Spot on.
Decent
Meh
Terrible
He didn't tell Raimi MJ. She just saw him unmasked. But they at least knew each other by the time we meet them in Spider-Man 1. MJ even went to visit Aunt May while she was in the hospital. While "friends" may have been a bit much in describing their relationship in Spidey 1, they were at least "friendly" toward each other.
MCU MJ is another story. She's outright tsundere toward Peter. I think they wanted to "surprise" the audience that Zendaya was MJ, so they had her acting distinctly un-MJ. (I don't really like the way the MCU handles Spidey and his supporting cast but that's a whole other discussion.)
In the Raimi films, Peter didn't tell MJ and rejected her in the first movie because of his alter ego. She found out in the climax of the second film. They had also known each other since childhood in those movies, and there was a two-year gap between 1 and 2 where they were "just friends."
In the Marc Webb films, Peter told Gwen on their first date.
I'll rate his performance passable, if barely.
"So you've come to the end now alive but dead inside."
As Spider-man, he was fine. You really just have to be quippy and animated, and he does that pretty well.
His Peter Parker however, it felt like a weird compromise between Ultimate Spider-man and College Era Spider-man which an extra dash of "Cool".
I didn't like the fact he was a skateboarder, it feels like such a minor gripe but it's also confusing.
But that could just be me
Their relationship worked, but some of the dialogue is terrible
I liked his voice as Spidey.
His Parker was dreadful, and the movie's handling of Parker, his parents, and more was just awful. The only thing important about Parker's parents should be that they aren't there.
I like him having someone he can talk to. Him not sharing his identity with at least someone isn't something I care for in earlier incarnations. So I'm glad his close friends and family know
But I don't really buy most of these romances in these movies. Either they're half-baked or mismatched. I actually don't even dislike this romance relative to other superhero movie romances. I just think most are pointless.
[QUOTE=Mik;5494174]I like him having someone he can talk to. Him not sharing his identity with at least someone isn't something I care for in earlier incarnations. So I'm glad his close friends and family know
But I don't really buy most of these romances in these movies. Either they're half-baked or mismatched. I actually don't even dislike this romance relative to other superhero movie romances. I just think most are pointless.[/QUOTE
Romances can work IF the actors and ( or) actresses are good enough to make you think of the character not the person playing them. Take Errol Flynn. In real life, he was a drunk and was into teenaged girls ( that alone makes you think creep), but when you see a movie of his you think tough guy and charmer not creep. Vincent Price and Boris Karloff were the opposite. Very sophisticated gentleman in real life ( art collectors etc), but when you see them on screen, you think monsters. By comparison Rock Hudson did a movie called Come September, with Gina Lollobrigida. I happen to like women with figures like Gina, Sophia Loren, Elsa Martinelli, Marilyn Monroe and Salma Hayak, and I saw a gay man doing a fake romantic scene with an actress I like, not the character, so I did not believe it for one second. Why? Hudson does not have the talent of Flynn, Price or Karloff that allows you to suspend belief for a couple of hours.
Raimi Peter and MJ were definitely friends in SM1. Maybe not the closest of friends, but that's the only version other than Ultimate where there was history between them before they dated (not counting Shailene Woodley's erased MJ from The Amazing films).
I don't get the choice for MCU MJ's portrayal. She was acting so deliberately non-MJ that I (and many) first theorised it was a ruse because she was a famous Hannah Montana-esque pop star or supermodel and didn't want people to catch on about her secret identity similar to Peter/Spidey's behavior. I still like that theory so much more than what we got.
This video tries to make a case for the MCU's decision with MJ to middling success, I feel.
Last edited by Confuzzled; 04-19-2021 at 10:58 AM.