Jamie Foxx as Electro for Amazing Spider-Man 2? Blame it on the Ah-a-a-Ah-Ah-Alcohol….

According to various sources, such as EW.com and Hollywood Reporter, Jamie Foxx is in negotiations to join The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie as the villain Electro. This comes as a surprise to some because Electro doesn’t exactly bring to mind Jamie Foxx. Maybe it’s because despite his Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles in Ray, he will always be Sheneneh from In Living Color. It’s still not final but Foxx, ever the showman, decided to tease the masses on Twitter:

Of course, everyone wanted to consult with Marc Webb to see if he would address this new bit of info and he did. Sort of. According to Comingsoon.net, Webb dropped this quote when it was brought up:

“I think Jamie Foxx is electrifying! I think Jamie Foxx is one of the best actors around today. He’s such a great character actor and he’s a really brilliant guy. I would love to work with him and you’ll be hearing more on that shortly, I’m sure.”

Webb goes on to add that the dynamics of Norman Osborn are very important to him and will be a common theme through this franchise’s movies.

“I like Electro, I’m fascinated by Norman Osborn and the different inflections of him. And Harry. Mary Jane and Gwen are always interesting to me. What makes villains interesting to me is what they bring out in Peter. What challenges they provide for him. What’s great about Marvel and other comics is that often there’s a pre-existing relationship… It’s not just about the physical conflict he has, but the emotional ones as well.”

With the new origin story and reboot in the background of the last movie, Webb still feels an obligation to the Spider-Man canon but also feels he can take it to different places and explore different contexts not yet discussed with this iteration of Spidey, not unlike the Ultimate universe in the comic books.

“What’s exciting about moving forward is that, in the first movie, I had to still honor some of the important elements of the origin story. But I also wanted to redefine the context of it because I’m building a different universe than what we’ve seen before. A lot of the nuance is quite different. Now, as we’re approaching the sequel, it’s really exciting because I feel quite liberated. I have a universe that’s my own. I don’t have an obligation to the origin story. It’s pretty fun and exciting and I can dig deeper into the parents.”

Of course, the movie is starting to take shape with this possible casting, as well as the earlier Mary Jane/Shailene Woodley news. It’s interesting that Electro would go this route because obviously Webb wants to show a connection to Garfield’s Spidey, and I figured they would’ve cast someone more age appropriate to connect the generation gap better. I guess we’ll have to see exactly how this character shapes out, and for an official confirmation. There’s also the whole idea that Electro is Caucasian and not African-American, which I think is an absolute non-issue. Character is character and it shouldn’t change performance and how it is projected on the screen. I would like to think we are progressive enough to get past that but time will tell. He is a good actor so it would be interesting to see what he could bring to the table come May 2nd, 2014 when the movie arrives to blow your minds away. Hopefully it will arrive with this suit below.

Spider-Man Sequel Confirms Return Of Director & Star

In probably the most groan inducing and obvious news to ever surface, a sequel to this year’s The Amazing Spider-Man is in the works. After the first one came out to a generally positive reaction from audiences, this money grab new franchise reboot seems determined to follow through with its shameless planned effort to make a new Spider-Man trilogy. At the time however, director for the first film, Marc Webb, was unconfirmed for a return. Now it seems like we’ll have to endure get to see another film starring the wonderful Mr. Garfield and his spectacularly lame portrayal of the hippest, least relatable, and most lame-sauce version of Peter Parker yet. [Editor’s Note – I totally disagree, Garfield > Maguire]

Aren’t I tortured?

Now if it wasn’t clear, I’m not a fan of the movie. I found myself trying really hard to stay positive about the movie right up until I actually saw it, but boy was I ever let down. I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece of epic proportions, nor was I even expecting a knockout, drag down epic superhero film. What I got instead was probably one of the stupidest, most uninteresting, boring superhero films I’ve ever seen. As I was watching it I found myself groaning in disgust or facepalming at the inanity of everything, literally every 5 minutes. Not to mention the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in a movie since the Hulk Dogs from Ang Lee’s Hulk; The goddamned lizard mouse. Plus the sweaters Peter wears, oh GOD the layers on this guy! What is he anemic? Dude wears at least 4 layers of clothes in every scene where he’s not in his Spider-Man garb.

4! Four layers of clothes! Ah! Ah! Ah!

