Thoughts on Emma Stone's Vancouver Sun interview, and other Tumblr stuff
(Reposted from Tumblr; the interview in question is here.)
It sounds like Gwen's portrayal is pretty much on target, which is good!(Gwen) grew up on the Upper East Side (of New York), had a very stable family - a daddy’s girl,” she said. “Her father was the police chief. . . . She’s the oldest in her family (and) she has younger brothers. She is very responsible and very protective of her family and she loves science; she is a valedictorian.
... But doesn't alleviate all the WTF of the hints she drops about Peter:
He’s never really known sit-down family dinners with siblings and parents, and what it’s like to grow up in one house your whole life, and be under the thumb of your father.
... One of the major reasons they wanted to tell this version of the story (is) to kind of get up close and personal with Peter and into the really intimate details of how he grew, not just into becoming Spider-Man, but how he grew to become the Peter Parker we see today -what his experience was as a child and what his relationship was with his father.
There's also a reference to "the story of Gwen Stacy" (with the implication that she might actually die at the end of the film), but I almost missed it because I was so busy facepalming.
I continue to boggle that anyone would think it's a good idea to take the origin of Peter Parker, which is at its core about a boy whose hubris brings about the death of his father, and dilute it by giving him an entirely different father complex for an entirely different father figure! The origin just plain doesn't work if Uncle Ben doesn't fill that emotional role in Peter's life.
This attitude that only someone's biological parents can be their "real" ones is also incredibly insulting to anyone who's ever taken in a kid in need, whether related or not. It's not an uncommon take in pop culture, sadly, but that makes it doubly aggravating when it's grafted onto one of the few and most famous fictional characters who bucks the trend.
It's not like it's impossible to explore Peter's relationship with his biological parents while valuing Ben and May, either. Ultimate Spidey handled this very well -- and notably, after the origin story.
Really the whole muddle speaks to Sony's desperation -- they really want to retain the Spidey film rights, but they're not sure they can get enough people in theater seats to see another Spider-Man film without Maguire et al unless they make it a drastically different take, so they're throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.
Also bonus eyerolls at this:
During a summer news conference on at Comic-Con, Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad called Peter Parker’s romance with Gwen Stacy “probably the greatest love story in Marvel (Comics history).”
Okay, he's just pumping up the latest film with a cutesy soundbite, and that's his job, I realize that. And of course I am biased! But still ... the "greatest love story" is the one in which the woman dies and becomes a millstone in the man's fridge around the man's neck for the next forty years of stories. Gwen's death is probably the most epic tragedy in Peter's life ... but that's kind of the problem. It's his story, not theirs. It's not Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde; it's like if Juliet died and Romeo went on to be a character in other Shakespeare plays moaning about it.
Recent FYSW posts of note:
- An important Christmas moment
- Spider-Girl, by Skottie Young
- Paolo Rivera's MJ sketches
- The MJ-relevant bits of Dan Slott's latest Newsarama interview (spoilers)
It sounds like Gwen's portrayal is pretty much on target, which is good!(Gwen) grew up on the Upper East Side (of New York), had a very stable family - a daddy’s girl,” she said. “Her father was the police chief. . . . She’s the oldest in her family (and) she has younger brothers. She is very responsible and very protective of her family and she loves science; she is a valedictorian.
... But doesn't alleviate all the WTF of the hints she drops about Peter:
He’s never really known sit-down family dinners with siblings and parents, and what it’s like to grow up in one house your whole life, and be under the thumb of your father.
... One of the major reasons they wanted to tell this version of the story (is) to kind of get up close and personal with Peter and into the really intimate details of how he grew, not just into becoming Spider-Man, but how he grew to become the Peter Parker we see today -what his experience was as a child and what his relationship was with his father.
There's also a reference to "the story of Gwen Stacy" (with the implication that she might actually die at the end of the film), but I almost missed it because I was so busy facepalming.
I continue to boggle that anyone would think it's a good idea to take the origin of Peter Parker, which is at its core about a boy whose hubris brings about the death of his father, and dilute it by giving him an entirely different father complex for an entirely different father figure! The origin just plain doesn't work if Uncle Ben doesn't fill that emotional role in Peter's life.
This attitude that only someone's biological parents can be their "real" ones is also incredibly insulting to anyone who's ever taken in a kid in need, whether related or not. It's not an uncommon take in pop culture, sadly, but that makes it doubly aggravating when it's grafted onto one of the few and most famous fictional characters who bucks the trend.
It's not like it's impossible to explore Peter's relationship with his biological parents while valuing Ben and May, either. Ultimate Spidey handled this very well -- and notably, after the origin story.
Really the whole muddle speaks to Sony's desperation -- they really want to retain the Spidey film rights, but they're not sure they can get enough people in theater seats to see another Spider-Man film without Maguire et al unless they make it a drastically different take, so they're throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.
Also bonus eyerolls at this:
During a summer news conference on at Comic-Con, Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad called Peter Parker’s romance with Gwen Stacy “probably the greatest love story in Marvel (Comics history).”
Okay, he's just pumping up the latest film with a cutesy soundbite, and that's his job, I realize that. And of course I am biased! But still ... the "greatest love story" is the one in which the woman dies and becomes a millstone in the man's fridge around the man's neck for the next forty years of stories. Gwen's death is probably the most epic tragedy in Peter's life ... but that's kind of the problem. It's his story, not theirs. It's not Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde; it's like if Juliet died and Romeo went on to be a character in other Shakespeare plays moaning about it.
Recent FYSW posts of note:
- An important Christmas moment
- Spider-Girl, by Skottie Young
- Paolo Rivera's MJ sketches
- The MJ-relevant bits of Dan Slott's latest Newsarama interview (spoilers)