Spider-Man 4 (minimateking30's version)

This article, Spider-Man 4 (minimateking30's version), is property of MaxGoji 2.0.

Spider-Man 4 is a 2011 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi and written by Max Carroll and David Koepp, and stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, J.K. Simmons, John Malkovich, and Anne Hathaway. The fourth entry into the Spider-Man film franchise, the film follows Peter Parker as he and the love of his life, Mary Jane Watson, are about to get married. However, trouble starts to brew in New York City once more. Peter's professor, Curt Connors, in effort to regrow his lost arm, accidentally transforms into the malevolent Lizard. Meanwhile, the new and corrupt CEO of OsCorp Industries, Adrian Toomes, has perfected a flight harness which would allow a person to fly through the air with ease, and has taken it out on a crime spree, and a cat burglar, dubbed "the Black Cat", has begun a heist of her own, eventually causing her to land into conflict with both Spider-Man and Toomes, now dubbed "the Vulture".

Development began in 2008, after the commercially successful, but critically panned, Spider-Man 3. Raimi, Maguire, Dunst, Harris, and Simmons were all confirmed to be returning for the film. Principal photography began in 2010, with the film being shot in places like Los Angeles and Manhattan.

The film was released on April 24th, 2011 in Japan and May 6th, 2011 worldwide, and received mixed to positive reviews. Reviewers called the film a "breath of fresh air from the awful experience that was Spider-Man 3" and "the best Spidey film since the second one". The film's worldwide gross intake totaled about $801,384,865, over $1,000,000 dollars ahead of Spider-Man 3's intake from 2007. The success of the film inspired Columbia Pictures to start a new Spider-Man trilogy, beginning with the fourth one, with the announcement of Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6, set to be released in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

Plot

Two years after the events of Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, now engaged, near the completion of their college education at Empire State University. Nearing their wedding, Peter decides to treat Mary Jane out to a fancy restaurant as a Christmas present to her. However, they notice a car chase outside. Mary Jane then encourages her soon-to-be husband to "go get 'em, Tiger". Peter then dons his Spider-Man costume once more to stop the crime.

Meanwhile, at OsCorp Industries, the new and corrupt CEO of the company, Adrian Toomes, is busy overseeing the development of a large number of new weapons for the military. Knowing that the company's budget has been severely strained as a result of Norman and Harry Osborn being revealed as the first and second Green Goblins, respectively, he unveils a new type of flight harness to General Douglas, the bitter and impatient successor to the late General Slocum, for use by the military. After citing that it was based on Norman Osborn's glider technology but reworked to fit onto a human body, Douglas rejects the idea, stating that Osborn's glider technology was the reason why so many people died at the hands of the Green Goblin in the first place. Adrian then tries get Douglas to increase the military's funding for OsCorp, as that is the reason why they can't construct more sophisticated technology and weapons, but Douglas refuses, stating that "this is truly the end of Norman Osborn's legacy". Angered by this, Toomes begins to plot ways to save his late mentor's company.

At Empire State University, Curt Connors, Peter's professor, drinks an experimental formula which he had been working on for years. His arm regrows, but Curt also begins to contort and mutate rapidly, eventually transforming himself into a gigantic reptile which escapes the campus and flees into the sewers.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man finishes wrapping up things with the burglars and leaves them for the police. He swings off into the distance in order to meet up with Mary Jane. However, his Spider-Sense begins going off, directing him towards a burglary in progress. Upon arriving, Spider-Man discovers that a female cat burglar had broken into Adrian Toomes' penthouse in order to steal the Maultese Mouse. The two fight, but the cat burglar manages to distract Spider-Man with a strain of smoke which allows her to escape.

Afterwards, Spider-Man hears cries for help and goes to see what the problem might be. He soon learns from a terrified civilian that an "alligator" ran down the street on two legs. Spider-Man soon follows the trail which leads him into the sewers. In the sewers, Spider-Man encounters and fights the Lizard to a standstill. Spider-Man narrowly manages to escape the Lizard and return home, where Mary Jane tends to his injuries.

The next day, Toomes, still planning as to how he's going to save OsCorp, looks at the funds and sees that OsCorp's budget has been declined by a severe amount. Recalling that the budget had been moderate the previous week, he suspects that someone had been stealing money from OsCorp behind his back. He then discovers trade deal information between OsCorp and a terrorist organization. Tracing the emails to his assistant Donald Menken, Toomes assassinates him in his sleep by smothering him with a chlorine-laced pillow. Seeking to recover the lost funding through the means of crime, Toomes then dons his prototype wingset and becomes the Vulture, after his favorite species of bird.

