More on the Spider-Man reboot

More news on the Spider-Man reboot. In an article posted on /Film it is reported that Emma Stone will play Gwen Stacy in Sony Pictures new Spider-Man project.

Link

For those whose only exposure to Spider-Man lore is from the Sony Pictures trilogy or the 1994 cartoon, this may be a surprise, but Mary Jane was not Peter Parker’s first love. That title belongs to Gwen Stacy, the daughter of the Police Captain, who Peter met during a college chemistry course. It was Gwen, and not Mary Jane, who was actually kidnapped by the Green Goblin. This episode did not end as happily as the movie either, as Gwen died in a fall from the Brooklyn Bridge.

For more insane, convoluted details here is her back story, pulled from the Marvel.com info page.

Gwen Stacy was Peter Parker‘s first true love. Next to the death of his Uncle Ben, no death has weighed as heavily upon Spider-Man’s shoulders as her passing.Gwen came to Empire State University from Standard High School, where she had been the resident “beauty queen”. Arriving at ESU, she and fellow science major Harry Osborn befriended jock Flash Thompson. Flash attempted to introduce Harry and Gwen to Peter, his high school classmate, during their first chemistry lab. When a preoccupied Peter unintentionally ignored Flash and his new friends, popular Gwen and wealthy Harry did not take kindly to the perceived snub. Spitefully, Harry sabotaged Peter’s lab experiment – setting the stage for a rocky start to their eventual friendship.

Peter had too much on his plate to worry about building friendships at school. His aunt, May Parker, was recovering from radiation poisoning; he was still licking his wounds from his recent battles as Spider-Man against Kraven the Hunter, the Molten Man, the Looter, Mendel Stromm, and the Green Goblin; and he had just broken up with girlfriend Betty Brant.Over time, Peter reconciled with Gwen, Harry, and Flash – transcending his reputation as a standoffish scholarship student. Despite her friends’ misgivings about the bookish Peter, Gwen’s intuition to her there was more to him than met the eye.

Gwen’s emotional breakthrough occurred after Peter turned up at ESU one day on his new motorcycle – a move that greatly surprised her and the rest of the gang. Having just defeated the Green Goblin, Peter was riding high – and for once, free of his many problems. Re-examining her previously held opinion, Gwen found in her heart a true romantic attraction – one Peter clearly returned.

Their budding relationship was immediately tested by the arrival of Mary Jane Watson – the spunky glamorous niece of Aunt May’s friend, Anna Watson. An aspiring model, Mary Jane quickly fell in with Peter’s crowd and showed an interest in the young man she had been watching for some time – causing tension between her and Gwen. But Mary Jane was far too wild and free to settle her heart on any one man, and Gwen knew right away Peter was the one for her. The pair soon surrendered to their irresistible love.

But because of Peter’s hidden life as Spider-Man, it was clear their love affair would never run smoothly. Missed dates, unexplained absences, secrets he could never tell – all these things conspired to cast his relationship with Gwen as a roller coaster of confusion, tears, and reconciliation. But Gwen’s wise father, retired police captain George Stacy, warmly approved of Peter and did what he could to keep the two young lovers together.The Kingpin of crime brainwashed Capt. Stacy into stealing police records. After Peter published pictures exposing Stacy, the Kingpin kidnapped George and Gwen. Spider-Man and Norman Osborn (then an amnesiac to his escapades as the Green Goblin) rescued the two, though the Kingpin escaped. Subsequently, Gwen visited Norman to thank him for saving her and her father’s lives. She found Norman despondent, yet powerfully alluring and charismatic. Feeling both sympathetic and attracted to Osborn, a spontaneous affair between the two ensued, leaving Gwen pregnant with twins.

Tragically, Gwen’s father was killed protecting an innocent child during a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus. In his dying breath, George revealed that he knew who Spider-Man was beneath the mask, asking him to watch over Gwen. A bereaved Gwen held the hero responsible for her father’s death. Peter withdrew while Gwen raged against his alter-ego. With her relationship with Peter in turbulence, and lacking parents at home, Gwen accepted the invitation of her Uncle Arthur and Aunt Nancy to live with them in London. Unable to reconcile how to convince Gwen to stay knowing she would ultimately find out he was secretly the person she hated, Peter let Gwen leave, while she silently hoped Peter would propose marriage to her. However, before long, Peter was unable to bear being without her, and flew to London on assignment with the Daily Bugle, to convince Gwen to return. But an appearance of Spider-Man made the local papers, and Peter returned home fearing an obvious connection would be made. Despite his failed attempt to see Gwen, his heroic deeds convinced Arthur that Spider-Man couldn’t be responsible for his brother’s death. Listening to her uncle, and realizing she may have expected too much of Peter, Gwen returned home again, certain she could salvage her relationship. She was met by Peter’s welcoming arms. During her absence, Norman became the Green Goblin again, Harry turned to L.S.D. while Mary Jane, his supposed girlfriend, blatantly flirted with Peter.

