Doug Walker (TGWTG, Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews, and other projects)

Why does Jameson protecting Peter need to be explained?

That review was surprisingly accurate.

I really hope he gives Spider-Man 2 a genuinely good review. Still by far the best Spidey movie, in my humble opinion.

For me, here's how I'd rank each of the Spider-Man movies.

Spider-Verse is on top and that won't change for the foreseeable future.

Next are Far From Home and Homecoming, since they're MCU movies.

Then it's Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 1, and The Amazing Spider-Man, solid movies.

Then Spider-Man 3, an excellent tasty meme and a hot mess.

Bringing up the rear is the bloated Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The main thing about Spider-Man 2 is that it tried to capture the silliness of comic books while also make it emotional and relatable, which made for very disconnected A and B stories as Peter's arc is rushed because of the needs of the action (his powers aren't working consistently, so his 10-Minute Retirement is forced on him).

But overall, the train scenes is one of the best comic book fight battles ever made, even to this day. A lot of the other movies struggled to balance the actual stunts with CG doubles, which lead to some stiff "stunt show" moments (the first Spidey vs Green Goblin in the first movie is such an example, particularly with the balloon jump leading to a dull fist fight), while here no momentum is lost. Jumping through the grates of the bridge, flattening against the train to avoid the other train, falling into traffic and slingshot back up, all brilliant moments.

You know, maybe I'm biased because I grew up with the Raimi films and they are what got me into Spider-Man as a character, but I heavily disagree with pretty much everything about Doug's opinions on Spider-Man (2002). Almost everything that Doug (and Rob) sees as a criticism is either because he's being nitpicky or he's just not a fan of the stylistic choice...which is fine but it is hard to connect to what he's saying.

For one, I adore Spider-Man (2002) and it's my favorite out of the trilogy. It's a bit of a flawed masterpiece. It just has so much heart and love put into it. The characters are well-developed, the humor is unique, the graphics and special effects were good for the time, the acting is great, the romance is great, etc. It's just such a beautifully crafted classic film.

Ranking wise: 1. Into The Spider-Verse: It's the best Spider-Man film hands down. It's near perfection.

2. Spider-Man: Far From Home- My personal favorite. As different as MCU-Spider-Man is from other adaptations, this movie still gets Spider-Man. Also, this version of Peter Parker is my absolute favorite one ever. Where Tobey Maguire was super flawed/sympathetic and AG was pretty unlikable, Tom Holland's Parker is a sweetheart and it's just perfect.

3. Spider-Man (2002): I'm one of the few people that finds the character work and classic feel of the first Raimi film to be better than the second one, but I can see why people like SM 2 more.

4. Spider-Man 2- ICONIC.

5. Spider-Man Homecoming: It's a good-but-not-great movie with an excellent Peter Parker and Vulture as well as a decent story, but that's really all I can say about it. I hate Ned, not a fan of Tony or Happy in this movie, and this feels way more like a teen drama than a Spider-Man film, which is a fascinating choice but not one that pays off entirely. Far From Home is a far more dangerous and interesting movie that takes more risks.

6-8: All of the other ones range from mediocre to bad. Although, I love Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy.

Edited by deuteragonist on Mar 6th 2020 at 1:02:50 AM

Doug has admitted he’s not a fan of these movies, lambasting them as silly while going on about how the Dark Knight trilogy is superior. (Stones from glass houses and all that). And his critiques are nitpicks or ignore things that would be considered Hidden Depths. The Jameson one in particular was nuance, not a blatantly out of character moments (namely he is a cheapskate but he values his employees even if he won’t admit it).

When Moviebob points out something Doug said was dumb, it’s really bad.

Edited by Beatman1 on Mar 6th 2020 at 7:26:07 AM

Doug does say in the conclusion to this review that while he did initially dismissed the lighthearted tone of the Raimi trilogy, he came to appreciate the silliness of those movies.

Into the Spider-Verse still absolutely blows my mind with how good it is. Even though it's just over one year old it's a strong contender for one of my favorite movies of all time. There's pretty much everything to love about it. I'd go as far as to say it's objectively the best comic book movie ever made (with the caveat that people are allowed their favorites and other movies are aiming for different things with different characters so the comparisons have a limit IMO).

Homecoming and Far From Home are easily among the better MCU movies. I just really love Tom Holland in the role, as well as the supporting casts and villains. I could do without the feeling that Tony Stark is once again subsuming more of the franchise than for his own good (not super jazzed about both baddies being initially driven out of beef with Tony even if I do like Vulture and Mysterio) and they both have their aspects that one does better or worse than the other, but I can still boot either one up for a good time.

Haven't seen the Raimi trilogy in a hot while but they have their charms and good intent even if they've shown a whole lotta age. I easily prefer the above three but I get the love for these.

The Garfield films I'm trying to work through currently so I don't have that much to say.

I actually prefer the old Spider-man movies to the MCU one. There a certain charm that the newer one just couldn't capture. There no self aware jokes, there no cynical feel to them, there no expectation for them to subversive the narrative. It just a good story. The dialogue while unnatural fit perfectly with the tone and the world. Serious, realism and grim dark is overrate anyway. I would actually rate the Spiderman 1 and 2 higher than the Dark Knight trilogy base on my enjoyment. My ranking of the Spiderman film are

- Spider verse and Spider-man 2 share the top spot. Both are fun and enjoyable

- MCU spiderman films are average to me, maybe it just me being bored with the MCU in general. They share the same spot with Spider-Man 1

- Spider 3 just confusing and have to many plot point.

