BOOK REVIEW:
Some sequels just get better and better. There's few and far
in the history of motion pictures. But in my humble opinion,
the Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" series apparently belonged
to one of those.
The
main diffference between "Behind the mask of Spider-Man",
"Caught in the web" (the first two making of books
of the movies) and "The Spider-Man Chronicles",
the latter happens to be written by one of the producers himself,
Grant Curtis.
Unlike
other writers, Curtis of course has a better grasp of the
stuff behind the fabricated world of Spidey because the man
is involved in the production from day one or should I say
since the production of the first movie.
Let
Curtis transport you to his absorbing accounts of the script-writing
process to the casting to his daily journal of the various
shooting days. It's pretty amazing how much work goes behind
the reel. Take for example, there were lots of script revisions
prior to shooting, one which involved "The Vulture"
as the main villian, Sir Ben Kingsley were even offered the
role!
Of
course, an art and making of book can't really do without
pictures and photo stills so there you have it, pages after
pages of sketches, art works, prototypes, movie stills inserted
between the words to whet the spidey-geek in you.
Just
a slight caution though, the book itself contains minor spoilers
so if you have the intention to go in the theater with a fresh
perspective, you might need to first leave aside "The
Spider-Man Chronicles".
CHOICE XCERPT:
"On March 15 2005, the Vulture was officially removed
from the story. Venom became the mainstay. Eddie Brock was
Peter's contemporary, his co-worker. That's one of my favourite
parts about Venom."
VERDICT:
Populated with lots of detailed descriptions, information
and pictures, "The Spider-Man Chronicles" can be
a tad wordy at times. But when you are talking about a billion-dollar
spinning franchise, you simply can't afford to let a few words
represent that obscene amount of digits.
All
in all, this book is definitely for Spidey's fans worldwide
and a worthy companion to the movie.
Review
by Linus Tee
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