While out promoting his newest horror offering, Drag Me to Hell, Sam Raimi spoke to Cinematical and the inevitable topic of Spider-Man 4 came to the table.
While no real details about the movie emerged, Raimi made some interesting remarks in regard to his own work on the Spider-Man franchise, and what he hopes to accomplish with a fourth film. In his comments, Raimi seems to be eternally apologizing for his mistakes, where he went wrong, and how passionately he is about making up for it. This of course all stems from Spider-Man 3, which was and still remains to be one of the most negatively criticized superhero movies ever to be made.
I honestly feel badly for Raimi while reading this quote; it’s almost like he requires the fans’ forgiveness and the re-acquiring of their faith and loyalty.
Here’s Raimi on the mistakes he’s made and the lessons he’s learned:
As far as Spider-Man, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about what people didn’t like and missteps that I’d made. But I learned those lessons on the previous two, I was just a little quieter about them. I made a lot of mistakes, and it’s part of the reason I so want to make this next story of Peter Parker.
And Raimi on the character of Spider-Man, how familiar he is with it, and his goal for the fourth movie:
I really think I know in my heart who the character is, and I haven’t quite been able to sing the song yet, or bring it out to the extent or degree of detail that I feel in my heart that I can. And I may not be successful, but I still feel like I know it better than I’m able to play it; I feel like the kid that really practiced at the piano recital, with years of comic books, and when I got to my other recitals, I sometimes made some missteps with them. There’s a whole crowd there and they think that’s as well as I know the piece, but I really do know it a lot better than that and I would like one more chance at that character. The Spider-Man films, I’ve made mistakes, but I really do look at them as things that I’ve learned, and hope that when I apply what I’ve learned to this next one, I really make a film that people enjoy and is really true to the character in a fresh, original way. That’s my goal.
I take two things from these quotes: One, is how good this is for Spider-Man 4 — is Sam Raimi is this passionate and determined to make up for Spider-Man 3, then we could REALLY be in for a treat with the next movie. It’s rare that a director puts this kind of fire into something and genius isn’t the final product. Secondly, I really think Raimi is beating himself up way too much. Yeah, Spider-Man 3 wasn’t as good as we all wanted it to be, but that doesn’t mean the first movie wasn’t great, and that the second movie wasn’t one of the best comic book movies we’ve ever seen. Is Spidey 3 even that bad compared to other comic fare, like Ghost Rider? C’mon now.
If Spider-Man 4 is brilliant and does indeed end up winning all of our love back, then I guess this is all worth it. I do hate to see such a loved and respected director so bothered by one dud, though. Everyone has a bad run, it’s part of the life.
