What's your opinion on the cast?

[Venom75]

I've been watching alot of Spider-man trilogy footage on youtube lately. You know,alot of interviews and such. In almost all the interviews Tobey Maguire seems like a nice guy,but he always appears a little uncomfortable and not really shows much personality. I wonder if he just gets shy doing these things,even still today? But overall,as I've said,he seems like a nice guy I wouldn't mind hanging out with.
On the other hand,Kirsten Dunst always seems like a jerk to me. Now,I obviously don't know her personally and I've always liked her both as an actress and look-wise,but she really seems to be so bored and irritated doing interviews,like it's a waste of her time. I know that in the past she has "bad mouthed" the series and seems like she could care less about it. I don't know.
I love Sam Raimi. The guy seems like a ton of fun. He has such a wicked sense of humor. Same with Alfred Molina.
Just wondering about everyone's opinion's about the cast of the Spidey trilogy. Has anyone ever had the chance to meet and talke with any of them?

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

I absoloutely loved the cast for these movies. They all go togeather nicely, IMO.

 

[The Joker]

I love this little skit Alfred Molina and Raimi do on one of the special features. They are so funny together:

[YT]iJCn7TMNElE[/YT]

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

^^ Lol, I remember that. They seemed to have a great friendship.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

As people you mean? Reading the thread title I planned on answering based on them playing the roles handed to them

Tobey seems like quite the nice guy
I can't look at Willem Dafoe without thinking (Goblin), thinking of it kind of creeps me out, don't think I care to know more about him
Don't know what to say about the rest

 

[Anno_Domini]

Hrm...well...

Tobey seems like a very nice guy, but he's also very hit-or-miss when it comes to his movies. He didn't seem like he put in his A-game at all in Spider-Man 3, or even as much as he did with 1 and 2.

Kirsten doesn't seem like a great person to be around with or to interview and she can't act worth crap.

Franco and Simmons are the most brilliant actors around these days and they were all-around amazing at every single scene they were in.

Dafoe, Molina and Church are all great actors as well and they really seemed like they put in their all with their respected roles. Even if Sandman needed much, much more, THC was a bright, shining light in S-M 3.

Topher Grace...don't know what to say about him, lol. I just cannot stand him or his acting, but like with Church, he didn't have much to work with in the third film either, so I can't really give him all the blame on his portrayal of Eddie.

Sam Raimi...seems like a great guy and at times he's a great director, but with that whole Spider-Man 3 fiasco, I just wish he stood up for himself and his vision.

 

[Venom75]

This just cracks me up everytime. The look on Tobey's face is priceless! lol

 

[DACrowe]

I think the cast seems genuinely nice. I can guess Dunst didn't enjoy making these movies as much as everyone else and Tobey had a much better experience on the sequels than the first one, but they seem like nice people and none of them struck me as shallow or jaded as other franchises may have struggled with from certain cast members (coughTransformersX-MenFantasticFourcough).

With that said, I thought the ones who brought the most to it were Tobey Maguire,--whether you feel he was faithful or not to the comics, I personally think he got the Lee/Ditko Peter right but never grew much from there, he gave this franchise a heart and soul--Williem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, JK Simmons, Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris. While Franco and Dunst had the two next most important roles after Maguire and did well enough to make these films somewhat iconic, they were inconsistent in their performances, in my opinion.

Lastly, if you want to see a great cast vid this was a prank played on Molina in SM2:


I'm sure they had a lot of fun.

 

[weezerspider]

Double Post

 

[weezerspider]

Well as far as the actual ACTING goes for the cast:

Tobey- I think Tobey is to Spiderman as Michael Keaton is to Batman for me. They both do a fine job, but its not really anything that special. I have nothing against his performance, but I feel a better actor in the lead role could have brought SM1 and SM2 on par with TDK in my mind as the best comic book films.

Dunst- She was serviceable. Tobey added an extremely small bit of flare to gain more than "serviceable". Dunst isn't terrible, but she gains no extra flare and simply gets a "serviceable". Again, IMO, with a better MJ to go along with a better Pete(Or maybe stil keeping Tobey) the first two films could have been on par with TDK, which IMO, is the best comic film.

