Y’know what sucks about having over-developed foresight? The fact that it only seems to work in regards to the fate of ill-concieved movie projects. I can’t call the Lottery or win a card game to save my life, but are you wondering who or what to short on the Hollywood Stock Exchange? Cuz if so, I’m your man.
The GOOD thing about it? I’m typically through with the stages of fanboy-outrage and into “acceptance” (or, rather, “whatever”) pretty quick. Case in point: I find myself unable to summon the energy to give a damn about, say, J.J. Jameson being left out of The SpideReboot – yeah, kinda dissapointing in theory; but I kinda used up all my surplus-irritation for this mess back when they announced it, so every new detail just hits me with a middling sense of “lousy-sounding movie sounds slightly lousier, we’ll find out next year.”
Case in point: This weekend’s meh-inducing panic-button were the above-pictured spy-snaps of Andrew Garfield’s stuntman wearing a “stunt version” of the new Spidey-Suit, giving us a (sort-of) first look at the full design and the new mask. (The metal “spats” on the feet are probably to help the stunt-guy run, instead of a “real” part of the costume.)
It’s not substantially more “revealing” than the first official shot from last week, nor is there any significant newness worth writing home about. They’ve gone with much smaller eyes, mainly, and you can more clearly see the how much more “busy” the design is: The blue parts are “broken up” into segments by lines, the strips of red up the arms is super-thin to the point of looking like racing-stripes and there are “matching” ones going down the back of the legs. You can also see that the interior of the gloves has blue fingers. Still immediately recognizable, but like I said… “busier.” I’ll be honest: I think all the extra detailing is kinda ugly-looking. Devin over at BAD thinks it looks like Ben Reilly’s version from the books, which it sorta does and which is perversely appropriate.
What I DO hope this view of a harshly-lit, non-“battle-damaged” version of it does it put to rest this bullshit meme that this version looks more “home-made” than the one from the earlier films. No, it doesn’t. It’s same style with the same fabric-pattern and even the same raised-webs. Neither of them look anything like something a teenager can make in his house, neither has any live-action Spider-Man suit ever filmmed except the wrestling-costumed from the first one, maybe. And for that matter… why would anyone want it to? In a movie where a guy becomes a superhero – as opposed to a cancer patient – from a radioactive spider-bite, is the sewing skill really where you hinge the suspension of disbelief?
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 
Alrigth! alright! people here we go again!
Let's bring the “Bob want this movie to fail” coments, followed by the “Bob is a arrogant douchebag who thinks of himself being this awesome over-developed foresight guy” and don't forget to be cynical about it!
And I want those lengthy comments, filled with Raimi movies comparisons and comics references, and I want that done by the books!
Also, don't forget about the supportive Bob comments, few and between.
Alrigth, let's troll people!!
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…..that looks like shit
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I know exactly what you mean about people accepting so many ridiculous things in a movie, but complaining when something minor tips the scale for them.
Kinda like how I know a few folks who took all the CG and comic onomatopoeias in Scott Pilgrim as a given, but freaked out at the 'Pee Bar'.
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Am I the only one that thinks this doesn't look like a photo, but rather a scale model or CG shot?
Something looks wrong.
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@Landstander – It looks like a video game screenshot to me.
I'm actually very disappointed in the lack of a J. J. Jameson, especially since the guy for the original films was so perfect at the role. At the same time, since he's a minor character I can see the film still working without him.
It'll just be a shame.
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Well, it won't be as shameful as leaving out Cyclops and Phoenix of the X-Men reboot. That said, I'm still optimistic for the Spidey movie, albeit somewhat. We'll see where this goes.
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@Lucas Neuman: At this point, Bob's all but outright said he wants the film to fail, I hardly need to say it for him. Besides, much like Bob himself I've rather quickly reached the point where his fanboy bitching, dissappointing though it is for me as a longtime reader of this blog, simply begins to sound like so much white noise.
So rather than focus on that, I'll focus on the actual costume. To be frank? I like it. It's hardly a flattering shot, I grant, and if that padding at the bottom of the boots is for real and not simply for stunt purposes to be edited out later, I'd call that a bad choice but even Bob doesn't seem to think they are, so no worries there. The mask looks almost EXACTLY like the classic Spidey mask which makes me happy, and I even rather like the more form-fitting and less obviously-padded look of the suit and its materials. Not “home made” (which I never bought, myself), but very Spider-Man even so. I do find it odd that they went with some of the Reilly-era details, but as often as they don't work (not really digging the look of the hip area), they actually do (call me crazy, I rather like the blue fingers and lack of belt). On the whole, I do think the Raimi costume may well be stronger overall, but this new look doesn't strike me as being awful, and I could actually see it looking quite snazzy in motion.
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@Landstander
I thought it was a CG shot. Something just looks weird about it.
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The thing is, he still looks Spider-man, and that's hat matters right?
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Looks O.K, this movie is probably gonna be pretty good. I look forward to watching it next year.
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@landstabder and @Adam
yeah i defeintly didn;t think it was human. And it's too shiney
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Yeah, there are several visual things that seem weird with that picture. Most likely a cg or game shot.
