Dont Tell NetflixDont Tell Netflix

By George Robbins

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, has easily become one of the most popular series of films out there at the moment with the assortment of films now considered a part of the franchise. As a franchise, the MCU has been able to consistently manage to bring in large numbers of viewers and keep them engaged for the length of their entire films. In fact, the franchise has become so popular at this point that it is widely considered to be a mainstream franchise by avid movie-goers. This doesn’t mean that the movies are bad by any stretch of the imagination, it just means that the general populace has taken to the franchise very well over the years. Just about anybody can go and watch MCU films now and be excited for when the next one is going to release and this is a trend which continues now.

The MCU began simply when the first live-action ‘Iron Man‘ film released back in 2008 and no one knew exactly how things would end up turning out. We learned much later that there was actually a lot that went wrong during the production and a lot of what was seen in the movie was thought up while in the middle of production. People may not really think about it all that much now, but the fact remains that the MCU only really managed to get its start at the bottom of the totem pole. However, after the film was a smash success, the MCU was able to begin in full force as there was now much more backing to get more films done. This was all so that they could do what has never truly been done in the past which is to create a universe shared by various characters.

Not only would those characters share the same universe, but the actions of some of them played a major role in the universe and shaped how it played out. Eventually, we were given the 2012 ‘Avengers‘ film which brought a variety of characters together on screen for the first time to fight a common enemy that threatened the world. The idea of bringing together such a cast of characters was seen as all the more impressive due to the fact that many of the films had different directors working on them. Not only that, but the scripts must be able to intertwine with one another in some way while also allowing more individual stories to happen on the side. This gave those working on writing and directing the films a challenge that no one else has really had to face before that period in time.

Of course, all of this wasn’t really made any easier by the fact that they were adapting something from comic books while also trying to create unique storylines. When they released the first ‘Avengers’ film they even introduced an over-arching storyline that would span almost a decade which actually started in movies before then. With the introduction of the infinity stones in early films without actually saying what they were, they set up a storyline that started getting revealed in full in later films. Needless to say being able to weave together a franchise is difficult and doing it perfectly is impossible but they managed to do extremely well with the productions they were tasked with making. Comic book movies were already receiving a sort of bad wrap from most people because they were difficult to pull of in a unique way.

Obviously, the movies had a lot of source content to work with and if not for that, there is no telling exactly where the franchise would have gone, or if it would have even existed. Over the years, comic books have always been the attraction for a lot of people but they were not for everyone and this was a recognized fact. Due to this fact, they decided to make something that would attract everyone to go and see it and the thing is, comic book stories are perfect for movies as a whole. They more times than not contain instances of action, suspense, deep thought, comedy, and tragedy and this makes them compelling to show on the big screen. There are not many films which are actually capable of pulling off a feat like this to begin with, so of course a lot of time and effort was devoted to these films.

The connectiveness of the films has been a major selling point for a lot of people and the continuation of not just the overarching stories but also the individual stories has sold people on the newer films as they’ve released. We knew as a society that the MCU was becoming a huge deal when Disney went and purchased Marvel Studios, the ones producing the films. After this massive purchase, which cost them billions of dollars, they just let Marvel Studios continue to do their work so that they could make more films as they knew just what they were doing. All Disney did was make sure that they would be able to make a profit on anything that has a Marvel label on it ranging from movies to books to action figures and other toys. While some were not happy about the films becoming mainstream, the general public, and therefore Disney, were happy with the results of what they got to see play out on the big screen as it was made just for people to enjoy.

Comic book fans have always been excited when they got to see their favorite characters take to the big screen in some way and that hasn’t really stopped all that much anymore. What ends up upsetting some people is that they think that people like it just because it is popular and they don’t like it for the characters. As a result a lot of character translations from comics to movies had been adjusted in some way to try and get more people to be on board with the characters and their stories. Tony Stark starts off as an arrogant playboy and very quickly turns that around to try and help people while still maintaining a somewhat arrogant persona. In the comics he was always that way and was more times than not, actually worse than his movie counterpart. Obviously this wouldn’t resonate with the general public, so they adjusted him as time went on to make him much more likeable in an annoying sort of way.

These sorts of changes are seen all the time when it comes to adaptations and this isn’t really all that surprising for a studio to do to get more people to start watching the series. Some characters, however, do manage to translate fairly well from their comic counterparts to the big screen though not without some minor changes to fit the story’s purpose. Other than that, their personalities and character designs get to stay relatively the same which makes it much easier for them to get people on board with the characters. One such character who they have managed to adapt in a pretty well done manner was Spider-Man and this was a character that people were afraid may never have entered the MCU at any point. Considering how important Spider-Man is to the Marvel universe as a whole, it is no surprise that this was a fear that people had for quite some time.