Peter hinted at marriage to Gwen despite the constant trouble of leading a double-life – including secretly growing four extra arms for a time. Their love proved true and strong. Peter took Gwen with him on an expedition and photo shoot of the Savage Land in Antarctica, where Gwen acted as a model. The pair had an exciting adventure, encountering the colossal beast, Gog, which took Gwen back to its master, Kraven the Hunter, to be his queen. Kraven and Gog were defeated by Spider-Man and Ka-Zar.Once Norman Osborn again recovered his memory of Peter’s secret identity, he burned with a desire for revenge against Spider-Man. Gwen, now aware of her pregnancy, fled to Europe where she secretly carried the twins to full term after only a seven month gestation, giving birth to Gabriel and Sarah. Osborn arranged to provide for the twins in Paris while Gwen returned home and reunited with Peter. Gwen argued with Norman that she should raise the children, assuming that Peter’s love would enable him to overlook her infidelity and they would marry. Gwen confided only in Mary Jane, who had overheard the argument and promised to keep her secret. Osborn planned to raise the children to be heirs to the Goblin legacy. Hitting the wall-crawler where it would hurt most, and to rid himself of a young nuisance, the Goblin kidnapped Gwen and carried her to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider-Man arrived and was horrified to find the woman he loved in the hands of his nemesis. Spider-Man blazed into battle, but his ferocity was not enough to prevent the Goblin from pushing Gwen off the bridge. In his last desperate act to save his beloved, Spider-Man fired a slender web-line that caught Gwen by her ankle, stopping her fall before she hit the water. Her neck snapped. Raising her up, Spider-Man discovered she was already dead. The Goblin taunted him, saying that Gwen had been killed by the shock of the fall before he caught her.

Even though after Gwen’s murder, Spider-Man’s subsequent confrontation with the Green Goblin ended in Norman’s apparent death at the hands of his own remote-controlled Goblin Glider, Peter’s anguish did not die so readily. Several years have passes since her death yet Peter is still tormented by nightmares, and has agonized over how he might have saved Gwen’s life if he had done something differently. Peter’s love for Gwen lives on in his memory, and deep within his heart, even though his love for Mary Jane has long since become the guiding force in his life. Peter recently used money he was paid to protect a corrupt mob boss named Forelli from Digger, a monstrous undead gamma-spawned creature, to establish a memorial library in Gwen Stacy’s name. When the Scarlet Witch’s powers transformed the entire world into an alternate reality set under the rule of Magneto (the House of M), Peter and Gwen were married and had a child, Richard. That reality terminated, and life was returned back to the current reality (Earth 616) with the majority of the world unaware of what had transpired.

A genetically stable clone of Gwen, engineered by her college professor, Dr. Miles Warren (the Jackal), later appeared, but opted to have nothing to do with Peter Parker’s life. Married to a clone of Miles Warren, the clone of Gwen (named Gwen Miles) attempted to live a peaceful life in suburban New Jersey until her husband was killed in a car accident after recklessly fleeing from Peter’s clone, Ben Reilly. The Jackal, now a genetically mutated creature, had resurfaced, and created several other clones of Gwen, but they lacked Gwen Miles stability, decomposing after a short time. During a conflict upon the Daily Bugle’s roof, Gwen had an opportunity to kill the Jackal, but she lacked the resolve. The Jackal and Spidercide both fell from the rooftop and were apparently killed. Gwen Miles slipped away; her current whereabouts are unknown.

Link

All photos from Marvel.com

Previous Spider-Man news

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Movie: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Location: Netflix

Cohorts: Me, Myself, and I

Summary: Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs follows the inhabitants of the island of Swallow Falls, a small fishing port whose main export is sardines. The Island’s most interesting citizen is the town inventor, Flint Lockwood. Son of Tim the tackle shop owner, Flint likes to invent things that never make it past the prototype phase. There were his Spray-On Shoes that never come off, Flying Car with no wings, Mutant hybrid Rat-Birds and Hair Un-Balder that caused every pore on the body to sprout follicles. More of a nuisance than a boon to the towns folk, Flint is constantly hounded by the town policeman, Earl Devereaux.