Dafoe- Amazing. Really nothing more to say. He played a great evil Green Goblin.

Molina- Amazing as well in a different way. He played a much more sympathetic villain and did a fantastic job.

Simmons- Incredible. He IS JJJ!

Basically, my overall view on the cast is everyone aside from Toby and Dunst were fantastic. Toby was pretty good and Dunst was fine. However, IMO, stronger actors as Pete and MJ,would put the first two films at the top of the comic book film list with TDK.

And I honestly haven't seen Spiderman 3 enough to make much judgements on the new cast members from it. I remember Grace doing a really good job, despite not looking anything like Eddie.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I thought Maguire was miscast. Couldn't stand their version of Mary Jane, but that may have been the writing. Harry Osborn was more tolerable, till he went off the deep end.

Their Aunt May was alright, but her hokey dialogue was a bit too much at times. Again, probably the writing. Since the movies start with Peter graduating, she understandably didn't really have much of a presence. The guy playing Uncle Ben did a decent job.

If their idea was to make Dr. Octopus a likable guy, Molina did a very good job. But the movie's character is a victim, not a villain.

J.K. Simmons was the best part of the series.

 

[Venom75]

I would also add J.K. Simmons with Molina and Raimi as a person whom I'd love to meet. All three 3 seem like they are very personable.
I think the one thing that has always bothered me about Topher Grace is that he claims to be such a huge Venom fan. If so,then why didn't he stick up for his character in Spider-man 3?

 

[weezerspider]

I would also add J.K. Simmons with Molina and Raimi as a person whom I'd love to meet. All three 3 seem like they are very personable.
I think the one thing that has always bothered me about Topher Grace is that he claims to be such a huge Venom fan. If so,then why didn't he stick up for his character in Spider-man 3?

One word: Paycheck.

 

[Anno_Domini]

If so,then why didn't he stick up for his character in Spider-man 3?

What could he have done? Raimi did film all the right scenes, but just during the editing phase, that's when we didn't get the film we deserved. Grace did all he could by being filmed in all the scenes that made Venom a great character from the novelization. It's not like Grace should go badmouth right after the movie was made. That would be like Brolin talking crap about Jonah Hex which is dumb...he's the one that was in the film.

 

[Venom75]

What could he have done? Raimi did film all the right scenes, but just during the editing phase, that's when we didn't get the film we deserved. Grace did all he could by being filmed in all the scenes that made Venom a great character from the novelization. It's not like Grace should go badmouth right after the movie was made. That would be like Brolin talking crap about Jonah Hex which is dumb...he's the one that was in the film.

I don't think Grace could've dictated adding or subtracting certain moments from the film. As you suggested,that wasn't his job. But if he was such a huge Venom fan,why wouldn't he go up to Sam and tell him that Venom refers to himself as "we" and not "I?" Or that Venom's motive is destroying Spider-man himself,not asking others like Sandman for help? Or even suggest a few lines of dialogue that he feels Venom/Brock would say? Other actors do that all the time,unless working for Raimi was like being in a dictatorship,which I doubt.

 

[Anno_Domini]

I don't think Grace could've dictated adding or subtracting certain moments from the film. As you suggested,that wasn't his job. But if he was such a huge Venom fan,why wouldn't he go up to Sam and tell him that Venom refers to himself as "we" and not "I?" Or that Venom's motive is destroying Spider-man himself,not asking others like Sandman for help? Or even suggest a few lines of dialogue that he feels Venom/Brock would say? Other actors do that all the time,unless working for Raimi was like being in a dictatorship,which I doubt.

Oh, that's what you meant, haha. I thought you were talking about why Grace didn't say anything about how Venom was played out AFTER S-M 3 came out(as how Dunst even talked about the film..that's why I made comparison to how Brolin acted, lol). But, I think it really comes down to this...we hear A LOT of actors saying they're huge fans of the character right before they film, or during, and usually it makes sense because once an actor gets hired to play a character, they do research on him on the spot. Perhaps Raimi was persuading Grace that he was planning on doing Venom a bit differently than how he was perceived in the comics, and Grace just took his word and had some faith with it. Probably the only thing I can think of. And who knows, maybe Arad was hanging around with a shotgun just in case anyone tried to speak their mind.

