How would you have done the first film differently?

[WalterKovacs]

I ask you this not just because this forum needs to stay alive, but because a lot of complaints that were made toward the third film could have been resolved had the trilogy been given a stronger foundation, and i agree somewhat.

What would you keep/change? Story elements? crew? cast? characters?

discuss.

 

[SpideyVille]

I love the first movie the way is it and wouldn't change anything, but sometimes i wonder if having gwen stacy could've worked. they could've killed her at the end and have pete either go against the goblin in a back-to-back sequel or like they had it in the orignal (only he wouldn't have died), and during this time he would start to get closer to MJ who was introduced half-way towards the end of the first one. Of course if they had done this ,the spidey movies would've had a much more darker tone.

 

[WalterKovacs]

I love the first movie the way is it and wouldn't change anything, but sometimes i wonder if having gwen stacy could've worked. they could've killed her at the end and have pete either go against the goblin in a back-to-back sequel or like they had it in the orignal (only he wouldn't have died), and during this time he would start to get closer to MJ who was introduced half-way towards the end of the first one. Of course if they had done this ,the spidey movies would've had a much more darker tone.

I guess I see what you're saying but the trilogy isnt so much about just Peter as much as it is his relationship with MJ, which is the heart of all 3 films, and what carries them all and motivates peter to do what he does.

IDK, aside from a slightly different green goblin costume design (there are some hardcore ones on the dvd) I wouldnt change too much, maybe a better script,

 

[SpideyVille]

yea i know exactly what you mean, afterall the first line pretty much sums that up "It's all about a girl". i was just saying that if they did something like have Gwen in it, it would have been more like the comics, it would've shown Pete's struggle and misfortune like SM2 did, and it would've easily set up sequels. But hey, I'm not complaining. I love the version we got, esp the way more than what James Cameron had in mind. And i liked that it went the route that it did by having MJ as the only love interest, and that is didn't follow the comics word for word because it was meant to entertain those who were fans already, and introduce new fans to the character. And I'll admit i didn't know anything about the character until i saw this movie, and i instantly loved it and the whole spidey universe.

But yeah i agree, most of the design for the goblin on the DVD, and on the web, are way better than the one we got.

 

[Victarion]

Peter is with Gwen; none of that skirt chasing like Sam enjoys. They're in the same science class. As Spider-Man, Peter develops a working relationship with Captain Stacy, even though some of Stacy's men are against it.

Harry and Peter are friends, much like in the movie. Harry is dating Liz.

Green Goblin is the villain, but with a different costume--the dark green version of the armor that looks a bit more mechanical, with spike-like protrusions (on the Spider-Man DVD as concept art; could someone post it?).

Eddie Brock is introduced here with a rewritten characterization: a good man who is married and with a child. He's a photographer at the Bugle, one of the best. When he meets Peter, Eddie is more than happy to take the freelancer under his wing. While essentially a good man, Eddie has a mob-related problem...Infinity, you know what I'm talkin' about.

Peter's origin is more in line with the Cameron script--the fruitfly eaten by the spider, which then bites Peter. The nightmare that ends with Peter waking up on a tower above the city would be included.

The final showdown would end with Goblin being impaled on his glider. No New Yorkers helping Spider-Man; they're afraid of him for now. The movie would close much like the first one did, including Harry's vow of revenge.

 

[SpideyVille]

Nice i would've liked to see a version like that. But will MJ be introduced in a sequel, or not at all? Because it's hard to see Gen introduced by still alive while the Goblin is dead. But i like the idea of Peter and her father being close.

 

[Angel_Faerie]

What I would have done would be that Gwen would have simply been in MJ's place and die after being thrown off the bridge, exactly like the comics. No New Yorkers throwing objects at Gobby and defending Spidey. The city hates him through and through. Gobby dies the same and Harry vows for revenge at Norman's funeral. Or, better yet, a double funeral. Gwen's and Norman's on the same day. I would have had Captain Stacey in there too and would have him die in #2 almost frame-for-frame like the comics. I know that's a lot of death, but hey, the comics were the exact same way. I would have introduced MJ in the beginning of #2 and have him slowly start developing feelings for her throughout the movie, but not act on them because of what happened to Gwen. Have MJ be with Harry because she thinks Peter doesn't care about her like she does him. Basically have Harry be in John's place without the engagement.

What do you guys think?

 

[TomPiltoff]

The only thing I would change is to start the film with Peter dating Gwen, and have Gwen die at the hands of GG, but establish a connection between Peter and MJ.

 

[Victarion]

Nice i would've liked to see a version like that. But will MJ be introduced in a sequel, or not at all? Because it's hard to see Gen introduced by still alive while the Goblin is dead. But i like the idea of Peter and her father being close.