When the island’s sardine packing plant is forced to close, the only food the locals have to eat is the leftover sardines. Flint takes it upon himself to invent a machine that will allow him to mutate water molecules into any food imaginable. After building the device, he tests it out by attaching it to island’s power station, which causes it to rocket into the sky; destroying the islands new theme park in the process.

Shortly after the device disappears, the sky turns purple and hamburgers begin falling from the sky. Flint is praised for his new invention, and the mayor plans to use the new weather patterns to give the island’s economy a boost. Sadly, with overuse, the water molecules begin to mutate into larger foodstuffs that manifest themselves in deadlier weather patterns. In the end, it’s up to Flint and his friends to save the town from sure destruction at the base of a towering spaghetti twister.

Opinion: Having read a synopsis of the book before watching the movie, I was aware that only the concept of food based weather was carried over to the movie.

This movie did have some funny moments, but many of the scenes came off as awkward and forced rather than spontaneously invented – which may have been what they were going for. I guess the awkwardness was supposed to be funny, but it only succeeded in making me feel awkward. There were some in jokes for the adults, but the delivery was so stale I was only able to think “wow, that was clever”. This is a kids movie, so I can’t complain too much.

I give it a solid 3 out of 5, mostly for the stupendous animation.

The Karate Kid

Movie: The Karate Kid

Location: Regal Cinemas Manassas Stadium 14

Cohorts: My brother Drew

Summary: A remake of the 1984 classic, The Karate Kid begins with young Dre Parker and his mother traveling to China from Detroit. Mrs. Parker has been transferred to a new job and Dre to a new school. When they arrive, Dre is at first confident as he immediately makes a new friend and meets a pretty girl, but the schools bully, Cheng, does not like them talking. He steals her sheet music; Dre steps in to retrieve it and is promptly thrown to ground by Cheng, starting a fight. Dre is beaten badly and left lying in the basketball court.

At school the next day Dre and Meiying connect over his inability to use chop sticks. Cheng notices this and slams Dre’s lunch tray into his face; the headmaster intervenes and they are sent off in separate directions. After school, Dre and his mother stumble upon a martial arts training ground. There he sees Cheng training under a brutal master whose martial arts creed is as follows: “No Weakness, No Pain, No Mercy”. Dejected, Dre mopes home along with his mother.

The following day, Dre finds an opportunity to humiliate Cheng and is chased through the streets to an abandoned courtyard. There, he is beaten and bruised until Mr. Han, the buildings maintinence man, steps in to save him. The movie then cuts to Mr. Han’s apartment, where he is attempting to heal Dre’s bruises with fire cupping. Dre thanks him for his help and begs for him to help confront Cheng’s master at the martial arts studio. Mr. Han finally agrees and they make their way to the studio. There, the master challenges Dre to fight his student then and there, but, being unprepared Dre refuses. Mr. Han is then challenged to fight in his stead, but he also refuses; suggesting that Dre will indeed fight, but in the next Open Tournament and not at the studio. This offer is accepted and Mr. Han proceeds to train Dre in his brand of martial arts.

Opinion: If you have seen the original Karate Kid you know how this movie will end, but you will not be reminded of too many of the original’s scenes; most of the story is reasonably different. I found that the remake seems to cater to a younger crowd than the original, Dre is 12, and Daniel was in high school. So, I did not empathize as much with the central character.

Jackie Chan’s portrayal of Mr. Han was excellent, and he definitely seemed more capable of teaching martial arts than Pat Morita’s Mr. Miyagi. The story is very successful as a modern retelling.

I give it 3.5 out of 5

Angels & Demons

Movie: Angels & Demons

Location: 400 Sussex Street

Cohorts: 400 Sussex Street

Summary: Adapted from the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons begins with the ceremonial destruction of the Ring of the Fisherman at the hands of Camerlengo Patrick McKenna. The Pope has died, and the preparations for the election of the next Bishop of Rome have begun. Four hundred and forty-four miles North West, in Geneva, Switzerland, a team of scientists prepare the Large Hadron Collider for an unheard of experiment. They will attempt to capture antimatter in large enough quantities to be seen by the human eye. After successfully capturing three canisters of antimatter, an unknown thief breaks into the control room and steals the middle canister.

