#they���ve done amnesia plots and everything

[81scorp]

Constructive criticism: Spider-Man 3 revisited

Ah yes... Spider-Man, one of my favourite marvel superheroes. I remember that there was talk about making a live action Spider-Man in the early nineties and James Cameron was gonna direct it. Some time later in the early twothousands I started to get confirmation that a live action Spider-Man movie was indeed in production. (Directed by Sam Raimi though, but he directed Darkman, which I liked, so he seemed like a good pick.) Before this there had been mostly DC in the cinema when it came to comicbook superhero movies, and pretty much only of two of the most wellknown heroes DC had, Superman and Batman. And it was mostly Batman. In both cases the franchises started good but got dumber and worse with every sequel. It seemed like Hollywood just couldn`t make good superhero movies. Then an X-Men movie came out. Maybe not perfect but at least it understood the sourcematerial. Then came the Spider-Man movies. After waiting for ten years was it everything I hoped it would be? Not quite to be honest, but don`t get me wrong, I did like it and it was good. It had all the basic things that Spider-Man should have; webswinging, a colourful supervillain (both metaphorically AND literally), Mary Jane, Aunt May, Uncle Ben, fights, people being saved, badassery and great powers followed by great responsibility. If all of this sounds familiar to you it is because I`ve recycled the  intro text from my Constructive criticism of Spider-Man 3. So, why am I revisiting an old editorial? Because when I did the CC of Venom in my editorial: "Constructive criticism: 5 MCU movies and Venom" I thought: What if Sony had made my Spider-Man 3 movie (Where I remove Sandman, the butler, Gwen Stacy, and the amnesia plot line.) instead of the one we got and then stopped making Spidey movies after Homecoming so that the rights reverted back to Marvel. And then Marvel made their own Venom movie. It would be a little repetetive to tell the origin of Venom all over again, so I decided to take another stab at Spider-Man 3 but this time: keep Sandman and remove Venom instead. Raimi wasn`t really fond of him anyway and he was just forced into the movie. I have to admit the release of Spider-Man: No way home also affected my descision to write this editorial. So, if I had a Pym particle powered Time machine that could take me back in time... again, this is how I would have done it.

Act 1 The beginning is pretty close to the beginning of the movie that we got: things are going well for Peter and he goes to see MJ perform on stage. In my version however her performance isn`t singing but acting. It`s a play that is about revenge and the dark places it can lead you. After the show is over Pete congratulates MJ and meets Harry Osborn who he tries to reason with but Harry is still hellbent on revenge. Later at the park: Pete and MJ have their little date. Elsewhere: A woman with platinum blond hair, a domino mask and a black catsuit robs a rich guy (it`s Black Cat AKA: Felicia Hardy). Meanwhile: police pursue Flint Marko, who visits his wife and sick daughter before fleeing again. Harry`s lab: Black Cat arrives at the lab. Harry asks her how her how it went, she says it went splendid. Harry uses the Green Goblin gas to give himself superpowers. Aunt May`s place: Pete meets Aunt May to tell her that he plans to propose to MJ, Aunt May gives him a ring and tells her the story of when Uncle Ben proposed to her. On his way home Pete gets attacked by Harry Osborn and they fight, but instead of Harry knocking himself out and losing his memory he chases Pete into an abandoned old building that he demolishes with lots of grenades. There`s no sign of Pete in what`s left of the building but Harry knows that he must`ve escaped. Elsewhere: Flint falls into an experimental particle accelerator that disintegrates his body. Since Harry knows Pete`s secret identity Pete knows that Harry might use his loved ones to get to him, so he tells MJ to get out of town with Aunt May. MJ reluctantly agrees to this and tells Aunt May that she thinks it would be good for them to get a little time of their own for a little female bonding. The next morning: MJ and Aunt May leave for their little get away outside the city. Elsewhere: Flint is still alive, he has now become the Sandman.