No, that would be one area where I deviated from the comics, unless Gobby was saved for the 3rd film. The anger Peter would feel from her death would be a nice magnet for the symbiote, which would be introduced in the 2nd movie. Thanks for the input guys/gals/whatever you are. I've actually been thinking about doing a The Long Halloween styled fiction for one of Spider-Man's most potent rogues.

One thing you get by having Peter already with Gwen, or any love interest in the first movie, is that you can set up a series of trials for each that would be easier to accomplish in 3 movies than what some wanted Mr. Raimi to do.

Maybe 20 years from now things will play out similar to what I've written here.

 

[SpideyVille]

What I would have done would be that Gwen would have simply been in MJ's place and die after being thrown off the bridge, exactly like the comics. No New Yorkers throwing objects at Gobby and defending Spidey. The city hates him through and through. Gobby dies the same and Harry vows for revenge at Norman's funeral. Or, better yet, a double funeral. Gwen's and Norman's on the same day. I would have had Captain Stacey in there too and would have him die in #2 almost frame-for-frame like the comics. I know that's a lot of death, but hey, the comics were the exact same way. I would have introduced MJ in the beginning of #2 and have him slowly start developing feelings for her throughout the movie, but not act on them because of what happened to Gwen. Have MJ be with Harry because she thinks Peter doesn't care about her like she does him. Basically have Harry be in John's place without the engagement.

What do you guys think?

Yeah i like it, it pretty much sums up what i was thinking they could've done to make the series more like the comics. The only thing i would change is have MJ in the first one but with a really small role, and she could show up with Harry to Gwen's funeral. Then Harry's vengeance on Spidey drives her away in the sequel and she gets closer to Peter.

No, that would be one area where I deviated from the comics, unless Gobby was saved for the 3rd film. The anger Peter would feel from her death would be a nice magnet for the symbiote, which would be introduced in the 2nd movie. Thanks for the input guys/gals/whatever you are. I've actually been thinking about doing a The Long Halloween styled fiction for one of Spider-Man's most potent rogues.

One thing you get by having Peter already with Gwen, or any love interest in the first movie, is that you can set up a series of trials for each that would be easier to accomplish in 3 movies than what some wanted Mr. Raimi to do.

Maybe 20 years from now things will play out similar to what I've written here.

Yeah that would be a GREAT way to introduce the symbiote and fuel his anger, and of course they leave Venom for the next movie instead of rushing him in late into the 2nd part

 

[Victarion]

I'm a Lovecraft fan...Maybe an ESU expedition lead by Curt Connors into some vast, cyclopean range at the pole could turn up the symbiote. Anything's better than just tossing it in as an afterthought.

 

[GoldGoblin]

SM1:
-Have Harry and MJ be boyfriend & girlfriend,and show how Harry is talking Pete into a double date with one of MJ's friends (Gwen).

-At Oscorp show how Oscorp has tons of technology that they develop for the military as well as for the public.
Show these four scientists working there:Norman Osborn,Dmitri Smerdyakov,Dr.Connors,and Dr.Otto Octavius.
Show how Dmitri Smerdyakov (The Chameleon) is a scientist,a co-worker of Norman Osborn,and Dmitri Smerdyakov is the inventor of a new latex type of mask(kinda like the movie Darkman).
^This would explain how the Goblin gets a latex type of mask.

-Have Dr.Otto Octavius rushing into Norman's work area and telling him that the cops are coming to arrest him.Dr.Otto Octavius tells Norman that the news has just shown footage of him robbing a jewlery store so he can get money for his project.

Norman turns the television on and looks at the date,Norman remembers that Dr.Otto Octavius was working with him at that time,and that they can prove it with the security tape.

Norman puts the pieces together and realizes that Dmitri Smerdyakov is the one who has framed Otto.When Norman and Otto get take the security tape out of the recorder,the two hear a hiss and look behind them.The hiss was the sound of Dmitri Smerdyakov injecting himself with a vial of enhancement formula.

Dmitri Smerdyakov insists that they give him that tape.Otto reaches for a weapon on the table and Dmitri Smerdyakov grabs Otto and throws him into a room/a work area where Otto works on his project with his tentacles as a device to help him with it.

Then Dmitri Smerdyakov types something into the computer thatSM1:
-Have Harry and MJ be boyfriend & girlfriend,and show how Harry is talking Pete into a double date with one of MJ's friends (Gwen).

