This past week brought news that famed horror director Sam Raimi is in talks to Direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Many MCU fans rejoiced, mostly from knowing Raimi’s history in horror films, but partly because of nostalgic love for his Spider-Man films from the early 2000s. I love Raimi’s horror films. I enjoy them for the corny nature and over the top gore. I love his flair for adding slap-stick to legitimately scary situations, and I used to love the first two Spider-Man films he made. But now is a different story…
The Spider-Man Films
Those Spidey films set a new course for comic book films and showed that you didn’t have to wrap heroes in black leather to be financially successful. However, those films do not, I say again, DO NOT hold up. While Tobey Maguire made a decent Peter Parker, Raimi and company never gave us a great Spider-Man. Not enough quips or snark. Not enough difference between Peter and the Web-head. The films were corny too. Very corny.
While Spider-Man 2 gave us a really good villain, I find Far Frome Home’s Mysterio to be more compelling. Admittedly I am incredibly biased for Mysterio… there’s no way Sony would have ever had the guts to put the fishbowl on his head. Never! The films are a product of their time. Despite being brave with costumes, they were still cartoony and lacking enough true wall-crawler. If you haven’t watched the Raimi films in a while, do it tonight or this weekend. Look at them as objectively as possible and see if they hold up. Try and remove nostalgia from the equation, if you can. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Raimi’s MCU Horror Potential
So, we know my feelings on old Spider-Man and Raimi’s horror history, but how do I feel about him taking on an MCU film that has the potential to bring in mutants, the Fantastic Four, and other multiverse potentials. How do I feel about Raimi taking over one of my favorite MCU characters? Well, I feel conflicted and a bit scared…
When Scott Derrickson left the Doctor Strange sequel, many people feared it was because Marvel didn’t want to dive deep into the horror genre. That they were backing down from earlier reports about the tone of the film. Now that Raimi has been brought up, it seems that maybe horror wasn’t the issue. I can’t see them bringing in Raimi for anything other than his horror chops, but I am not sure his type of horror is fitting for the MCU.
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Does the MCU have slap-stick humor? Yes. Did all four films featuring Doctor Strange have him do some slapstick humor? Yes. However, it’s not the same as what we see in movies like Army of Darkness. Raimi did show us a different side of his take on horror with Drag Me To Hell, which gives me some hope and comfort, but I’m still concerned as that’s only one example.
A Conflicted Malone
Can you see why I am conflicted? I have said, many times, that I trust Kevin Feige and his MCU leadership. I would love to know exactly why Derrickson left the project, but Raimi is a huge question mark for me. He has the tools and knowledge to do this, but his methods are questionable for the MCU. I am not against him, just cautiously waiting to see what we get. You can check out an in-depth discussion on the topic between myself and Brain (who is s huge Raimi fan) on LRMornings HERE.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits the big screen May 7th, 2021, but this December we may get a taste for what to expect when WandaVision hits Disney+. That is if the connections hinted at in the past remain intact.
What do you think about Raimi taking over the director’s chair? Do you have any reservations? Let us know in the comments below!
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