Thursday, June 3, 2010

A Black Spider-Man? Wasn't That the Third One?


The internet has been roaring with the call for Donald Glover as Spider-Man, but the reason for the attention is when most people picture Spider-Man, I doubt they picture this.





I wasn't a fan of Tobey McGuire but some of the ideas being thrown around by Hollywood are up and coming teen pretty boys like Logan Lerman. However, what can really restore the Spider-Man movie franchise is someone who can really fill the character, not just eye candy.

One of the things that irritated me about Tobey McGuire was his portrayal as Spider-Man. He was great as Peter Parker, the nerdy school boy who couldn't get the girl. He had a certain awkwardness that was comical at times as audiences rooted for the underdog to finally come out on top. However, his costumed Spider-Man was anything but the arrogant jokester fans would expect him to be. His jokes were dry and sounded like they were dubbed in as Mcguire read from a script.

Glover has the potential to do so much more than McGuire as Spider-Man. For starters, he's a comedian. He's already great on Community and could easily adlib some lines in to give the character that witty punch that would capture audiences. One of the things that has made Spider-Man so relatable to audiences is he's a guy that never really wins. The first movie really showed it with the ending where even though the bad guy was beaten, it came with a cost. But it's the light hearted nature the character goes about life that keeps it from being so depressing.

But the likeliness of Glover landing the role is pretty slim, mainly because Peter Parker isn't black. But hey, what better way to tell audiences it's a reboot than to drastically changing the lead role? It's frustrating being the geek who knows a movie is a reboot and having to explain to a non-geek why the previous movie doesn't matter, although I'm sure we can all agree everyone will be better for forgetting Daredevil. For some, Punisher and Punisher: Warzone coming out relatively close to each other created some confusion for the non-geeks. A black Peter Parker would be an easy way to say to audiences "look, this is going to be something brand new." I hope Hollywood is listening because Glover is ready to jump into the blue and red spandex.

1 comment:

  1. Plothole found: Punisher: Warzone didn't confuse anyone because no one but geeks saw it.

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