As Robert Langdon swims laps in the Harvard Olympic swimming pool, he is approached by a representative from the Vatican who comes bearing a symbol that may be of significance. The symbol is ambigram representing the return of the fabled Illuminati, a long defunct group of high-minded scientific individuals whose purpose was to bring the enlightenment of scientific knowledge to the Catholic Church.

After traveling to the Vatican, Langdon is informed that the Preferiti, the four favorites to become Pope, have been kidnapped by an Illuminati assassin who plans on branding and killing them at four locations along the “path of illumination” that leads to the “Church of Illumination”, the ancient Illuminati meeting place. It is there at the Church of Illumination that the stolen antimatter canister resides, its battery slowly draining until it can no longer support the magnetic field keeping the antimatter stable. If the battery is not replaced in time, there will be a reaction so violent it would destroy the entirety of Vatican City.

It is up to Langdon, with the help of Vatican security, to locate the path, save the Preferiti and stop the destruction of Vatican City. But, there will be twists along the way.

Opinion: Angels & Demons is an extremely predictable movie, there is really no doubt that Professor Langdon will solve the mystery and save the day in the end. They try to make you think there could be a chance he might not make it with a scene in the Vatican Archives, but it only serves to make him seem more invincible.

The character of Carmelengo McKenna is, by far, the best part of the movie, and his scenes are some of the movies most exciting.

Though I was able to predict the ending, it was still very entertaining.

I give a 2.5 out of 5.

Spider-Man reboot

In a post on http://www.hitfix.com it is reported that Sony Pictures has made no comment on the prospect of actor Rhys Ifans playing iconic Spider-Man villain the Lizard in their new series reboot.

Link

If you have ever even Googled Spider-Man you would know that the Lizard is one of Spider-Man’s most early villains, appearing in the 6th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man way back in 1963. So, if this is a reboot, the Lizard would be an ideal character to introduce.

Here is some of his back story, pulled from the Marvel.com info page

Curt Connors was a gifted surgeon who went into a war to help his country. He performed “meatball” surgery on wounded GIs, but his arm was injured in a blast and had to be amputated. He eventually became obsessed with uncovering the secrets of reptilian regeneration, and studied reptilian biology extensively. From his home in the Everglades, he finally determined a serum taken from the DNA of a reptile. He had successfully regrown the missing limb of a rabbit, and, despite the warnings of his wife, chose to test it on himself. Connors ingested it, and his arm did indeed grow back. Unfortunately, it had one side effect: Connors was subsequently transformed into a reptilian monster!

Spider-Man learned about this and travelled to Florida, helping the doctor by using Connors’ notes to invent a serum to cure him. Later, Connors was able to repay Spider-Man by developing a formula to save May Parker‘s life after Peter Parker gave his aunt his radioactive blood during a transfusion that had put May in mortal peril.

For a time, Peter Parker worked as a teaching assistant to Connors. The success of Connors apparent cure from the Lizard personae was short-lived. A repeating pattern occurred: stress or a chemical reaction turned Connors into the Lizard, Spider-Man would fight him, form some kind of temporary cure to revert the transformation, until the next transformation would begin the cycle again.

 

Over time, it became apparent that a second personality had formed with the Lizard, one with the nigh-impossible goal shared by many villains of taking over the world. Eventually his resorts to using an army of lizards stopped and he began working alone. When his wife and son separated from him (due to the marital strain transforming into a Lizard may cause), Connors tried unsuccessfully to straighten out his life. In despair, The Lizard took control, though it had a weak mental strength, causing the voodoo from Calypso to affect him for her own purposes. After a series of bloody battles, the Lizard and Calypso were defeated by Spider-Man, causing Connors to gain control of his bestial mind. Although it was very weak, the suppressed Connors persona carried out a plan and cured himself, but only temporarily.

For a time, a huge animalistic Lizard appeared, showing up in many issues, causing everyone to believe the Lizard persona was now permanent. However, when this second Lizard went after Connors, Curt drank the old serum to become the true Lizard once again, and save his son’s life. The original Lizard returned and killed the second beast, though it also brought the Lizard persona back into action. Later, it was discovered that this new Lizard was an accident from Connors’ latest attempt to cure himself. A new formula was tested on a piece of the Lizard’s tail, which grew into a fully-formed second creature. Curt and his wife reunited.

