DACrowe said:
Hey, I was just skimming through the first 5 pages or so and I think you have a lot of valid points and am not trying to argue or anything, but I just wanted to know herr, you called the Spider-Man costumes from the first two movies disgraceful to the comic books and I was curious if you would elaborate. I know you support the magic marker version but is there any other reason to despise those costumes so?
I really said that? About the costumes? That's weird. I don't remember, and I'm too lazy to go back and look, but I'll take your word for it.
I know I still believe the Green Goblin costume was disgraceful, simply because it's just as silly looking as a picture-perfect copy of the comics version, but it's not faithful enough. I believe a scary, "tough" looking version of the original costume could be made, and somewhere out there there's a concept art piece of the mask/helmet that proves it. Dr. Octopus' costume was arguably excellent but also "so-so," depending on whether you're just talking about the harness or if you count the fact that he should have been wearing decent clothes over it (yes, you can cut out the back of a white Armani suit and still look good).
Well, the first Movie!Spidey costume had the wrong color webbing. It's not an improvement to make it silver, it's just wrong. Wasn't a huge deal to me, personally, as I thought the costume still looked pretty damn good. The costume for 'Spider-Man 2' was excellent. Yes, I do support what you refer to as the "magic marker" model, because yes, even I do expect a reasonable amount of believability when it comes to the
mundane aspects of these movies. What I mean is, you can give people any powers you want, and a genius kid can cobble together a web-shooter from scrap metal if he has to, but don't tell me that a kid with a poor-to-average ability to sew and no money can make that fancy, rubberized costume by his God damn self. The web-shooters are a hell of a lot more believable than that. Now, as the movies go on, maybe even in just the second, Spider-Man can find a way to fancy up his costume with rubber webbing, but his first real Spider-Man costume will merely have black lines. It would be said that he uses marker, but it would be professionally and impeccably done in real life. I can suspend my belief that Parker could draw the lines perfectly, and I wouldn't entertain arguments otherwise. The costume should look perfect, but it doesn't need to look over-the-top expensive to make. Simplicity is best in general, although I've got a head for details, so I'm certainly always thinking about improvements and add-ons to various things, if it's appropriate.
You mentioned you wanted the sleek look of the arms for a Movie!Spider-Man costume. I'd love that to, but I'm absolutely unwilling to leave out the real web-shooters for any reason, so either we "cheat" like they do in the comics and just pretend they're there, or we paint the devices red, or we cover it up with red cloth outside of the costume so it blends in better. He'll also have a red utility belt with extra web cartridges, his miniature camera, and a compact, ultra-bright, long-range, red LED flashlight to use as he used in the comics (to alert police to tied up criminals or to crimes in progress that he can't deal with, or to manipulate the movement of wary criminals or Flash Thompson looking for his hero).
The hero's costume should almost always look like it stepped right out of the comics page. I can make exceptions for costumes like Wolverine's original uniform, but my only change to that would be (as seen in the
X-Men: Safe Haven thread) to change the yellow to orange and blue to black, and no change at all to the brown and tan except to make the tan darker). In general, I think darker colors work better of film, but that doesn't mean you change the colors completely in most cases, it means you simply darken the tone of the colors. That's the case with the Batman costume's gray bodysuit (as seen in the
Batman: Safe Haven thread). As our friend Bathead said, "Any talented filmmaker worth his salt would be able to stick close to the source material and still make an excellent film." That includes costumes. All it takes is a tiny bit of creativity, imagination and respect for the source material.
If Spider-Man upgrades his costume in my movies and then tears it, he'll go back to the old one, temporarily maybe, since he'll keep at least one "magic marker" version as a back-up.
Wait....
...brain... burning.... world... spinning.... idea forming.... AAARRRGGHHH!
Okay, alternatively, here's how he could wear the 'Spider-Man 2' costume right from the beginning:
He shows up to the wrestling ring in a cheap, last-minute costume like in 'Spider-Man,' but is NOT there to get money to impress Mary Jane (they haven't even met, and even if they had, he's doing this for Uncle Ben and Aunt May and himself, like in the comics) does NOT get his ass kicked for even one second in the ring, does NOT use web-shooters even once (for lack of having finished building them yet), does NOT take his mask off in front of strangers for any reason even once throughout the entire film series, does NOT get cheated by the fight promoter/manager or encounter Uncle Ben's killer backstage at the fight arena, but DOES meet an agent who wants to manage his new career as a super-stunt man. As a show of good faith and massive interest in this young man, this agent has several expensive (but we downplay the actual price) custom Spider-Man costumes made for the future career of the Amazing Spider-Man (the film title). That means he has the fancy suit that looks so good but doesn't make me feel dirty by saying "I made it." No Hal Sparks in the elevator scene, dammit, when Spider-Man talks to a citizen, he's on a wall, ceiling or webline and he has a snappy comeback to all questions. I don't even have to mention that the real Spider-Man wisecracks non-stop, and therefore would in my movies. I also don't have to say that there's no argument against that. Anyway, bottom line, I figured out a way to still have the 'Spider-Man 2' costume without bull$hitting the audience about Parker's skills and resources. See? Just a little imagination and respect is all it takes. Much more worthy than the cut corners and bull$hit excuses the studios keep getting away with to do mediocre or terrible jobs.
Rant time over... for now. Thanks for posting, DACrowe, and for bringing up a point that led to an idea I don't think I mentioned before. By the way, I'm going to repost this in the Spider-Man Safe Haven thread, since that's where we discuss Spider-Man now that the Safe Havens have "gone national." We can continue discussing this there. Again, thanks.
Well Done
