CraveOnline: You’re so articulate about what the appeal is in superheroes and their value, but you’re trying to get all of these video game movies off the ground and it feels like there’s just as much resistance to making good versions of those, as there was to comic books 15 years ago.
Avi Arad: Well, you know, it took me a long time to make comics to film. It will take some time. There are some video games they’re working on that I think have the depth and the girth of comics.
What do they bring, individually, as a medium? What can we adapt because again, we’re bringing comics into film, we’re bringing fables into a modern world, but what is it about video games like Mass Effect or Uncharted that we can capture?
Some of them are entertainment and some of them are philosophical enough to do.
Is that how you see Mass Effect, as philosophical?
Oh yeah. I mean, it’s so complicated, the philosophy of it. Like, man versus other people. I think District 9 was very much for me, philosophically like Mass Effect. Is the alien better than me? Am I better than him?
There’s a lot of xenophobia.
Absolutely, so you have that. Then one of my favorite ones that I think will be unbelievable, is Metal Gear Solid. It’s like The Bible, you know? Cain and Abel. So, when you have these games that actually have a story, a story that is clear to tell, and people in life share these experiences… That’s why we did the parents story in movie one, because it’s one of the things no one ever touched on, never answered and Peter never asked. It took rage to finally face it and it’s a very sensitive thing when an adopted child gets to a certain age and they say to their [guardians], “I love you. You’re my parents but what happened? Are my parents alive?” And today, the world is more modern this way so people are actually able to introduce them to their parents, many times to a grave disappointment. Then they come home, and the parent is the one who changed you, took you to the doctor, push you on the swing. You know what? This is profound.
And Peter rejected them at a key moment and regrets it ever since.
Absolutely, so that’s what made the first one a new direction also here. Like, the kid wants to face the truth. Kids today do want to do it and this movie, you’re going to see Spider-Man happy, strong… Understand the struggle will never go away but I wanna be this guy. It’s not anymore Spider-Man: No More. It was great. Sam [Raimi] did it in the most brilliant way. We want to talk about today’s Peter Parker and today’s Spider-Man. A man who’s in love and he has the greatest girl in the world. Anybody would be lucky to have Gwen.
That’s very, very true.
And you understand why he’s happy, why he’s flippy and humorous and stuff.
And then you get to tear him down, though, and that’s dramatic.
Yeah, he made a stupid promise!
That’s right. Yeah, he’s not keeping that.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