Meanwhile, Peter learns that Aunt May is dying in the hospital. Going to see her, Peter is told that she suffered a heart attack while at her apartment, and was rushed when a friend called 911. Distraught, Peter goes to Uncle Ben's grave to find solace. Mary Jane soon follows behind and comforts Peter. They then return to the apartment in which they have been sharing. That night, Peter listens in on his police scanner to reports of the cat burglar he had encountered the other night, only to hear reports of "a man with wings" holding a bank hostage. Peter then heads out as Spider-Man to stop the robbery and potential new super-villain.

Arriving at the bank, Spider-Man encounters Toomes, now dubbed "the Vulture of New York" by the media, and engages in battle. However, Spider-Man is unexpectedly overpowered by Toomes' superhuman strength, given to him by his harness. With Spider-Man defeated by the Vulture's surprising physical prowess, the villain escapes with the money. Returning home, a distraught Peter is comforted by Mary Jane, who tells Peter not to give up just because one villain got away once. Feeling rejuvenated, Peter heads back out as Spider-Man in order to look for the Vulture.

Meanwhile, the cat burglar returns home to her room, where she is met by a man (Bruce Campbell) standing in the shadows. The man, who refers to the burglar as "Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat", then advances towards her and takes her loot from her hands before leaving. Felicia, frustrated, turns in for the night, remembering her altercation with Spider-Man from earlier.

Meanwhile, Peter and Mary Jane receive a call from the hospital and are told that Aunt May has only hours left. Rushing to the hospital, Peter and Mary Jane spend their final moments with Aunt May. Peter reveals his identity as Spider-Man to her by showing her his mask. Aunt May then tells Peter that she had known all along that he was Spider-Man since he had saved her from Doctor Octopus years ago. Aunt May then says her final farewell, succumbs to her age, and dies in front of a heartbroken Peter and Mary Jane.

At a museum, the Black Cat works on stealing a jewel from an exhibit. However, the heist is soon interrupted by the unexpected appearance of the Vulture, who has come for the same jewel. They fight, but the Vulture is wounded in the fight and forced to retreat. He then swears vengeance on the Black Cat and Spider-Man for causing him a delay.

Meanwhile, Peter and Mary Jane then return to their apartment where, after an emotion moment between them, the two get intimate and they have sex.

The next day, Spider-Man, while out on patrol, comes across the Vulture again, this time en route to OsCorp. They fight, but Spider-Man is once more outmatched by the Vulture and is dropped from a high altitude. Landing in an alley, Spider-Man is found by the Black Cat and taken back to her apartment. She then reveals her identity of Felicia Hardy to Spider-Man and takes his mask off, revealing his identity as Peter Parker. Felicia tries to get intimate with Peter, but he refuses, covering up his relationship with Mary Jane as simply not being ready.

Meanwhile, the Vulture, in effort to get Spider-Man off his back, attacks The Daily Bugle and forces J. Jonah Jameson to print a warning to Spider-Man in his paper in order to force him off his trail or else he would murder his staff. Jameson does so.

Peter Parker, upon leaving Felicia's apartment, returns home and tells Mary Jane that he's in trouble. Mary Jane then states that that's not even the half of it and shows Peter Jameson's forced warning in The Daily Bugle. Peter resolves to deal with Toomes once and for all, and goes out to find the Vulture.

Meanwhile, under in the sewers, the Lizard reverts back to Connors and the man begins searching for a cure. Setting up a makeshift lab underneath OsCorp, Connors gets to work on finding a cure.

Adrian returns to OsCorp in order to replenish the funding. However, he is soon interrupted by Spider-Man. They fight, and are evenly matched with each other, at least, until the Vulture scratches Spider-Man's chest with his wing. The Vulture escapes, but is soon stopped by the Black Cat, who had been looking for Spider-Man. They have a brief skirmish, but the Vulture outmatches the Cat and escapes. Spider-Man soon arrives and finds the Black Cat, taking her back to her apartment. Spider-Man then goes looking for the Vulture once again. During the fight, however, the stress build up causes Connors' adrenaline to transform into the Lizard once more. Destroying the lab, the Lizard wanders back into the sewers.

The Vulture attacks the Rockefeller Center and steals more money. Spider-Man follows suit and fights the Vulture in mid-air battle. However, the Black Cat recovers from her injuries at her apartment and leaves to join Spider-Man's fight against the Vulture. Upon arriving, however, she witnesses Spider-Man being pulverized by the Vulture, and attacks. The Cat scratches the Vulture's eyes and kicks him into a shelf. However, the Vulture soon gains the upper hand and is about to kill the Black Cat until she claws his face, disorienting him long enough for Spider-Man to recover and attack. In one last tribute of revenge, the Vulture takes the Black Cat and flies into the air, preparing to kill her in order to emotionally scar Spider-Man. However, the Cat manages to destroy the propulsion system in the Vulture's wingset over the New York Harbor, causing the two to crash-land into the ocean and sink to the bottom.