- The Amazing Spider Man movies are at the bottom. I just hate the whole thing about Peter's parents. It not necessary since Uncle Ben already cover that part.

Comparing the Nolan Batman Trilogy to the Raimi is interesting. The latter definitely set the blueprint for the former and both of them had a huge influence on the current market of the superhero movie landscape. I would even argue that the Raimi trilogy is the only one that actually can go toe-to-toe with the Nolan films because comparing anything else to the Dark Knight Trilogy is a losing game.

In terms of character work, the Raimi trilogy is definitely superior. Even if Spider-Man 3 is a mediocre film, it still has a very good understanding of its main characters. All of the supporting characters are pretty iconic and perfectly cast as well. Peter, Harry, and MJ's arcs in SM 3 are all pretty natural progressions to their characters. It's just the plot is too convoluted and stupid in Spider-Man 3.

In comparison, there aren't really a lot of "strong characters" in the Nolan films other than Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Catwoman, and the villains (particularly Joker, Ra's Al Ghul, Two-Face, and Bane). The Nolan films are just better movies. The cinematography, action, plot, dialogue, and editing all succeed the Raimi films.

I always find it strange that most movie adaptations of Batman still missing the "world greatest detector" part. Most of the time it just techno-babble about how Batman track down info. I still remember in the Animated Series Batman track down Mr.Freeze indentity by go through newpaper, employment papers and security tape,.... like he actually investigate stuffs.

I'll be honest, I'd rather watch Raimi's Spider-Man films over Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy any day.

Raimi's Spider-Man films are flawed, yes, but at least they're not boring, and Tobey Maguire isn't bland in the role.

Christian Bale was okay as Batman, but his Bruce Wayne never left any kind of impression on me.

-slams fists on the table-

WHERE'S RACHIEL?

I finally watched The Dark Knight this year and for as much as it's been touted as one of the big holy grails of the genre, it...didn't really jive with me as much as it probably should've. There's some good performances like Two-Face, Gordon and Joker (for as much as the whole culture around the latter rubs me the wrong way and left a displeasing taste going in) but I guess Batman and Joker are just inherently not for me, aside from like their Lego Batman incarnations. I'd rather watch something like Wonder Woman or Birds of Prey if we're just talking DC.

The Dark Knight is a phenomenal film, in my opinion, but the superhero genre has changed so much since it was released. As influential as it is, it's a film that really was for it's time. For one, it's a very post-9/11 film, not unlike the SM movies, but where the Spider-Man Trilogy is a celebration of New York, TDKR kind of explores terrorism and the dangers of a city like Gotham.

Another thing is that none of the post-TDK grimdark superhero films have been able to recapture what exactly made TDK Trilogy work, whereas the Raimi Trilogy's influence can be found in movies like Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, which are both influential and great in their own right.

But circling back to Doug, though, I don't really know what he and Rob expect from superhero movies at this point. I mean, they loved ITSV but who doesn't? Everything else, they seem to just "like".

Edited by deuteragonist on Mar 6th 2020 at 7:45:18 AM

Out of the recent superhero films, they also loved Shazam!, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Aquaman (though I think only Doug has seen this one).

Edited by Motyka5 on Mar 6th 2020 at 10:15:58 AM

My problem with the Critic recently is that I feel it's getting harder to tell were Doug ends and the Critic begins. I don't know why, but I find myself watching an episode and remembering him saying something that is specifically similar in out of character review. I don't if it's just me or if it's even a bad.

thats because it never was a character.

He really doesnt know a single thing about movies.

Spider-Man 2:

Edited by Motyka5 on Mar 11th 2020 at 3:08:39 AM

This is probably the one I’m least familiar with. 3 is constant meme bait and I always see reruns of the others, but 2 is surprisingly scarce.

2 probably gets the most edits for TV due to horror elements involving Doc Oct,so thats why

2 is by far the best, you should check it out.

Without seeing Doug's video, I think the 2nd film is only the best because the villain is great. Everything else...

I disagree. I think the character moments were pretty spot on too, as well as the story. Corny elements are in it, sure, but they add to the charm.

Also, saw the review now and I liked it.

And I'm really looking forward to him ripping Spider-Man 3 (Even though I too liked that film)

I said this once a few years ago, but you can kinda tell what shows Doug doesn't watch or what movies he's never seen by his non-reactions to certain actors.

Like, he has a WTF reaction to Phil Lamarr during the subway scene, makes a "Last Airbender" joke during Aasif Mandvi's cameo, refers to Daniel Dae Kim as "Jin", but during Emily Deschanel's appearance? Nothing. A possible tip-off that Doug doesn't watch Bones. Or at the very least just isn't familiar with Emily Deschanel.

I was kinda surprised that Doug didn't mention that the DVD contained an alternate version of the elevator scene.

Question: What's with the random blackouts lately? Are those supposed to be spots for ads or something?