One of the Lizard’s latest scheme to take over the world had him affecting the water supply to turn everyone into his mindless slaves, though after Connors’ son, Billy, almost became one of these zombies, Spider-Man lashed out and attacked the Lizard. After Martha got her share of words in, the Lizard became Connors once again, now begging for help for a cure.

Though reunited with his family, and his missing arm restored by Hammerhead, tragedy struck again in the Connors family – this time, for Martha and Billy. Both mother and son were diagnosed with cancer after years exposed to carcinogens from living near an industrial lab of the Monnano Corporation in Florida. Adding to the tragedy, Curt’s new arm degenerated and became useless. Spider-Man assisted Curt, and successfully forced the Monnano Corp. to admit their environmental culpability. However, Martha succumbed to the cancer. Billy survived, and remains bitter towards his father.

With Billy under Curt’s sister’s care, a darker, mentally-unstable Connors recently revealed a horrible truth to Spider-Man. Curt had returned to New York in search of a research grant. But when the grant was awarded to another scientist named Eric Richardson, Connors blew up the laboratory, and left his rival badly injured. The Lizard was seen leaving the lab, but Connors convinced Spider-Man of his innocence. However, Curt allowed Spider-Man to lock him inside an abandoned vault in the sewers for everyone’s safety. Meanwhile, the Daily Bugle obtained a videotape of the transformation, and publicly exposed the truth that the Lizard is the result of a transformation. Spider-Man went to discuss the latest news with Connors in the vault, but the Lizard persona broke free again. Now, Spider-Man learned the truth – Connors admitted he had been lying – he had been in control of the Lizard for some time, and was using his transformation as an escape mechanism to do horrible things. The Lizard escaped, battering Spider-Man into unconsciousness. After confronting Billy, the Lizard was shaken-up with internal conflict. As Connors, he allowed himself to be easily arrested for a bank robbery and locked up to protect those he loves.

The Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) recently freed the Lizard from prison, enhanced his powers to include violence-producing pheromone secretion, and brokered a deal for the creature to join the very short lived Sinister Twelve. The Twelve failed in an attack against Spider-Man and the Black Cat, after the two broke Osborn out of prison. They were defeated by the assistance of the Fantastic Four and other super-powered allies of Spidey.

Most recently, the Lizard has resurfaced to face Spidey with the aid of a pint-sized “twin” of himself–who was revealed to be none other than his son, Billy, finally transformed by his father into the new Lizard. Tragically, however, Billy Connors was shot by a resident of the apartment complex upon which Spider-Man and the Black Cat were fighting them. His condition remains grave, and Curtis himself has escaped to the relative safety of the sewers.

Link

Pretty lame and convoluted ain’t it. This stuff was so much cooler when I was 11.

My post on Spider-Man 3

2012

Movie: 2012

Location: AMC Hoffman Center 22

Cohorts: Me, Myself and I

Summary: Written and directed by Roland Emmerich, 2012 follows two main characters: Dr. Adrian Helmsley, a geologist, and Jackson Curtis, a science fiction writer. The film begins with Dr. Helmsley as he is visiting geologist friends in India. There he learns of a new and deadly “mutant” neutrino particle that is rapidly heating the earth’s core.  Shocked by the information, Dr. Helmsley drafts a report and travels back to America in order to inform the government.

After contacting the White House Chief of Staff, Carl Anheuser, Dr. Helmsley is given an immediate audience with the President. There, the President is informed that the earth as they now know it is coming to an end. There will be a tremendous eruption at the heart of Yellowstone, which will set in motion cataclysmic events. Dr. Helmsley travels to Yellowstone in order to investigate the disturbance; there he meets Curtis who is spending quality time with his children at a now nonexistent lake. After the investigation, it is proven that the earth’s crust is beginning to destabilize. Curtis is informed of this by fringe broadcast journalist Charlie Frost, who has been predicting the end of the earth for some time. Charlie also tells Curtis that the world’s governments have constructed several “arks” that they will use to save the best of humanity.  After claiming to own a map that reveals the arks’ location Charlie climbs to the top of one of Yellowstone’s’ many mountains and awaits the inevitable. Curtis then finds the map, and uses this knowledge to save his family as Yellowstone explodes and the entire world begins to crumble into rubble.