-At Oscorp show how Oscorp has tons of technology that they develop for the military as well as for the public.
Show these four scientists working there:Norman Osborn,Dmitri Smerdyakov,Dr.Connors,and Dr.Otto Octavius.
Show how Dmitri Smerdyakov (The Chameleon) is a scientist,a co-worker of Norman Osborn,and Dmitri Smerdyakov is the inventor of a new latex type of mask(kinda like the movie Darkman).
^This would explain how the Goblin gets a latex type of mask.

-Have Dr.Otto Octavius rushing into Norman's work area and telling him that the cops are coming to arrest him.Dr.Otto Octavius tells Norman that the news has just shown footage of him robbing a jewlery store so he can get money for his project.

Norman turns the television on and looks at the date,Norman remembers that Dr.Otto Octavius was working with him at that time,and that they can prove it with the security tape.

Norman puts the pieces together and realizes that Dmitri Smerdyakov is the one who has framed Otto.When Norman and Otto get take the security tape out of the recorder,the two hear a hiss and look behind them.The hiss was the sound of Dmitri Smerdyakov injecting himself with a vial of enhancement formula.

Dmitri Smerdyakov insists that they give him that tape.Otto reaches for a weapon on the table and Dmitri Smerdyakov grabs Otto and throws him into a room/a work area where Otto works on his project with his tentacles as a device to help him with it.

Then Dmitri Smerdyakov types something into a computer that he is standing next to,and this causes Otto to be locked in the room.

Then Dmitri Smerdyakov says to Norman:Give me that tape!As Norman raises his arm with the tape in it in front of his face while he is trying to escape Dmitri Smerdyakov's grasp,Dmitri Smerdyakov punches through the tape (shattering it),and ends up hitting Norman in the face.

Norman goes flying across the room and crashes into all of the vilas of enhancement formula that is on a glass shelf.Norman is knocked out and Norman overdoses on the formula which makes him go insane later.

Otto sees this and straps himself into his tentacles so he can break through the door and help Norman.When Dmitri Smerdyakov sees this,he takes a explosive and throws it at Otto.

There is a big explosion and the tentacles are welded onto Otto's body.Dmitri Smerdyakov then makes his escape.When the cops show up at Oscorp they try and arrest Otto.

Otto insists that he has been framed uses his tentacles to escape from the cops,and he becomes a fugitive that spidey fights with later.Spider-Man finally believes Otto's story,but only after Dmitri Smerdyakov tried to frame Peter for a crime so then Peter could be out of the way for when Dmitri Smerdyakov makes his move on Gwen.

But Otto is arrested,charged with resisting arrest,endangering the public,etc.So an innocent man goes to prison,and as the years go by he becomes bitter and focuses all of his anger onto Spider-Man.

The Chameleon goes to jail as well...

SM2:

Dr.Connors now unemployed from Oscorp is now working as a scientist at Peter's school.

Norman's investors are cutting their ties to Oscorp ever since this whole thing went down,they don't want to be anywhere near it.This makes Norman angry,and the enhancement formula makes him go after these investors as the Green Goblin.

In N.Y. a big celebration is going on as the people are watching John Jameson fly the space shuttle back to earth.But the symbiote that the astronauts have taken from the moon escapes it vial during turbulence and attackes the pilots.

The astronauts crash the space shuttle onto a bridge,where spidey shows up and saves them from being killed.During the process the symbiote attaches to spidey.

Then when black spidey confronts the Goblin during a time when the Goblin is attacking a investor,the Goblin then sets his sights on spidey.The Goblin finds out his identity and ends up killing Gwen.

Now with the death of his true love and the symbiote's control over him,Peter goes after the Goblin in a rage.

After the battle,Peter realizes that the symbiote has a negative effect on him and he takes it off.The symbiote then attaches to Brock and before the credits go by you see Venom.

 

[boog_spin]

i think they reasonably did the best job they could have considering the constraints of a 2 hour popcorn flick type movie.....

the comics have had years upon years to build the story...adding here and there as well as taking away here and there....

the general audience knows about pete and mj....we know differently...but the GA, well, thats all they know. my gf at the time knew of mary jane. my brothers only knew of them together. my friends. thats all they knew. not one knew of gwen, (whixh is a shame, because the loss of her really sets up peters fear of getting too close and losing another)

if they had gone with the gwen stacy getting killed at the end of spidey 1, then you risk the audience being like "what the hell...spidey couldnt SAVE her?" and that is kind of a problem in a superhero movie.

what if superman didnt save lois in the original supes? yeh yeh i know its different....but get the idea?

oh, and if i could change one thing about spidey 1, it would be that insanely annoying and contrived "if you mess with oneof us you mess with all of us" speech. yeh i know the sentiment after 9-11...but its just soooooooooooooooo bad now.

thats my 2 cents

 

[Hobgoblin]

Despite being a Goblin fan, I would have had Ock be the first villain. Maybe he and Peter's accidents would be intertwined and Gwen Stacy would be in the movie, along with MJ. Gwen would be Peter's girlfriend, with MJ as the life of the party type. Norman would be a secondary character, shown as an unethical businessman. If Norman could smack Harry for disagreeing with him over something, that would be great. Norm wasnt nasty enough for me in part one. I want him to be an ***hole before he becomes the Goblin. In part two, Norman becomes Gobby and Gwen would be killed.