But it's not over. The Lizard soon re-emerges into the city and attacks Times Square. Spider-Man rushes to the scene in order to do battle with the Lizard. The Lizard swiftly gains the upper hand against Spider-Man, pummeling him mercilessly. However, Spider-Man soon notices the electric current coming out of the damaged lampposts. He then grabs the Lizard's tail and shoves it into the lamppost, shocking the beast and finally knocking him out. Spider-Man then rushes over to see the Lizard revert back to human form, revealing him to be Curt Connors. Spider-Man then rushes Connors to the hospital and returns home.

At the apartment, Spider-Man mourns the Black Cat's death, recalling how he couldn't save her like how he couldn't save Uncle Ben. Mary Jane emotionally comforts Peter, telling him that it was her choice to sacrifice herself.

Months later, the wedding day arrives, and Peter and Mary Jane finally get married. However, a series of police sirens are heard outside, and Mary Jane encourages Peter to respond to the call as Spider-Man. In the distance, Hardy, who survived, watches on as Spider-Man swings off into the sunset to have further adventures.

In the film's ending shots, Connors, along with his wife and son, are at an airport, preparing to go to Florida in order to help Curt recuperate from the transformation. As the Connors' get onto the plane, however, Curt's eyes briefly turn into slits before returning to normal, signifying that the Lizard might one day return.

Cast

• Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker
• Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson
• J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
• John Malkovich as The Vulture/Adrian Toomes
• Anne Hathaway as The Black Cat/Felicia Hardy
• Rosemary Harris as Aunt May
• Dylan Baker as The Lizard/Curt Connors
  • Andy Serkis as The Lizard (motion capture)
• John Travolta as General Douglas
• Zac Efron as Donald Menken
• Bruce Campbell as Quentin Beck

Production

Development

After the critical failure of Spider-Man 3, Sony Pictures announced that they were moving forward with a sequel in 2008. Aimed for a 2010 release, the film brought back Sam Raimi as director. Raimi, disappointed with the end result of Spider-Man 3, hired David Koepp, who wrote Spider-Man, to write the script for Spider-Man 4. He even talked of Spider-Man 5, Spider-Man 6, and possibly a Spider-Man 7.

Classic villains the Vulture, the Black Cat, and the Lizard (the last two were previously considered for Spider-Man 2) were considered as the film's antagonists. Koepp's first draft consisted of only the Lizard as the villain, realizing that the overabundance of villains is what made Spider-Man 3 a failure, as well as overhearing of Dylan Baker, who played Curt Connors in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, had expressed interest in playing the villain. Max Carroll, renowned writer and longtime fan of the Spider-Man comics, was brought in to help Koepp with the script. There was even talk of having Felicia Hardy not become the Black Cat but instead become "the Vulturess" instead. However, Carroll and Koepp hated the idea, stating that "it's a dumbfounded idea that not only doesn't stay true to the comics, it doesn't match the character it's trying to replicate", and stuck with the Black Cat. The script was loosely inspired by 1990's What If... ? Vol 2 #21, which pit Spider-Man and the Black Cat against the Vulture.

The original script would have featured Vulture buying out The Daily Bugle from Jonah Jameson, thus forcing Spider-Man to kill him. Felicia Hardy, the Vulture's daughter in this version of the script, would have then had an affair with Peter Parker in order to shatter his engagement with Mary Jane. This script was, too, cancelled, but the idea of the Daily Bugle being caught in the crossfire was kept in the final product. The film was then subsequently delayed to 2011.

Filming

By 2009, pre-production had begun on the film. Character designs and redesigns were underway. Filming took place in Los Angeles from February 13th to March 17th to film the winter scenes, and then April 11th to April 20th for the film's ending, which takes place in the spring. The film then moved to SoundStage 9 in Hollywood for special effects scenes. The idea for the film to be set around Christmastime was taken from Batman Returns, which had some influence on the film's production.

Designs

Spider-Man's costume remains virtually unchanged from the design seen in the previous 2 films. However, the costume designed for this film has a subtly brighter blue compared to the previous costumes, and the red is more intended to resemble the hue of bricks.

The Vulture's costume was surprisingly complex to do. The initial design was based on that of the comic book design, what with feathers being placed on the body costume and wings, but this idea was scrapped. James Acheson returned the character costume designs, along with Max Carroll, who was passionate about the characters' appearances. Although he was passionate about the comic book designs, they also took consistency into consideration. In keeping with the overall tone and look of Sam Raimi's world for Spider-Man, James reimagined the Vulture wearing a short-sleeved, green body vest with finger-less gloves, thus revealing his arms. The lower body portions of the suit were designed to resemble that of the Green Goblin from the first film, but to a lesser degree. Finally, the wings were redesigned to resemble more of an angel's that that of an actual vulture's. James said that the reason for this was because an angel's wings were smaller and more compact, as well as to reflect of Toomes' religious nature in the film. The only thing kept from the comic book design as a homage was the white "mane" around the neck area.

