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Author: Javier Arias (Page 4 of 8)

source #2

Hunter, Alex, director. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man – The Perfect Origin (Part 1), 11 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhisNJY3zcU.

This is a 30 minute video on how Alex talks about Sam Raimi’s Spiderman is not only the perfect trilogy, but it’s the perfect superhero origin in every aspect to the director, screenplay, complex character and the film making. Sam Raimi was given the task to show the audience the first live action Spiderman film, to introduce him to the big screen where no one really knew who this character was and he did it all just by making this story and plot so simple. Even if you never read the comics you know everything about this character, his friends, the villain, his crush, his loved ones, and how he got his powers only in a few minutes and none of it felt rushed. The character arc of Peter was beautifully written and it shows. The movie introduces him as a lonely dork who grows up from a good kid to a good man. A man who grows up to make the difficult choices, to let go of his dreams and ego. He was always faced with tragedy and death, but finds the power within him to keep moving forward. It’s not only Peter, but it’s the rest of the characters that are fully fleshed out. Alex analyzes every little detail that is shown in every scene to the color of the clothing to a simple thanksgiving dinner, because all of these scenes have meaning.
 I agree with Alex because the director stayed true with the comics and became such a great film. The director who grew up with these books, poured out his love and knowledge into this trilogy, he tried to make his characters as real as possible so the audience would believe in this hero. It appealed to the audience who valued nostalgia because typically starting a movie you follow the comic. I admire how Alex knows how relatable this character could be to audiences and how it was written and shown. Throughout the film you see this character go through many problems, he doesn’t have much money, he doesn’t have many friends and his attitude is very human both in the comics and the film. He gets angry sometimes and confused while he struggles to make the right choice and it’s something we recognized in our everyday lives.
“This movie is a Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comic book. it is filled with drama, cheesy and dramatic dialogue, relatable character and dynamic colors. Everything you read in those issues you get here in this classic film.” The whole cast and crew grew up with these books and decided to respect the creator by honoring his art, because that’s what literature is, a type of art form. The film was inspired by his writing, although they did change a few things none of them where major differences to the book. So the question still stands if comic based movies stick to their origins, well this an example of why it should but it doesn’t mean the director can’t put his own creativity in the film.

One Source Entry Draft

Lauer, Jonathon, et al. “Why Is Spider-Man So Relatable?” The Nerdd, 3 June 2020, thenerdd.com/2018/12/03/why-spider-man-is-so-relatable/.

In this article by Jonathon Lauer, he talks about how Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created a character that is so relatable than other super heroes who are seen in each panel as tall and muscular adults, while Peter Parker is visualized as a nerdy teenager who as a hero wears gloves, boots, web shooters, and a mask that hides his child like features. He went into detail onto how Stan lee used Peter’s age as an opportunity to add growth in his creation. Most heroes who are teenagers have been used as sidekicks, because most heroes were adults making Spiderman relatable to audiences where you got to see how living a double life impacted him and how the author used this to infuse even more emotion to the story. From the very first comic we see Peter as a struggling student who is trying to help his Aunt pay her bills, do his school work, maintain a job, save people as Spiderman, and try to have a normal life. We as readers, although we don’t have powers, we have been through these problems before, struggling in work, school and family issues. Johnathon showed how Spiderman has become the very best parts of us and even our flaws in comics and fiction.
The reason why I chose this article was because a lot of people don’t know the origins of this character, what motivated him to become the person he is, what were his struggles and why did he decide to become a hero. I agree with how this article goes into detail about how a comic book hero brought so much emotion and what Stan Lee intended to do with this character with only a few pages. Just in the first page of the first Spiderman comic you see Peter’s love for his aunt and his uncle, the pride he takes in his studies, the rejection and humiliation he goes through and his vengeful ego. When he gains powers he uses it for his own personal gain, not caring for anyone except his family; being completely selfish because of the way people treated him, so why is he supposed to care about others. When his uncle was taken away from him he went into a fit of rage and went on a hunt for his uncle’s killer. You as reader can feel his pain, the rage he is feeling, the only few people who were kind to him was ripped away from him. But by the end when he confronts the burglar, he realizes that the killer was the thief he let get away. He no longer felt big and powerful, all he felt was guilt and shame. The article makes you look into the character and what he through day to day, trying to make you understand why it has become so popular. What the article didn’t look into was how he was was before he gained his powers and in opinion I think that’s one of the most important aspects of Peter. You see how his image on the world changes and i wish the article went more into depth on that. But I did like that it explained the other personalities of Peter to people who are fans or who still don’t know why he’s so popular.
A quote that I found interesting was, “There is always a moment where he remembers those he fights for, he remembers why he became Spider-Man, and digs deep to find the power within him to finish the task given him.” I felt that this quote was something we feel everyday, we look back onto why we are doing something and take every strength we have to complete it. Although its just a comic, it tells a story, a lesson, another motivation and the article seems really understand Spiderman.

Should comic-book based movies stay faithful to original comic?

It seems as if every movie we see is inspired or is an adaptation from every book we read. It will sometimes honor and respect the book while others would fail to impress readers who were fans of these books to just be destroyed by a movie. You had movies like Sony’s Spider-Man films to Fox’s X – Men franchise that were an outstanding success. Then you had The Fantastic Four and Daredevil franchises and while they are not dreadful, these films failed in most of the important ways, which was that they failed to impress fans and were just not very strong films. Comics have existed since the 1930’s and have become popular throughout the ages. Some of them have even been used for propaganda in World War II, while still satisfying their readers. During World War II, the soldiers looked forward to the diversion and escapism of comics and the quality of the material was never as important as the connection to home that troops felt from reading these stories. Comic books have gone through an amazing and powerful journey rivaling that of the characters within them.  Every panel in each page shows a glorifying piece of art that builds the story without saying a word. All of that emotion and action is shown in just twenty pages in one single issue. You have people like Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Frank Miller, Dan Slott and many more who continued the stories of these characters from each and every comic book come to life. What really helped these comics become more popular was when people decided to make movies out of them to make old fans go back and experience their childhood all over again while also attracting others who never even heard about these books. Some became really successful even changing the way movies were directed, some even won Oscars, while others failed to impress.  So how should a comic book based movie be made? Should comic based movies stay faithful to their original comic? This question has been asked for years. Many feel that the movie is supposed to stay current with our timeline while others agree it should stick to its origins. I’ll be talking about three movies all based on comics; which are Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Mark Webb’s Spider-Man, and Jon Watts Spider-Man,  that took different routes in their development and try to decide if these movies should stick to the origins where they began.

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