Act 2 Pete does his usual shtick, superheroing as Spider-Man and selling his photos to Jameson but all the time doing so while looking over his shoulder, fully aware that Harry is out there. (Yes, I know that he has spider-sense that warns him, but still.) Spidey stops Flint from robbing an armored truck, they fight, Flint escapes. Black Cat was watching their fight from a rooftop not far away. Aunt May`s house: Harry visits Aunt May`s house to find that no one is home, he also visits MJ`s apartment and finds it empty as well (this confirms Pete`s paranoia). He smiles confidently and shakes his head. "You`re a clever boy Pete, you knew what I was gonna do." He remembers something from his childhood. He was ten or eleven, had problem solving a math problem. His father was to busy to help him. The next day at school he met a kid who helped him solve that math problem and also helped him get better at math in general. His name was Peter Parker. Harry tries to ignore that memory. Peter is the enemy, he can`t allow himself to get fooled by sentimentality. A Cemetary: Felicia is in her civilian clothes, holding a photo of a middle aged man (her father) she remembers her childhood. (BTW: In her memories she has brownish blond hair.). When she was little her parents got divorced but her father would still come visit her without her mothers knowledge. He was a kind and loving father to her, sure, he was a talented, infamous cat burglar that had never been caught but Felicia didn`t care. She wanted to be a master thief like her father when she grew up. She became really good at gymnastics and even learned how to pick locks. A few years ago, just after her graduation they met and he told her that he was gonna retire from cat burglaring. He was just gonna do one more heist. But he ran into Spider-Man and ended up in jail. She visited him a few times. He told to live her life and not to seek revenge but she was too angry at Spidey to listen to her father`s advice. He died a few months later of cancer. Some time later she met Harry Osborne and they bonded over their desire to see Spider-Man dead. (It was Harry who gave Black Cat her superpowers. In my version her powers are: enhanced strength, speed, stamina, reflexes and agility. He modified the Goblin formula so that it wouldn`t drive her mad, with the side effect of making her hair platinum blond. But that`s a side effect she can live with.) Back to the present: she`s standing next to her father`s tombstone: "Here lies Walter Hardy, beloved father." Peter Parker`s apartment: The police contacts Peter to inform him that Flint is Uncle Ben`s true killer (yes, I`m keeping that in my version) and has just escaped from prison. Peter tells this to May over the phone and tells her that they should stay where they are, it`s much safer. May feels that Peter too should get somewhere safe. Peter tells her that he`ll do what he can and assures her that he`ll find ways to stay under the radar. May realises that there`s something odd about this very sudden "female bonding" trip that MJ practically forced her to join and wonders if there`s someting going on that MJ doesn`t want her to know. Is it about Peter? Is he in trouble? MJ tries to calm her down and says that there is nothing of that kind going on. Aunt May pretends to accept MJ`s explanation but senses that she`s lying, MJ herself feels awful for lying to May. Later that night: Spider-Man is out swinging. He encounters Black Cat who has just been out stealing. She freezes for a second (but for her it feels longer) before she flees. Lucky for her she`s fast, agile, have some mean parkour skills and know the city like the back of her hand, but that doesn`t stop Spidey from closing in on her. Fortunately for her she has an earpiece that works as a police radio. She hears where the nearest crime is and flees in that direction, hoping that Spidey will be distracted by it and forget her. They swing by the crime scene and Spidey gets distracted, because the criminal is Flint Marko, Sandman. (In this version Peter may not have the symbiote to cloud his judgement but think about this: He feels pressured by knowing that Harry knows his secret and could strike at any time. Combine that with him knowing that the man who killed his uncle is still out there and right in front of him could fill him with enough rage to step over the line.) Spidey follows him into a subway tunnel. They fight. Spidey Discovers that water is Flint's weakness, he opens a pipe, releasing water that reduces Flint to mud and washes him away. Peter tells Aunt May over the phone that he heard that Flint Marko met and fought Spider-Man and is now dead. May takes no comfort in what she just heard, she made her peace with Uncle Ben`s death years ago and Flint`s presumed death brings her no closure that she didn`t already have. Hearing this makes Peter realize realize how far he has fallen and that he must fix this conflict with him and Harry in a better way than how he dealt with Flint Marko. Harry`s place: Spidey arrives and tries to talk to Harry, he wants to solve this peacefully, Harry does not. Harry attacks and they fight. They move the fight outside, Harry gets injured by one of his own grenades, releases a smokescreen so Spidey can`t follow him and flees. Sewers: Flint has pulled himself together, is pissed and ready for round two. Felicia`s apartment: Felicia is watching photos of Peter, photos of Peter and MJ together and several photos of MJ. She has an idea. Her phone rings. It`s Harry who tells her what has happened and that things have gotten serious. May and MJ`s hideout: MJ decides to leave the hideout so that she can find and talk sense into Harry. She believes that he can still be reasoned with. Aunt May doesn`t like it but wishes her good luck. Elsewhere: Sandman is walking the streets, is found by Harry (and Black Cat) who convince him to join their little revenge squad. (We don`t get to see Harry`s scarred face yet, he`s wearing a hood à la Hobgoblin and the shadows conceal almost all of his face.) Peter`s apartment: Peter arrives, his Spideysuit is torn, luckily he has a spare, he needs to rest for a bit. He turns on the TV and checks his answering machine. He  gets a message from MJ where she tells him that she can`t stay in the hideout so she has decided to get back to the city and talk some sense into Harry. Peter gets worried. The news on TV reports about trouble at a construction site. A woman is held hostage by a guy with a hoverboard (Harry) and the police can`t get near because of the Sandman. The woman has been identified as Broadway actress Mary Jane Watson.

