ROTTEN TOMATOES: Marvel Takes Time on "Spider-Man 4"

Marvel Takes Time on "Spider-Man 4"

by Fred Topel | June 18, 2007

Whatever critics and analysts say about "Spider-Man 3," a fourth one is still a given. Even Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige concedes that, though what form it would take with which actors and directors remains to be decided.

"Marvel's thoughts are that we couldn't be happier with the success of Spider-Man 3," said Feige. "It's the top grossing Spider-Man, or will be, of all time. So there definitely will be another Spider-Man adventure. I don't know what that will take. The discussions with Sony and all that is just beginning."

Only two months later, there are still "Spider-Man 3" concerns to be addressed. "Everyone still, I think they're still promoting it in some parts of the world and finishing Spidey 3. I know the whole team right now is still working on the Spider-Man 3 DVD so we're still very much in finishing Spider-Man 3 mode."

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(1-20 of 45 posts) | Reply

Luhrs8535 writes:
on Jun 18 2007 07:44 AM

Maybe they should consider remaking the third movie while they're at it. It was such a disappointment.

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jeremyf1977 writes:
on Jun 18 2007 07:58 AM

Yeah I agree I hate to bitch and whine but I have some reasons to.

First of all the Sandman was never that interesting of a character.

Venom was an important character but Sam Ramai never liked him so he didn't understand the purpose.

Scropion and Lizard would make more sense since Doc Connonors keeps making appeareances.

I liked the SM3 game because there was a Lizard Boss battle.......and Scropion was interesting as Well.

I'm sure Mysteryo will be in it and played by Bruce Campbell because he keeps playing different characters for research and he's always giving Peter parker a hard time.

So for me it only makes sense.

But Mary Jane was a waste and there should have been more Gwen Stacy and Felica Hardy

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Merlin235 writes:
on Jun 18 2007 08:36 AM

I think it's great that the third one disapointed. Hopefully the filmakers take not of what fans didn't like, and change that. I know I'll be looking forward to it. Personally I wouldn't mind them changing directors. Raimi gave us two great films, but it would be interesting to see someone else's take on it. Of course, I'll be the first to pull my eyes out if they get someone like Uwe Boll.

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Sora Freak writes:
on Jun 18 2007 08:54 AM

Marvel... TAKE IT EASY ON THE FREAKIN MOVIES!

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Ryan_Dillon writes:
on Jun 18 2007 09:16 AM

I really want to see Lizard and Scorpian, Mysterio on the other hand...well I would love to see it happen I have trouble seeing it done WELL

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Mr. Kong writes:
on Jun 18 2007 09:23 AM

Spider-Man 3 was underrapreciated, but they really shouldn't try to put so much into this one.

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AlbertBrodsky writes:
on Jun 18 2007 09:36 AM

In reply to this comment (#869928)
[b]Underappreciated?[/b]
So you were a big fan of the lame dance scene, the forced characters, the lack of any real story or just all of the forementioned? That movie was horrible. I'm a fanboy from the 90's, and I liked the second one. The first one was kind of "meh", but it was much better than this piece of crap. I wanted to take a nap because I was so bored. What a waste of a solid marvel creation (Venem). Nobody ever talked about Sandman when I was a kid. In my opinion he was the lamest of all supervillions, and this movie just proved it. Ohh, he can make a big fist and get sand in your eyes. Awesome. Not really, just lame.

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Mr. Kong writes:
on Jun 18 2007 09:38 AM

In reply to this comment (#869929)
That's you're opinion. I didn't think the characters were forced, I liked the story, I really liked the villains, and I thought it was great.

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Mr. Kong writes:
on Jun 18 2007 09:41 AM

....and I thought the dance scene was damned funny.

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reyes writes:
on Jun 18 2007 09:57 AM

spider man 3 was the best of the 3. It was just cool this year for people to complain. Also Venom is a lame character in any way you look at him....read up and learn that the venom suit has whored itself out to many other characters and now scorpion rocks the venom suit so whats that say about him? He's lame and cant find a story arc thats any good.