Throughout the rest of the movie Curtis and his family encounter people from many different nations as they travel toward the arks, while Helmsley and the rest of the world’s governments must solve difficult moral dilemmas. When each side’s stance has its own merits, which one should you choose?

Opinion: A very entertaining movie, 2012 took special effects extravagance to new highs, with scenes of entire cityscapes erupting into the sky. The futuristic arks are creative and with their design it seems feasible they could survive such cataclysmic flooding.

I enjoyed this movie, but I would just like to point out that it contains a-lot of ethnic stereotypes. Almost every character Jackson Curtis meets after the halfway point is a freakishly one-dimensional stereotype. Now, rich Russians with heavy accents are funny,

Photo from New York Daily News

but when they are trying to save all 30 of their Bentleys when the end of the world is at hand, the greed is a little excessive.

I give it a 2.5 out of 5.

Grown Ups

Movie: Grown Ups

Location: Cinemark Movies 10

Cohorts: My buddy Djo

Summary: Five twelve year old boys win a vaguely defined basketball championship in the 1970’s, thirty years later, after the death of their former coach; they reunite, with the exception of Adam Sandler’s character, as dysfunctional adults. An hour, and two hundred and fifty bad, ugly, and awkward jokes later, they have learned nothing but the wonderfully clichéd message that “it doesn’t really matter what has happened with your life as long as you have someone to love”. None of their problems have been fixed and Adam Sandler’s only realization is that he needs to purposefully lose games or harm his family’s investment opportunities in order to let other people feel good about themselves.

Opinion: It is my strong belief that Adam Sandler created this move for the sole purpose of showing the world that he can make a jump shot. It makes me sick to my stomach that this movie dominated the sidelines and commercial during last years NBA playoffs. This movie is supposed to be a comedy, but the only jokes that made me laugh were where the completely unlikable characters were injured or harmed. Do not waste your life or your dollar on this movie, 0 out of 5.

If you really want to see the two or three funny parts, here’s the trailer.

Spider-Man 3

Movie: Spider-Man 3

Location: My Room

Cohorts: Me Myself and I

Summary: The third movie in Sony’s Spider-Man franchise, Spider-man 3 reintroduces us to Peter Parker as he watches Mary Jane in a play; also present is Harry Osborn, Peter’s best friend, who has recently identified him as Spider-Man. Having hated Spider-Man for the perceived murder of his father Norman, the original Green Goblin, Harry is driven to the brink of madness by this news and attempts to recreate himself as the Goblin. Meanwhile, escaped convict Flint Marco is trying to reconnect with his wife and child, but is put out of the house for good.

Later, Peter has received his Aunts wedding ring and is traveling on his moped to propose to Mary Jane, when he is attacked by Harry, the new Green Goblin. Peter is able to stop Harry, but he his harmed in the process, so Peter takes him to the hospital for treatment.

As this is going on, Flint Marco stumbles upon a government testing site and accidentally falls into the blast zone of a particle accelerator. When the reaction is triggered, he becomes fused with the sand at the bottom of the blast zone and melts into a formless mound, this is the genesis of the Sandman, the second of this movies three super-villains.  The third villain, Venom, is first introduced as symbiotic alien ooze that falls to earth via meteorite and attaches itself to Spider-Man, first forming a darker replica of his iconic costume. But, the costume isn’t the only thing that becomes darker, Peter’s personality changes for the worse and it begins to jeopardize his relationship with Mary Jane. Because of this, Peter becomes determined to rid himself of the alien. He knows it’s only weaknesses, fire and sound waves, and decides to use the sound of a church bell to forcibly remove it. At the church is Eddie Brock who, days earlier, had been outed as a plagiarist by Peter. Brock sees Spider-Man struggling with the alien and as the alien drops from bell tower it lands on him, transforming him into the monstrous Venom.

Venom, armed with the knowledge of Peter’s secret identity, is determined to get his revenge, this culminates in the kidnapping of Mary Jane who he takes to the construction site of a large skyscraper. It is here that the movies climax takes place, with Spider-Man fighting Venom and the Sandman simultaneously. He is no match for the two villains, but Harry returns in his Goblin costume to give Spider-Man his aid. After dispatching Venom with an explosive device, Harry succumbs to wounds sustained in the battle and dies, but not before he forgives Peter for his father’s death. After his funeral, Mary Jane and Peter are seen making up in a Jazz club in New York.