I’ve never seen a film with such a perfect mix of boring, dumb, and redundancy. I kept trying to forget all of the previous things in the film that I found retarded, for lack of a better word, but they just kept coming. Eventually I realized the true meaning of this film lied in it’s franchise value, and the lack of any substance, or anything new or interesting was because of this. People often talk about who is or isn’t a hack in Hollywood, and the guys who wrote this, god bless them for trying. They’re obviously fans of the character, who had to deal with immense studio pressure to make the film as toyetic, commercial, broad and franchisable as possible. What I mean by this, is that it’s the case of a studio counting its eggs before they hatch. The whole film felt like an attempt to make a movie, solely to make other movies, rather than actually tell an interesting, coherent, original story.

Script? Story? Just make the damn movie, we need that Spider-Cash!

So hearing that Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb are coming back isn’t exactly a surprise, but leaves me with no real feelings of joy either. I had no huge problems with Garfield, although he did seem to be sleepwalking through the scenes that didn’t have to have him crying, skateboarding, or crying while skateboarding. He’s not the blame for his character being utterly shit-tastic. I’ve never seen a guy whose shit was so ruined despite looking cool, having a hot babe be obviously into you, being rad at skateboarding, and being a goddamned genius. Furthermore all of the awesome camerawork that was promised by Marc Webb was mostly absent, as I recall a big hooplah being made about the POV swinging sequences, of which I can barely remember. I don’t mean to trash them both, because they did what they could with what they had. The entire thing was a massive failure on every level, except for monetary gain. Which it was made for to begin with, so in that regard it’s a success. I know I’m in the minority with that opinion here at GB, (4.5/5) but It’s how I feel.

Seriously, look how tortured he is!

Will I be looking forward to seeing the new Spider-Man film? No. Will I see it? If somebody else pays for the ticket, snacks, and then is willing to sit through my rant after the film is over? Yes. Will I be continuing further coverage of the sequel as plot details are released? Yes, but only because my editor hates me. [True.]

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Looks…Good?

It’s that time again where an old-yet-familiar intellectual property gets the time tested, sometimes proved, sometimes failed reboot. As many of you are assuredly aware, The Amazing Spider-Man gets brought to the silver screen, only now it’s more of an adaptation of the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, in which he was younger, in high school, but still trying on the tights. This Spider-Man seems to be focused around getting us to watch this origin story yet again. This time they’re dangling the elusive prospect of “hidden secrets” about Spider-man we’ve never seen before. From what the preview material would have you believe, it has something to do with his parents and how they died, and implies they were murdered. Were his parents cruel Colombian drug lords? New Yorker mob hits? Genetic scientists experimenting on human/spider DNA fusion? Well, probably not that last one, I hope. Whatever the reason,  they’re deliberately trying to bring some freshness and possible subversion of expectations this go ’round.

This Spider-Man totally loves dubstep bro. WUB WUB WUB.

I have to admit, I’m still skeptical about the direction of the whole thing. For every moment or line that they get right, another rubs me the wrong way. I suppose it’s a feeling similar to the much ballyhooed “event fatigue” that many Marvel fans claimed to be suffering from, starting with 2006’s Civil War, continuing now with Avengers VS X-Men. I think we’ve had a lot of Spider-Man in our media, from that terrible third movie and it’s subsequent terrible third video game, to the main Marvel comic being published 3 times monthly, to the Ultimate comics where he “dies”, to the current Spider-man movie being a re-telling of a re-telling. They say you can only skin a cat so many ways, although why they say that I don’t know, because that’s a creepy idiom, but I believe it stands in this case. That’s not to say that I don’t find the interpretation of this actual Peter Parker and Spider-Man character welcome. The wisecracking Spider-Man/shy Peter Parker dynamic is kept, and done much better than it was. On the flip side, you’ve got things like the Lizard, who is a B-villain at best, who has been mentioned many times by the internet crowd out there, to look like a Ninja Turtle.

Pizza Power!

All that being said, the one thing I’m definitely looking forward to, is finally getting some good acting from a female lead in these movies. Kirsten Dunst could never hang, (oh god awful pun) but Emma Stone seems certainly more than capable of pulling off Gwen Stacy, which is a story I’m glad to see come to fruition, as the famous issue from the comics concerning her and Spidey is one of the best. I know spoilers are a big point of contention here on the internet, but when the story she’s famous for centers around and is literally titled “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”, I don’t think it’s too bad to say I’ll be looking forward to Andrew Garfield finding the right balance of pathos and energy to mourn his doomed new girlfriend. Check out an interview with both Peter and Gwen over on Splashpage. Spider-Man is British now. DEAL WITH IT.

