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The Spiderman movies have definitely changed the story from the comic book. Watching the first of the film , I wasn't happy with the depiction of Peter Parker as more self-centred and vain, which is unusually in the context of the comic books. At this moment, Peter Park goes through so much crap that it's a wonder he doesn't commit suicide (it's kind of like Jack Bauer in 24).
Some factual points that were changed, which I'll agree was necessary to make a decent movie, are as follows: The Venom costume is an alien being acquired during the Secret Wars battle with the Beyonder (which was one of the best "cosmic" series Marvel has put out). Spiderman doesn't want to kill villains; even when he is beaten and pulverised, he holds back from taking the ultimate step (in fact, it is rare to show people dying in the comic books). Harry Osborn is more like the depiction of Normie Osborn (the son of Harry and Liz Allan) who is friends with the daughter of Spiderman (Spidergirl). Gwen Stacy is killed by the first Green Goblin (Norman Osborn). The people of New York have rarely been on the side of Spiderman. J. Jonah Jameson has always had a point in saying that it is people like Spiderman who create the villains. And so on.
It's difficult for me to reconcile what I know of Spiderman's history with a movie story that does its best and I admire that. A problem with the movies is that they can't intersect with the other characters from the Marvel Universe. It would be great to have movies like the Secret Wars or the Infinity Gauntlet, War, and Crusade series where a bunch of the Marvel superheroes get together and the stories make more sense (for example, explaining the origin of the Venom symbiote), but I guess that would be a logistic and budgetary nightmare.
Halfway through the movie, the story gets in line with what you'd expect from the book. The rejected symbiote bonds with a humiliated Eddie Brock to become Venom, one of the coolest villains to be introduced in the later years. The Sandman is a villain who is ambiguous. And Spiderman has a run of bad luck and is pummeled constantly but triumphs in the end against all odds.
I once wrote a review of the Batman series where I connected them to a lot of the comic books (I own a huge number of Spiderman comic books) and some other reviewer criticised my review. The perspective I offer is fairly unique: it is based on an experience I can't ignore or negative, and I think it helps place the movie in context of a long history of the books. So if you're interested in the saga of Spiderman beyond what you see in the three movies, I recommend buying some of the great story arcs of Spiderman just to see how complicated and mythological the creations are
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Season of the Witch is a 2011 American period action film with supernatural elements and directed by Dominic Sena. The film stars Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman as knights who return from the Crusades to find their homeland ruined by the Black Plague. A girl is accused of being a witch and causing the devastation. The film will be released on January 7, 2011.
Season of The Witch 2011 Synopsis :
Many years have Behmen (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) lives in battle. Sharply honed instinct they have their instincts as a fighter while also not be underestimated. Unfortunately, the two soldiers of the Crusades was not aware that they face a task that would have proved far more terrible than a battle they've ever experienced.How disappointed Behmen and Felson when returned to their hometown and found their shattered homeland ravaged, not by enemy but because of an outbreak that has swept the land. Rarely can survive the deadly plague and the only hope left is Behmen and Felson. Church and Felson Behmen ordered to arrest and bring a young girl named Anna (Claire Foy), who was accused as the cause of the horrible plague to a monastery for this plague to an end.Anna should follow a cleansing ritual that will end the storm that has engulfed the death of the entire European continent. Behmen and Felson not alone. There was a priest named Debelzaq (Stephen Campbell Moore), a soldier named Eckhardt (Ulrich Thomsen, a con man named Hagamar (Stephen Graham), and a young man named Kay (Robert Sheehan). None of them are aware of how much danger would they face in bringing Anna's journey into the remote monastery. And no one knows who the real Anna.
Season of the Witch
Genre : Thriller
Release Date : January 7, 2011
Director : Dominic Sena
Script : Bragi F. Schut
Producer : Alex Gartner, Charles Roven
Distributor : Relativity Media
Duration : 92 minutes
Budget : -
Official Site : seasonofthewitchthemovie.com
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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
There are few roles in which I like Johnny Depp, but every time he plays an off-beat character, I really enjoy his performance. The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is one such occasion.
Here Depp stars as Jack Sparrow, the famous pirate captain of the Black Pearl who was abandoned on an island by his first mate Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). Through luck, Jack manages to survive and ends up on Port Royal in the Caribbean where he encounters an ongoing soap opera featuring Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightly) the governor's daughter; Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), the son of a former pirate but taken in by the governor, and Norrington (Jack Davenport), the commander in charge of the armed forces on the island who is set to marry the governor's daughter. Jack not only has to deal with the governor and the commander who consider him a thieving pirate, but also with Barbossa and his crew who have now acquired the infamous curse of the Black Pearl.
One of the best aspects of the film is Depp's walk, which people say I mimicked when I was in Thailand and handed a drink which I just took a sip from but made me feel really woozy (there are stories of people drugging foreigners to take their money but fortunately I was with friends). It completely dominates the film. There's also a clever, but predictable, way out of the situation that Jack ends up being thrust in (namely, how does one kill things that can't die). In general the movie is characterised by situations where at first Jack appears to be doing something stupid but in reality is doing something very smart. This leads to some comic relief.
The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was a surprisingly good movie, much better than I expected. I highly recommend checking it out on the big screen.
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