12. Sam Raimi Completed His 'Spider-Man Quadrilogy'
It may have had its flaws, but Sam Raimi's Spider-Man franchise, along with Bryan Singer's X Men saga, had the vision to bring comic book superhero onto the big screen in a spectacular fashion that hadn't quite been achieved before. Spider-Man 2 kicked ass (and still does) with a fantastic take on the somewhat hokey Doc Ock. I quite like Spider-Man 3, but it was stuffed to the brim with villains with only the Sandman having any of the depth of his predecessor. If you want to see a trio of villains done right, then watch Batman Returns. Of course, Spider-Man is now rebooted with The Amazing Spider-Man and with all the talk of the emerging Sinister Six we look set to see some spectacular action on the big screen soon. The reboot surprised me in how good it was. Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey had such amazing chemistry that you immediately thought MJ who? And while I liked Tobey Maguire, I instantly prefer Garfield's take. That being said, I would have liked Sam Raimi's take on Spider-Man to have ended on a high note. After the disappointment of Spider-Man 3, Sam Raimi was looking to close out his saga in spectacular fashion with John Malkovich signed on to play the Vulture (how awesome would that have been?) and Anne Hathaway rumoured for Black Cat (she would go on to play Catwoman herself in The Dark Knight Rises). I can imagine Malkovich would have had the same treatment as Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, a villain with depth and gravitas. The Black Cat would have been a stronger third person in the romance mix than Bryce Dallas Howard's lackluster Gwen Stacey. There was also talk of the Lizard here too. I feel sorry for Dylan Baker. He got to play Curt Connors for multiple films, waiting patiently for his villanous moment. And it never happened. While I liked the scientific back story with Connors, Osborn and Parker's dad in the new film, it would have been one hell of a pay off for the character in the old series, if we had seen the scientist tragically mutated into a villain after a few films helping Peter Parker grow. Alas, we'll never get to know the full plot, Sam Raimi himself said one of the reasons it never got off the ground was because he struggled to get a script he was happy with. But after the studio interference on the third film (and Raimi's own dissatisfaction) I am sure he would have come up with a film that was as good, if not better, than Spider-Man 2. Because that was the plan at one point. We were always going to have the Spider-Man reboot. But first we were going to get that closure that cemented the first Spider-Man film franchise as a massive success and not a disappointment as it has (rather unfairly) become. And that's a shame. because we always remember the bad. But this series had so much good and so much more to come.