That’s a burn.
James Franco wrote an editorial for Vice yesterday about attending the Man Of Steel premiere. We’ll get back to his review of Man Of Steel in a moment. What caught our eye — and made us jump up and down yelling “OH IT’S ON NOW, SON!” — is what Franco wrote about The Amazing Spider-Man.
I too have been in comic-book films – the Spider-Man trilogy directed by Sam Raimi. I mention the director because this distinction is now necessary in the wake of the new Spider-Man series that arose even before there was time to bury the corpse of the old one and enshroud it in the haze of nostalgia. […] I don’t really feel much distress over its being remade, for many reasons, but what is interesting to me is that it has been remade so quickly – and the reasons why. The answer is, of course, money. [Vice]
It’s not a controversial statement, or even unfair, but it is refreshing to see an actor say something remotely unkind (and honest) about anything now that even reality stars who leak their porn tapes have “media training” and publicists quick to step in when a line of questioning veers towards an unrehearsed answer.
This wasn’t the first time James Franco has dissed the reboot, either. Back in January (video here), James Franco told MTV, “I mean, they could have strayed a little bit more from the original. It was like, ‘Why?’ I guess they made a lot of money. Congrats. Good for them. Sam and I moved on. We made Oz.”
In the Vice article, Franco goes on to say he attended the Man Of Steel premiere “incognito” because it wasn’t his film and because he didn’t think Henry Cavill liked him. The two worked together on Tristan and Isolde in 2005, about which Franco writes, “I wouldn’t have liked myself back then because I was a difficult young actor who took himself too seriously.” Safe to assume the 2005 version of him wouldn’t do This Is The End.
He goes on to detail how badly Henry Cavill wanted to play Superman, even back in their Tristan and Isolde days. He then calls Man Of Steel a “great film” that “made Superman cool again.”
Allow us to sum up his review with a GIF.
You can read the whole thing over at Vice, but we just need to quote one more thing.
I can understand the appeal the original Superman comics had for the WWII generation and its need for a hero to rid the world of evil, but in my days as a young man, this appeal was long outstripped by the cheesiness of the character’s suit and his douchey invincibility.
That’s a burn.