Opinion: I consider myself somewhat of a comic book nerd, so I took some offense to the manipulation of the source material. But, complaining about a comic book being misrepresented in a movie is pretty stupid if you ask me, so I will leave you with my biggest problem with the franchise as a whole(actually not my biggest problem, but probably the funniest), Harry and Norman Osborn’s hair.

This is what it should look like…

Photo from Marvel.com

This is what it did look like…

The cartoon from 1994 got it right, what’s wrong with the folks over at Sony?

All kidding aside, Spider-Man 3 is about as bad as a big budget summer blockbuster can be with its much maligned dance sequence and overabundance of bad villains. I give it 2 out of 5.

The Social Network

Movie: The Social Network

Location: River Ridge Stadium 14

Cohorts: Me, Myself and I

Summary: Adapted by Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men) from the book The Accidental Billionaires, The Social Network chronicles the genesis of Facebook. The story begins with Mark Zuckerberg out on a date with his probably fictionalized girlfriend Erica Albright. After a series of snarky exchanges Ms. Albright proceeds to break off their relationship causing Zuckerberg to run back to his dorm room and contemplate some sort of revenge. He conceives of the Idea to create a website that will let users rate the looks of all the undergraduate women, calling it Facemash. The website is finished that night and in the wee hours of the morning, crashes the Harvard network causing the network administrator to call Zuckerberg before a council of the Harvard administration.

After this sequence the movie flashes forward to show Zuckerberg engaged in a legal dispute with who we later find out is his good friend and roommate Eduardo Saverin. Saverin is suing Zuckerberg because he cut his 30% ownership of Facebook down to .003%, effectively removing him from the picture. As the movie continues the story cuts back and forth like this several times. We see Zuckerberg contacted by the imposing Winklevoss twins and their business partner Divya Narendra to finish the code for their new, Harvard exclusive, social network “The Harvard Connection”. Another flash forward and we find that the three prospective site owners are also suing Mr. Zuckerberg for intellectual property theft. Quickly after this, the character of Sean Parker is introduced and things proceed to explode for Facebook at the expense of the Zuckerberg and Saverins friendship. In the end, Zuckerberg is seen attempting to friend Erica Albright, continually hitting refresh on his keyboard until the screen turns black.

Opinion: Paced quite well, The Social Network remains exciting and riveting even though the majority of the story is action less. Though the directors do try to add some fictional spice to the party life at Harvard, showing busloads of college girls being ushered into Finals Club parties, it is all obviously sensationalized. My biggest problem with the movie is the fact that the identical twin characters are played by the same actor.

This guy….

Photo from firstshowing.net

Plays these guys…

Photo from smh.com

I just wish for once Hollywood would make a movie with twin characters that were played by a pair of actually Identical twins and whose lines did not consist of cracks like “we’re genetically identical, we would just spin in circles” and “I can do that myself, I’m 6’5” and there’s two of me”.

Despite the twin garbage, I give it a solid 4 out of 5.

Salt

Movie: Salt

Location: Cinemark Movies 10

Cohorts: My brother Drew, My buddy Djo

Summary: CIA agent Evelyn Salt is called in to investigate a Cold War era Russian defector, this defector claims knowledge of a terror attack at the funeral of the US Vice President. After a skeptical interrogation, agent Salt finds herself accused of being a double agent working for a top secret Russian terror organization. This starts a chain of events culminating in the kidnapping of her husband. As agent Salt flees federal agents we must contemplate her situation, is she who she says she is? Will she save her husband? You will have to watch it to find out.

Opinion: Salt is your standard fugitive on the run movie with a little Cold War xenophobia sprinkled on top. If you really think about, it is so much like your standard fugitive movie it’s almost like they based it on 1993’s The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford. The scenes are so similar!

There’s the “stumble in upon my defaced living quarters only to find my spouse is missing/dead” scene

The “patch the wound on your right side with your knowledge of medical\female hygiene products” scene

The “dye your hair a darker color to change your appearance” scene

The “point your gun at the lead investigator, but don’t shoot him” scene

And even the “leap from a nigh impossible height into the water so the investigating team will think you’re dead” scene

I also swear that the score was similar as well, but I have no evidence.

Now, Richard Kimble was a vascular surgeon who was accused of murdering his wife and Evelyn Salt is a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy, but those are just minor inconsistencies right?

Anyway, even with all the similar clichés Salt is still a very slick and entertaining movie, I give it 3 out of 5.