Also the whole emo scene with parker was fantastic and fun, even the dancin'!

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Merlin235 writes:
on Jun 18 2007 10:03 AM

In reply to this comment (#869929)
There are moments of every movie that people don't like. I think what really grated people was they were expecting a dark, brooding movie (Batman Begins-like) and got a lighthearted, fun movie. Personally, I would have taken out a few scenes, but the movie was in no way as bad as Fantastic Four or Hulk or Daredevil....and yet it receives more crap than all those.

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twitaman writes:
on Jun 18 2007 10:24 AM

[b]How My Brother Would Fix Spider-Man 3[/b]
My brother and I, like most fans were disappointed by the last film. It will go down as another trilogy where I pretend the third film didn't happen (Godfather III, Return of the Jedi, Alien 3...and 4 for that matter, X-Men 3, and now this).

He sent me an email right after he saw it that I kept. Here are his comments:
--------------
1. Take out the Sandman and Venom (until the very end). Make Harry/Hobgoblin the main enemy.

2. Make Harry truly insane/evil. Did you notice how his ending was strangely familiar to Darth Vader's in Jedi? That's not a movie I'd want to emulate.

3. Have Harry cause Mary Jane's death at the beginning of the movie a la the way Green Goblin did with Gwen Stacey in the comics. He tosses her from a high place. Spidey can't reach her in time so he shoots his web at her. The web stops her fall, but she is falling so fast that her neck breaks. This will be the revenge motivation, not Uncle Ben's death.

4. Doctor Connors creates the black ooze. I like this better than having it falling from the sky with no explanation right near Peter Parker (what an incredible coincidence!). Peter knows the effects of the ooze, but uses it anyway to get revenge on Harry.

5. Keep Gwen Stacy, but lose the part-time modeling gig.

6. Keep Eddie Brock and his rivalry with Peter.

7. Peter will defeat Harry about 3/4s of the way through, but then has to deal with the black ooze. He discovers that intense sound is it's weakness and is able to break the bond. The ooze then goes to Eddie. The last thing we see is Eddie as Venom, which sets up the anticipation for Spider-Man 4.

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cgcbooks writes:
on Jun 18 2007 10:30 AM

In reply to this comment (#869930)
My wife and I saw it for the first time yesterday afternoon. We both liked it. And you are right, the dance scene was funny. I also thought the performance by Thomas Haden Church was very well done. I actually felt sorry for Sandman. I am looking forward to the fourth one as well.

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twitaman writes:
on Jun 18 2007 10:34 AM

[b]To reiterate[/b]
I didn't think Spider-Man 3 was a complete failure. There were some really enjoyable parts. It's just that it followed Spider-Man 2 which was the "Empire Strikes Back" of that series. My anticipation was high because unlike most of the other third films Spider-Man 3 had largely the same creative team. I figured how could Sam Raimi and company possibly mess up? Well, they did. But because they overshot, not because they didn't try to make a good film. They had good intentions.

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Bob* writes:
on Jun 18 2007 10:53 AM

In reply to this comment (#869924)
I enjoyed Spiderman 3 but yeah, I was a bt dissapointed. None of the main villains shined here and the emo-like peter parker was fun but annoying. Too much melodrama too.

I hope they include lizard in the 4th one. He's a great character.

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Rockslide writes:
on Jun 18 2007 11:16 AM

I'll throw my support in here too, just because I'm tired of 80% of the RT users complaining about every movie ever made. I also enjoyed Spider-Man 3. Could it have been better? Yes. Is it the best of the trilogy? No. I think twitaman's brother has some great ideas that would have fixed it. It would really be cool if Venom could come back and get the attention he deserves. I would also love to see Bruce become Mysterio, that could totally fit in with Raimi's directing style. All in all, I've liked the films and I will continue to pay money to see them in the theaters.

