Posted by Pitstain at adsl-63-195-100-139.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net on May 04, 2002 at 14:34:42:
In Reply to: Sam Raimi and Sony ruin Spider-Man posted by Killgore on May 04, 2002 at 12:31:42:
aren't) you blew it right here...
: p.s. For the makers of this piece of crap, please see what Bryan Singer did with the X-men, a FILM as rich in story as the characters themselves.
If you think the X-Men movie was a faithful adaptation yr smoking crack.
Yr willing to accept the BRUTAL recharacterizations of the X-Men and call if genius, but call for the head of a man who made a very logical change (that of biological webshooters... the only thing the webshooter change affects is those "oops" moments you referred to... the science involved in building a wrist-mounted webshooter AND the accompanying fluid at the level spiderman uses 'em is WELL beyond the capabilities of science... mutation is a much more believable scenario)
The only CGI shots i thought were TRULY bad were the ones when Peter was running across the roof and jumping from building to building. There was one specific bit that was beyond awful... but i forget exactly what it was.
for what it's worth, BAD CGI doesn't go out of focus, but good CGI does... it's called "depth of field"... moving away from the "camera" too fast for it to keep up would affect the focus.
The webslinging was brilliant... that shot where he first tries to SWING... jumps at the building, swings right at it and then figures out he should prolly try another building before he goes SPLAT was brilliant. I loved that he flopped and wriggled around while swinging... he was BRAND NEW at it, of course he's not going to be any good yet.
The elasticity of the webbing was something i had never even considered before... i just assumed it would be like rope... the way they took advantage of the elasticity was fantastic.
Spider-Man is a brilliant adaptation of the Spider Man origin story with FAR fewer flaws than anything in it's class.
and since i bashed on the x-men movie above, here's some of the things i had fault with which made me think the X-Men movie was a disaster as an adaptation (but i still loved it...) but a good movie. regardless of it's faithfulness (or lack thereof) to the comic.
Rogue: didn't join the x-men for YEARS after discovering her mutant power. when she ran away she ran into mystique who recruited her into the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants which is where she stole Ms. Marvel's powers (permanently... by touching her too long) which is how she can fly and is near-invulnerable in the cartoon and comic book (but not the movie... The beautiful thing about having rogue steal ms. marvel's powers in the BoEM was that she was evil back then... to try and give rogue the same powers now wouldn't work...)
Wolverine: Much as i loved hugh jackman in the part, um he's a lot tall, a lot narrow, and a lot hairless to be wolverine...
Iceman, Cyclops, Jean Grey all joined the X-Men at the same time and at the same approximate age... yet in the film Jean Grey is pushing 40, Cyclops pushing 25, and Iceman pushing 18.
How can Kitty Pryde and Jubilee be in school at the same time? Kitty Pryde joined the X-Men in like 1980-something and Jubilee in the mid 90s. Ditto for Iceman who joined in the 60s... and for wolverine/rogue... decades apart.
Mystique... was a lame attempt at saving $$$. it was easier/cheaper to do the effects on a very nearly naked body than the body used in the comics (with the flowing white dress, the long (and flowing) red hair...) If she can clone any clothing for any persona she takes on, why would she run around naked all the time?
Storm... bah. by the time Rogue joined the X-Men Storm had already gone punk rock with her bitchin' mohawk... that cape was soooooo 70s/80s.
Costumes: "would you prefer yellow spandex?" um, yeah. I would. Where were the masks to hide their identities? not that they were seen in public anyway (except those couple minutes at the train station)
what you have to consider is this... THE MOVIES WEREN'T MADE FOR COMIC BOOK READERS.... they were made for the public (y'know... the people who don't whine 'cause their favorite hobby is on the verge of disappearing/going bankrupt and who don't complain when the objects of their affection get a chance to take the spotlight and who don't call those adaptations crimes against the ghosts of dead writers and the like)
i betcha hate Smallville, too (even though it's one of the best things ever on TV...)