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

Peter is with Gwen; none of that skirt chasing like Sam enjoys. They're in the same science class. As Spider-Man, Peter develops a working relationship with Captain Stacy, even though some of Stacy's men are against it.

Harry and Peter are friends, much like in the movie. Harry is dating Liz.

Green Goblin is the villain, but with a different costume--the dark green version of the armor that looks a bit more mechanical, with spike-like protrusions (on the Spider-Man DVD as concept art; could someone post it?).

Eddie Brock is introduced here with a rewritten characterization: a good man who is married and with a child. He's a photographer at the Bugle, one of the best. When he meets Peter, Eddie is more than happy to take the freelancer under his wing. While essentially a good man, Eddie has a mob-related problem...Infinity, you know what I'm talkin' about.

Peter's origin is more in line with the Cameron script--the fruitfly eaten by the spider, which then bites Peter. The nightmare that ends with Peter waking up on a tower above the city would be included.

The final showdown would end with Goblin being impaled on his glider. No New Yorkers helping Spider-Man; they're afraid of him for now. The movie would close much like the first one did, including Harry's vow of revenge.

I think that that is the best idea for the movie I've ever read.

 

[DACrowe]

OOOOH (takes deep breath) I would LOVE TO DO...

it doesn't matter. The movies are made. If you didn't like 'em too bad, life goes on.

 

[terry78]

Only difference would have been to have Goblin later in the series considering he is the arch-enemy. Had a few bit players in there first time around.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Different director, a script polish to give the Goblin a solid motivation and goal, and Jerry Seinfeld to write one-liners for Spidey.

 

[November Rain]

I wouldnt have had norman stabbed inthe balls by his own glider....

 

[SpideyVille]

Only difference would have been to have Goblin later in the series considering he is the arch-enemy. Had a few bit players in there first time around.

Yeah i think Norman should've been introduced early, but more as a background character with little screentime and whenever he's shown with Harry, their relationship is just like the way it was in the first scene of the first movie. Then in a sequel we see Norman's progression towards turning evil and psychotic after taking the serum, and finally in the third part he becomes the goblin and begins haunting Peter's life.

I wouldnt have had norman stabbed inthe balls by his own glider....

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

Yeah i think Norman should've been introduced early, but more as a background character with little screentime and whenever he's shown with Harry, their relationship is just like the way it was in the first scene of the first movie. Then in a sequel we see Norman's progression towards turning evil and psychotic after taking the serum, and finally in the third part he becomes the goblin and begins haunting Peter's life.

I agree with this perfectly, except I would've had Goblin in the second and have him die in the third.

 

[Comics N' Toons]

i wouldn't have had Green Goblin @ all... I would have focused more on Spidey and his progression from nerdy kid to crazy sexy superhero man...

We coulda had norman osbourne & Harry in there but it shoulda built on their relationship & who norman was! Then at the end we could see Norman become Goblin.... then fans would be dieing to see # 2

 

[The Joker]

i wouldn't have had Green Goblin @ all... I would have focused more on Spidey and his progression from nerdy kid to crazy sexy superhero man...

We coulda had norman osbourne & Harry in there but it shoulda built on their relationship & who norman was! Then at the end we could see Norman become Goblin.... then fans would be dieing to see # 2

So who would be the villain for the movie?

 

[Comics N' Toons]

I don't think there would have had to be a villian necessarily!

THE MOVIE COULD'VE FOCUSED ON Spidey getting his powers & learning to use them! We could've had him busting up more street punks & gang brawls & stuff and use the first film to show the audience a tough vigilante who saves the people of New York & helps the innocent THAT SORT OF THING.... we could see Norman going mad throughout the film & then at the end we could see the birth of Green Goblin!

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

I don't think there would have had to be a villian necessarily!

THE MOVIE COULD'VE FOCUSED ON Spidey getting his powers & learning to use them! We could've had him busting up more street punks & gang brawls & stuff and use the first film to show the audience a tough vigilante who saves the people of New York & helps the innocent THAT SORT OF THING.... we could see Norman going mad throughout the film & then at the end we could see the birth of Green Goblin!

I also agree with this, BUT I think that maybe they could've had hime fight Chameleon in like the last thirty minutes.
Since Chameleon was his first "Villain" technically.