Act 3 Spidey suits up and swings to the site. He tries to talk to Harry, convince him to get MJ out of harms way first. Harry takes off his hood to reveal his scarred face and agrees to let Spidey get MJ out of harms way. Spidey is about to untie MJ before he realizes that something is wro-... MJ gets out of her tie herself and kicks him so hard that he loses his balance for a few seconds. (What the hell MJ?!) Down on the street people are watching, one of them who just showed up is... MJ?! (There are TWO MJs now?!) The other MJ up on the construction site pulls off her face (which turns out to have been a hyper-realistic mask à la Mission impossible) to reveal... Felicia Hardy! Felicia tears off her MJ clothes to reveal her Black Cat outfit underneath, Harry attacks and fights Spidey. Sandman gets to beat Spidey a little too, but most of the fight is Spidey versus Harry and Black Cat... But mostly Harry. I haven`t quite figured out exactly how it should happen but Harry gets mortally wounded and is slowly dying. Marko reveals that he never intended to kill Ben; he only wanted his car and accidentally shot him when his partner grabbed his arm. Ben's death has haunted him ever since. Peter forgives Marko, who dissolves into sand and floats away. Peter and Harry forgive each other. Harry dies with peace in his heart. Black Cat feels conflicted. She can`t quite forgive Peter as easily as the others did so she leaves without saying a word. The next day Peter visits Aunt May, gives her the ring back and says that he`s not ready to marry MJ yet, maybe some day but not today. May thinks that Peter should keep the ring, so that he will be prepared when the day comes. Just before she leaves she reveals that she knows that Peter is Spider-Man. Oh yes. I went there. The next day Pete, MJ and Aunt May go to Harry`s funeral. Felicia is also there. They talk a little and she can now forgive Peter. She leaves. Next we see MJ and Pete (in Spider-Man costume but without the mask on) on the roof of a tall building staring at the sunset. The End

And that`s how I would do it. Not great but hopefully not bad.

I decided to add Black Cat to my story because it felt a little thin. I feel that Black Cat works better than Venom because her motive is tied into the same theme as harry and Flint. She blames someone for the loss of a father figure, swears revenge and learns how to forgive. The problem with Spider-Man 3 was not too many villains per se. It was just that one of the villains was just shoehorned in at the last minute (and that Gwen Stacy didn`t really serve much of a purpose). I also added Black Cat because I liked the idea of her disguising herself as MJ and MJ had already been damseled in the two previous movies. To do it again a third time just felt repetetive, and frankly, just like Venom, shoehorned in at the last minute. It is of course very easy for me to write this because I have the benefit of hindsight and I didn`t have a movie studio breathing down my neck, forcing in unnecessary characters and pressuring me to get it made before a deadline like Sam Raimi did.

Constructive criticism of my constructive criticism is welcome. ----------------- Written stuff: 41

Started writing this 2022-01-22

You can find my first CC of Spider-Man 3 here

And as usual: English is not my first language, so if my writing doesn`t seem to flow naturally, you know why.

Spider-Man is created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and belongs to Marvel.