In the Marvel Universe, and more specifically the comics, Spider-Man is a beacon of morality among the denizens of that universe and he serves as a hero that doesn’t always try to save the world. Spider-Man is a much more localized hero who does whatever he can to help those in his community rather than constantly trying to save the world. While he has been seen helping stop worldwide catastrophe, a majority of the time he is in New York City trying to keep people safe from everyday hazards. Not only is Spider-Man known more for his everyman day-to-day deeds, but he is known for the fact that he manages to make even dire situations at least a little more light-hearted. The character is sarcastic and helpful towards as many people as he can be while doing his best to not hurt people too badly. He is one of those characters that doesn’t really want to abuse the power that he found himself having and this shines through very well on screen.

This is why Spider-Man was one of the first Marvel characters to get his own live-action film, although he was most definitely not the first. Sam Raimi took the Spider-Man character and gave him a place on the big screen in live-action for the first time ever which was a feat all on its own. While he did take creative liberties to make sure that the character made the proper transition, the 2002 ‘Spider-Man‘ was a success due to the efforts of everyone who was involved. The sequel which followed was even better than the original film and it introduced a villain that is central to the character of Spider-Man. In the first film, we saw iconic villain The Green Goblin appear on the screen and although he was a cheesy character he was one of the best parts of the original film. The sequel introduced yet another important villain which was Doctor Otto Octavius, known by most people as Doc Ock.

In this rendition of the character, Doc Ock, played by actor Alfred Molina, was just a scientist who was trying to help people by developing a clean source of power for the world. In order to do this he created four mechanical arms which he controlled with his mind via a computer chip on the back of his neck. For the arms to work properly, he had to give them artificial intelligence, but the chip prevented them from acting outside of his control. Peter Parker worked for Dr. Octavius because he believed in his mission to try and create a better future for other people, but of course it didn’t go as planned. The lab in which Octavius was conducting his experiment ended up falling to pieces and his wife was killed when the experiment went out of control and caused the building to collapse on itself.

The result of that destruction was that the chip that regulated the arms and kept them from losing control ended up being completely destroyed, but the arms were still fused to him. During an attempt to cut the arms off of him, every doctor involved ended up being killed and Octavius awakened in horror to see that he was now under the control of the arms he created to help save people. The goal that he and his arms now had was to recreate the experiment in an effort to succeed where he had previously failed while also fighting Spider-Man who had ended up in his way. He blamed Spider-Man for his not being able to succeed in his experiment which he thought was the reason his wife ended up dying, as a result he blamed him for her death. By the film’s conclusion, seeing Peter/Spider-Man trying to prevent all of New York from being destroyed reminded him of why he wanted to succeed in the first place, he wanted to help people.

At the end of the film, we saw Spider-Man being saved by Doctor Octavius who managed to overpower the arms with his own will once again and Octavius sabotaged the experiment to save everyone, proving he was really a good man. Dr. Octavius has been viewed through the eyes of people outside of the comic sphere of influence as an anti-hero of sorts instead of just a straight-up villain as originally intended. This is owed to the fact that Raimi made it understandable in his films that his villains were haunted and had their own reasons for wanting to do things. While they may not have been good through-and-through, they had redeeming qualities, but the writing and directing were not the only thing to make those two films what they were, it was the fact that the actors did an incredible job portraying the characters. This is why so many people wanted the original actor to return at some point in the future for the ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming‘ series as they felt he would really be the best choice for the character.

Once a character has been portrayed in an incredible fashion on screen, people tend to only really ever see that character being played by that one person from that moment on. Regardless of continuity or the fact that they have appeared in previous iterations of the character, some people are just deemed to be well-made fits for those characters. This is why, staying with Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson has been portrayed by J.K. Simmons on a number of occasions at this point and even in different iterations. He appeared as the character in Raimi’s films and he fit the role so well that people can’t see the character being played by anybody else from that point forward. They are not just stopping here though as they are also casting Jaime Foxx to once again play Electro from Sony’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’ Even if the movie itself wasn’t all that great, Foxx played the character pretty well; he just wasn’t given the best opportunity to show off his acting for the character.

Needless to say the next film in the ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ series in the MCU is going to have faces from many different films over the years and it is shaping up to be a film fans will never forget. There are plenty of characters that are returning to appear in this film and Sony is hopeful that this, plus their own string of Spider-Man universe side-films, will help them do a crossover at some point with the films they are making. While it is still a little ways off before the movie has its release some time in late 2021, or even possibly later than that, it is easy to see why so many people are excited for the next entry in the series. The fact that they are actually filming it now has people more excited since they know that these things are all happening as we speak. The future for the Spider-Man series of live-action films is looking very interesting and it is sure to get more people’s attention as time goes on.