The Black Cat's design was relatively simplistic. James had taken inspiration from Michelle Pfieffer's Catwoman from Batman Returns (1992), and the comic book designs, primarily from her first appearance from the 1970s. The idea behind this was to give the essence of "an amateur, but experienced, cat burglar".

The Lizard was created with CGI, with Andy Serkis performing the motion capture. The creature's design is mainly inspired by that of several Jurassic-era dinosaurs, such as Tyranosaurus rex, and the skin texture being taken from several species of reptile from Arizona, such as gila monsters.

Marketing

Merchendise

Sony and Marvel hired several companies to market the film. Companies like Hasbro, Diamond Select, and PEZ were commissioned to produce toys based on the film. LEGO was revealed in summer of 2010 to be the producers of the film's construction line toys as part of their upcoming Marvel Super Heroes line, after they reacquired the license from Mega Brands. This would be the first time since 2004 that LEGO would produce Spider-Man themed toys for their product.

Companies like Pepsi and Coca Cola were also hired to promote the film. Burger King also made a line of Spider-Man 4 based toy products.

T-shirts were made featuring Spider-Man and the Vulture to promote "Stand Up to Cancer". Actors Tobey Maguire and John Malkovich wore these shirts in April to support the campaign for the movie and Stand Up to Cancer.

Previews

The film's first teaser was unveiled at San Diego Comic Con 2010, which depicted Spider-Man in mid-flight battle against the Vulture towards the end of the film.

The film's first teaser trailer was shown alongside showings of Captain America: The First Avenger. Several TV spots were released within weeks of the film's premiere.

Release

Spider-Man 4 had it's red carpet premiere in Tokyo on April 24th, 2011, and had it's general release in the U.S. on May 6th, 2011. The film was shown across 10,000 theaters for it's first week of release. By May 13th, the film remained on top of the box office until it was beaten out by Captain America: The First Avenger on July 22nd.

Box Office

Spider-Man 4 earned $262 million in North America and $495.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $801.9 million. It is the 58th highest-grossing film, the seventh-highest-grossing 2011 film, the 13th highest-grossing superhero film, the third-grossing Spider-Man film, the sixth-highest-grossing film distributed by Sony/Columbia.

In North America, the film earned $7.5 million during its midnight run at 3,150 locations, including $1.2 million from 300 IMAX venues. On its opening day, a pre-holiday Tuesday, it set a Tuesday-gross record with $35 million (previously held by Transformers). The next day, the film dropped 33.4 percent to $23.3 million—the second-highest non-opening Wednesday. Over the three-day weekend, it grossed $62.0 million. This pushed the film's six-day gross to $137.0 million, which was smaller than those of Transformers ($155.41 million) and Spider-Man 2 ($180.07 million) among past Fourth of July releases. It remained at the number 1 spot for ten consecutive days, until the opening day of Ice Age: Continental Drift.^[224] Outside North America, Spider-Man 4 grossed $51.1 million on its five-day opening weekend (June 27 – July 1, 2012) from 13 markets, with strong openings in many Asian countries. In India, it earned $6.0 million, a record opening for a Hollywood film. Opening in an additional 61 markets, the film made $127.5 million over its second weekend. The movie ranked number one in over 30 countries. In Indonesia, it broke the opening-weekend record with $4.5 million while, in the UK, it opened to £11.1 million ($18.1 million) which is about equal with Spider-Man 3 (£11.8 million). In its last market, China, Spider-Man 4 grossed $33.3 million over its seven-day debut, which is more than Spider-Man 3’s lifetime box office in China. China is also the movie's highest-grossing territory with $48.8 million.

Reception

Spider-Man 4 received mixed to positive reviews from critics and fans everywhere. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "certified fresh" rating of 80%. IGN gave the film a 7/10 score.The New York Times called it "the best Spidey film since Spider-Man 2" and "Spider-Man 4 takes every stereotype about action films and makes them great". The Boston Herald called the film "everything that Spider-Man 3 should have been." Roger Ebert stated that the film "took everything that made Spider-Man 3 terrible and made it fantastic." On that same note, Spider-Man 4 was the last superhero film Roger Ebert ever reviewed before his death.

Sequels

Main article(s): Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6

In May 2011, after Spider-Man 4's successful $124 million opening weekend, Sony announced the start of a new Spider-Man trilogy, beginning with Spider-Man 4. The sequels are set to be released in 2013 and 2015, respectively.