Wot? Why, you Mewling Quim you.

The other good thing, that not many seem to be mentioning, is that Marc Webb is directing the movie, which may or may not excite and/or frustrate you, depending on what you thought of 500 Days Of Summer. I loved the movie, and thought it was a brilliant and accomplished directorial debut, although I admittedly really really love Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The guy has done a lot of music videos for… well terrible bands like P.O.D, My Chemical Romance, Jimmy Eat World and even Hoobastank. So I will be expecting a terrible soundtrack from the movie, if his work is any indication of his musical tastes. The amount of videos he’s directed indicates that he is capable of working with a broad spectrum of creative input and meshing it into a whole, which is something Spider-Man definitely needs. Fresh ideas like the creative depiction of POV aerial work as well as a more realistic approach to his web slinging will help keep it from the cheesy looking CG-fest every web slinging scene was in the previous three.

Check out 6 Minutes of footage, for as long as it stays up:

Despite the inherent tiredness of yet another Spider-Man movie, it definitely appears this one is shaping up to take back its source material and forge its own identity in our theaters. It could possibly pave the way for other, better films where we can see our favorite villains given a new life with their proper due, instead of being quick afterthoughts. *COUGH* VENOM *COUGH* I am cautiously optimistic about the movie, and initially I would have dismissed this, though the talent involved, and the direction it’s taking has proven to look interesting. The final verdict on it being Amazing however, will have to wait until it’s July 3 release.

Do You Think “The Amazing Spider-Man” Is Going To Suck? Well, Sony Does.

When the preview for The Amazing Spider-Man was released a couple of months back, many people were both confused and disappointed by the trailer’s apparent lack of excitement and promise. That skepticism has followed the film up until now and many fans of the original trilogy are crying for the touch of Sam Raimi once again.

But it seems like moviegoers aren’t the only ones who aren’t thrilled by the film’s trailer. The rumor mill has recently churned out the opinions of execs over at Sony. “Inside sources” claim they despise this film. Gammasquad.uproxx.com reports:

“Of course, regardless of what they think of Amazing Spider-Man, Sony is already moving ahead on a sequel, because come on, it’s Spider-Man, but tellingly the sequel will have an all-new writing team (Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, of Star Trek and the Transformers movies). I wouldn’t be surprised to see director Marc Webb also end up on the trash heap if Amazing isn’t received well.”

Personally, I think this is another instance of studios thinking quantity over quality. The previews that I saw for the film impressed me simply because of how true it stayed to the comics. From the story of Peter Parker’s parents, to the devices he has to use to correctly shoot his webs, I feel like The Amazing Spider-Man is going to be for all the fans of the comics who felt cheated when Raimi’s trilogy refused to acknowledge some of the finer plot points in the comic (cough, cough, Gwen Stacy came before Mary-Jane Parker, cough, cough).

Granted, this reboot is coming fairly soon after Spider-Man 3, but I’m interested to see how (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb handles such a high-risk production. And when I say high-risk, I do so for two different reasons. On the financial side of things, he needs to make enough money to not only break even for the budget, but for the marketing and all that good stuff. It’s no secret that this is a pretty big chunk o’change. But, on the critical side, he’s got to not only make up for Spider-Man 3, he has to convince fans to like his version just as much, if not more than the original Raimi Spidey, something that is near impossible.

My hat is off to him. Here’s to the shred of hope that remains for The Amazing Spider-Man, who is up against The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, two films that are trying very hard to take the title of highest gross of 2012.

Hero Express: Ben Kingsley in ‘IM3’, ‘Powers’ Pilot Recast, and the Spidey/Avengers Clipshow Finale!

Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the top five stories in comic based Film & TV news!

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Trailer Is Here!

Now it wasn’t that long ago that we got our first look at Marc Webb‘s upcoming reboot The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield as Spidey. The first footage was interesting to say the least, and it offered a pretty great look at Peter Parker and some of the cast of the film. There was a little Spider-Man here and there, but it loved up to its name. It was a teaser.

This is the trailer, folks. This trailer is chock full of new and great footage, including our first looks at the Lizard, some really great Spidey action scenes, and tons more. We’ll talk after. Enjoy.