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Sputnik99 writes:
on Jun 18 2007 11:22 AM

In reply to this comment (#869934)
"4. Doctor Connors creates the black ooze. I like this better than having it falling from the sky with no explanation right near Peter Parker (what an incredible coincidence!). Peter knows the effects of the ooze, but uses it anyway to get revenge on Harry."

I think that's a neat idea. I hate how the ooze just fell from the sky right next to Peter and Mary Jane. Sure your idea wouldn't hold true to the comics, but dangit, it would be a lot easier to stomach. I would change your idea of Peter knowing the effect of the ooze, however. I'd have it be a strange experiment by the Doctor that accidentally gets out of a tube and sneaks up Peters arm or something.

And Spidey 4 must have the Lizard and no one else. And a lot less romance. Excessive romance is what weakened Spidey 3, IMO

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brettswiz writes:
on Jun 18 2007 11:34 AM

[b]Move on past Spider-man 3[/b]
The movie is over and done with so we can't really tinker with the movie that much. As for spider-man 4? they need to put this movie on the back-burner for a while. I know sony wants to be making their money now, but if they let this project sit for a while, more and more people will become ansty for another spiderman. I think a new director, actor/actresses will help this franchise out a lot, but they should wait before they start developing anything especially since the last movie left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth.

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RottenRob writes:
on Jun 18 2007 11:56 AM

[b]I thought Spidey 3 was a damn good time[/b]
I agree with most people that part two was the best of the trilogy, but I thought 3 was the most enjoyable of the three. It's not like Sam Raimi didn't know he was cramming all that stuff in there. I really liked seeing all the different elements of the story being hinted at/dealt with along the way, and actually a lot of the story and characters WERE pretty meaty. They didn't just rush through everything.

Now I do think that the ending felt a little too rushed and contrived, and I did want more Venom (as well as more of Brock's psychology, more depth to his hatred of Peter), but those things certainly didn't ruin the movie for me.

As far as the coincidences of the plot, I think those can be found in ANY of the Spidey movies (as well as the comics). I think those things add to the fun. What big adventure movie hasn't used ridiculous coincidences (any Indiana Jones movie is the first thing to come to my mind) to solve certain problems, or just for fun?

I hope some of the people who dislike it so will give it another chance on DVD and enjoy it more.

And I agree that 4 should be a simpler story, maybe darker, probably Lizard. But I'm open.

(Reply to this)

Circe Prankster writes:
on Jun 18 2007 12:07 PM

In reply to this comment (#869934)
I think the scenario proposed by twitaman's brother is definitely superior to the one appearing in the movie. I like that his version of the story is a much more logical progression - in the movie, the multitude of different stories overlapping seemed random and scattered. I disagree with Sputnik99 in that I think it makes sense for Peter to choose the Venom suit, especially if he's feeling both guilty and vengeful over MJ's death (guilty because it was his attempt to save her which broke her neck - that bit from the comics is very rich with emotion and motivation). Make it a conscious choice, which he then has reason to regret later.

I also agree that Gwen's modeling career was superfluous and a bit nonsensical. If she's just a dumb blonde, why is she in Peter's advanced science class? In the (slightly feminist) rewrite I was doing in my head after seeing the film, I thought it would be more interesting if she was posing as just a pretty face but was secretly a bit of a science nerd. That would give her something in common with Peter, a reason for them to connect in the future.

I do think Sputnik was right about the romance weighing the movie down. Complex relationship issues don't mesh well with the fast pace and glossiness of the comic book genre. The problems of adult relationships are subtle, and comic book stories are broad. The filmmakers kept mixing these different tones, and the end result was just a confused jumble, I thought.

Anyway, twitaman, you should tell your brother to write a draft of the script for Spiderman 4 on spec and shop it around Hollywood. Maybe we'll end up with a movie to cheer about next time.

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