 

[DACrowe]

Grace was a big fan of the film series itself. I'm sure he and Church thought SM3 would be better than it was (though I wonder if they're close enough, if they overlook its....weaknesses?). Anyway, Grace I recall recited reading McFarlane comics and a few writers, I do think he read them as a kid. But he was offered the job in an A-list franchise as playing a character he loved growing up. He doesn't exactly have the clout to rewrite the part, so he said yes. I think he was also intrigued by the idea Raimi had of making Eddie Peter's doppleganger and the symbiote as almost a drug that warps the host's mind. That is very different from the comics (on paper I prefer that conceit, but I think Raimi executed it very poorly). That is how we ended up with the movie we got.

I honestly think that if the movie had just a few more scenes of Eddie being sketchy (like stalking Gwen or something after losing his job), Marko being desperate after visiting his daughter again and no dance scenes, the movie would have been a lot better received. I can even see where they would go. Oh well.

 

[Anno_Domini]

i honestly think that if the movie had just a few more scenes of eddie being sketchy (like stalking gwen or something after losing his job), marko being desperate after visiting his daughter again and no dance scenes, the movie would have been a lot better received. I can even see where they would go. Oh well.

 

[Elevator Man]

Well as far as the actual ACTING goes for the cast:

Tobey- I think Tobey is to Spiderman as Michael Keaton is to Batman for me. They both do a fine job, but its not really anything that special. I have nothing against his performance, but I feel a better actor in the lead role could have brought SM1 and SM2 on par with TDK in my mind as the best comic book films.

[YT]McAeQiLmEYU[/YT]

Keaton did more than a fine job. He definitely was special. His batman films have a lot of moments (with him) that stay in people's memory. The fact that people hated on him (back before the film's release) b/c they believed he was miscast and then changed their mind about him after seeing the trailer and film proves that he was special. People were very surprised by his performance at the time. People are making Batman tribute videos of him on you tube all the time. People still want him back as Batman be it TDKReturns, Batman Beyond, Kingdom Come, etc. Plus he took out a lot of his dialogue for Batman in BR. Few actors do that in comic book movies. I think he did do something special with Batman that even Bale has yet to accomplish, imo.

Now Tobey didn't capture every aspect of PP/Spiderman, but that pretty much goes for every actor that play's a comic book character. Robert Downey Jr, Ledger, Bale, Reeve, even Keaton and so on and so forth. Doesn't mean they didn't do anything special. They're not going to capture everything in the comics in one movie or whole trilogy for that matter. I think Tobey captured the heart of Peter especially in the first two. Now on Spidey 3 I think he should've stepped up and told the producers and Raimi that dark Peter wouldn't dance in the middle of the sidewalk like a clown, perform a dance number at a club, and all of the other cringeworthy scenes dealing with dark Peter. That would've proven to me that he really gets the character inside and out. I think he captured the heart of Peter Parker and that's what Raimi was going for in these films.

 

[webhead731]

I thought the cast was perfect and wouldn't change a damn thing.

Seriously.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I thought the cast was perfect and wouldn't change a damn thing.

Seriously.

That's exactly what I was going to say.

 

[Mace Dolex]

Seeing as how this was Spider-Man's first live action entry since the 70's TV show I think all the actors but their A-game to it.

Part of it too is that aside from Spider-Man no other characters from the comics had ever been done in live action so this was a first try out.

 

[Anno_Domini]

Part of it too is that aside from Spider-Man no other characters from the comics had ever been done in live action so this was a first try out.

Huh?

Superman, Batman, Blade, X-Men....

 

[EliteF50]

The cast was top notch. Especially Tobey, JK, Alfred, etc. Kirsten and Topher were the only weak actors in the whole trilogy.

I like the cast in the Raimi-series a hell of a lot more than Webb's cast.

 

[Mace Dolex]

Huh?

Superman, Batman, Blade, X-Men....

What I meant was, no other character in the Spider-Man universe had been portrayed in live action.