– Based on the background the “person” seems to be three feet tall.
– The left arm seems to be at a very bad angle (elbow too high, shoulder would be out of socket at that point)
– Both feet are flat (no bends). Could just be “that” moment where both feet are off the ground though.
– Both hands seem to be in the exact same action figure “pose”. Neither is clenched in fists and fingers aren't separated on either.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9hpP7d2-wo&feature=player_embedded
video of the shooting, check it out
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The focus on sewing reminds me of Mystery Men. 🙂
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@ Bob
Really? You hate an aspect of the spiderman movie? Who saw that coming?
Hate to break it to you, but being able to predict your own reactions is not a skill. You don't get to count it as a prophecy when the one who makes it has the ability to make it come true.
And it still looks more home made.
And don't act like if the costume wasn't exactly like the comics you didn't have a rant prepared about them ripping off Raimi and his totally unique artistic vision.
@SSSonic
Sir, are you implying that an out of context, lo res shot with bad lighting of a stunt man whering a stunt version of the costume is not a 100% indicator of the ultimate suit quality? Madness.
I like it too. The shot is horrible, but the costume's a good one. The only major change from the comic spiderman are the stripes on the side and the lack of belt in the front….which I imagine are there to give him a greater look of length.
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@Dave: Honestly, I don't know for sure. I mean, it could well be representative for what the suit looks like in the movie, but it also seems visibly different in a lot of ways from what we saw a few days ago in the earlier promo shot of Peter without his mask on. Truthfully, if this IS what to expect from the movie, I can't say I'm all that bothered, but that may just be years of watching and enjoying Power Rangers/Sentai talking. ^_^
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Oh, and spiders are arachnids…BTW.
@ SSonic.
That's because the first photo was a publicity shot designed to show what it would look like on film. This one is a blurry camera phone shot from a stunt suit.
That's why direction and lighting is important to a film.
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Ok, ok, question?
Do people really think that's how the costume is going to looks like in the finish line?? Don't you guys know that 80% of a movie, especially one that's heavy on FX, is done in a editing table?? Come on guys, you're not seriously judging the movie because of this photo, are you?
But I gotta say, I'm avoiding looking at the picture now, to me it strikes me that's a naked dude streaking with body painting. It's almost Carnaval here in Brazil, and a lot of people tend to do that in this time of year….
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…… why do people compare this costume to Ben Reilly's? What the hell is it with this Ben stigma? I know the clone saga sucked, but this looks a hell of a lot more like the House of M costume than Ben's……
I happen to like Ben's Spider-Man outfit moreso than any other Spidey costume (with the exception of the Black costume and the Iron Spider costume). But regardless, it looks nothing like Reilly's, other than for fanboys vexing their anger toward this look by relating it to their hatred toward the clone saga – which in turn was projected onto a character who couldn't breathe or be himself, and was forcibly defined by a sucky event rather than shine on his own merits as a character.
Other than “things fans don't like” this has nothing to do with Ben's outfit.
Look up Spidey's House of M digs and you'll basically get a costume that looks very much like this one. And look how nobody bitches about his M outfit…..
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@Lucas: Umm…. that's quite the embellishment, and not entirely accurate…. regardless what you don't seem to realize – as is the case with everyone defending the SFX for the Green Lantern flick – is the time and money needed to make the changes necessary for certain visuals to NOT suck, and everything else that has to come after (including distribution, etc.). If the changes to the CGI which fanboys were supporting were indeed made in the 6 months from when the ET footage was released, the movie would never come out on time because of all the stuff that has to be done afterward before the reels are mass-produced and distributed to theaters nation-wide.
Just an example, but it illustrates how little your average movie-goer knows about the work involved in making a movie.
This photo is taken of a stunt man during the production phase. Even if the suit isn't 100% like it will look in the movie, it gives us a general idea of the look, which – for the purposes of production shooting – would look pretty damn close to the costume design in the movie.
No one is bitching about the design's originality; Bob – and others – are upset that the particular redesign in question happens to look ugly. I agree; the red striping looks senseless and overall it seems like a poor knockoff of the original by someone who has little experience designing these outfits. The first photo Bob posted of the costume looked like body paint, as is the consensus of many of my colleagues. Whoever designed this outfit needs to take a few design classes.
Btw anyone coming to Wizard World Big Apple this May? I'll be tabling there.
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To be honest, the more I see this photo, the more it's growing on me.
My only real objections are the red on the leg and the blue on the gloves. If not for those two things, it's possible that the costume would, in fact, look more “homemade” or at least more “passably accurate to the source material”.
It reminds me of this, though:
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/media/photos/unis/photo_867706_resize.jpg
Which is a shot of a Canadian speed skater at the 2002 Winter Olympics. In that respect, it looks like parts of this costume could have been built from material used in athletic wear, which could give it more of a “real” feel.
Anyway, not entirely happy, but..it's not too horrible, I suppose. Just too busy. At least the mask looks good.
See, the more I think about it, the more I have to give respect to the Raimi films. Aside from the raised webbing, that costume was perfect. I've realized that the only problem I had with it this whole time was Tobey Maguire's proportions – I guess he didn't seem gangly enough to me.
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