movie) and the brunette at the Daily Bugle, who I guessed was Betty Brant, was hinted as being a romance but that's impossible now that Peter is with MJ. Actually, in the comics, Peter proposed to MJ 3 times before she said yes. She also knew his identity a long time ago, since she saw Spider-man climb out of Parker's window. Changes from the comics are perfectly acceptable in a film to make it more real, serve the story or enhance/increase drama. As far as Curt Conners as the Lizard, they would have to have him lose a limb in an accident so he could star his regeneration project. Also, the actor has to be willing to play a sinister villain. To do Venom, the FX department would really have to be up for the project and the origin story would have to be altered to fit a realistic approach. I noticed that, when Harry discovered the Goblin oom, that he found the mask, bombs, glider, but no costume. Would the goblin costume be revamped for him in the third entry? Some villains would be too ridiculous for a film without severe changes to the character (The Vulture, Kraven the hunter, etc.) I don't think that they could introduce any allies without it being goofy (The Black Cat, etc.) Was the landlords skinny daughter with the mole in Spider-man 2 supposed to be a significant character? I couldn't tell. The cake scene was one little glimmer of hope in Peter's life, since everything else in his life sucked at the moment. Many people didn't understand why Spider-man kept losing/regaining his powers. I thought it was psychological, that Parker didn't want to be Spider-man or have his powers anymore, so his body responded by shutting them down. His powers kicked in fully after Doc Ock captured MJ, giving Peter a real reason to fight.

Sony has plans to do 6 Spider-man films!?!?!
I read in a recent Tobey Maguire interview that he was only signed for three, and that that may be his limit since he may tire of the same character. Are these confirmed or just rumors? Can a franchise possibly last that long with the same crew and not deteriorate into something silly (ahem, Batman and Robin, cough)?

TGP,

I think you're right to worry about Spidy 3, (and beyond). As Eddie has mentioned before, Sony has plans for up to a Spider-man 6? I think that's what Eddie said. Historically when there are plans for so many sequels, they have done badly. Motion picture wise, if you look at the beginning of comic book movies starting with Superman, the first was excellent, the second was OK, the third was pretty well a disgrace, and the fourth (while better than the third) seemed to be trying to make up for the third. Then there was Batman. Again... the first, excellent, second, pretty good, and everything past that was crap (in my opinion). Then you have somewhat of an anomoly with X-men. The first was good, and the second "X2" was far better! I think the same thing has happened with Spider-man. The first was done very well, but Spider-man 2 did something I don't think ANY OF US had expected! It came out, and raised the bar for comic book movies! Now we have a new standard to compare all other comic book movies to. That being said... the Spider-man sequels from this point forward will have to be as good if not better than Spider-man 2. I could be wrong, but I have a hard time believing the writers and directors to follow will be able to meet (much less exceed) such a lofty goal. After seeing Spider-man 2, I commented that it was as good if not better than the first Superman! That says a lot to myself in that I was a very young and impressionable 4 years old, as well as Superman is still my favorite comic book movie.

As far as plot's go for future Spidy movies. I think if they can skip over Spidy's previous girlfriends, and go strait to MJ, they won't have any problem introducing Venom. (SPOILERS) With the ending of Spider-man 2 showing Harry discovering his dad's "arsenal" of Gobby bomb's, and the rest of Goblin's toys, I think it would be naieve to think that they won't bring Harry back as the new Goblin. However, I don't think they'll wait until a Spider-man 4 to do this... so logically, to keep things both fresh and interesting, as well as follow through with the idea of Harry becoming the Goblin, I think we might just see "The Lizzard" come to life, and team up with ol' Gobby. If this theoretical storyline comes to light, it would be an EXCELLENT way to leave off Spider-man 3 with a teaser of the emergence of Venom for a Spider-man 4!!

It's fun to speculate.

- Josh ;)

8)8)7/15...I finally saw it!:)

>>>Does anyone have any idea whom might be able to fill Tobey's shoes... er, webs, should they go with someone else?<<<
Orlando Bloom (Legolas). Looks like he could move quicker, like Spiderman.
or.........Me! :).Just so long as there are no stunts requiring heights above ten feet!

>>>This movie has too many memorable scenes to recall with only one viewing. I plan on going again this weekend.<<<
I agree!

>>>The Mary Tyler Moore reference was hilarious.<<<...Depression
I missed it. Explain please?

>>>They can't do a Spider-man without Maguire, Dunst and Raimi! <<<
They switched James Bonds a few times, but it would be much too soon now.

........Oscars talk........
If this is the best superhero movie of all time, and there are no other movies of all time this year, Spiderman shoud win best pic! -as well as in other categories.

Since TWO other people know Spidy's true identity, I think S3 will start exactly where S2 left off.

That was exactly how I felt Justin. It wasn't as if he was packing a wallet with full identification. They wouldn't have any way of identifying who he was.

The Mary Tyler Moore reference was the Freeze Frame.

And what does everyone think of Aunt May? Does she know Peter's secret? I believe in the comics she did know but it wasn't until quite a ways down the road that she actually reveleaed to him that she did indeed know. If that conversation with her packing up wasn't insinuating that idea I don't know what else would.

Justin,

Good point! Man, I really do need to start reading comics again!

- Josh