Fan film: "Green Goblin's Last Stand"

Hi all, for this edition I wanted to share something a little different and focus on one of my inspirations for producing my super heroine stories. The fan film I'm talking about is a spiderman film called "The Green Goblin's Last Stand". What made this production so special is what was to be made in such a small to non-existent budget  (only $400) but with a ton of passion.

This was created by Dan Poole in 1992, before the first Spider-man movie in the early 2000's.
The was his passion project since he was a huge Spiderman fan and he saw this as an opportunity to get into the film-production business as an actor/stunt-man. In fact in this fan-film he plays as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and he did all of his own stunts. The highlight os this video is seeing him doing the crazy but awesome stunts from swinging from buildings on  rope to diving into boxes and debris. The prop-making is also very interesting and creative. The storyline is based on the classic "Death of Gwen Stacy" storyline that pits Spiderman against his most dangerous arch-nemesis, Green Goblin in their most famous battle. Based on the budget constraints and location limitations, Dan Poole had to modify the storyline to be able to shoot and it works out great.

It's also cool to see how he used the environment and self-made props in this. It did give me a couple of ideas for my own productions. It should be noted that this was made in the early 1990's before Hi-definition cameras and the lighting is poor and the acting is a bit cheesy, campy and over the top but this kinda added to the charm of this video. It should also be known that this was one of the first fan-films to truly become one of the most popular in the fan-film genre and should be considered a  must see. it is incredible to see how far amateur film-making has come along since then. But something this has that others lack is that this has a lot of heart and there are a lot of tips that new, self-made film-makers can learn from.

I first this fan-film when I bought it at a comic book convention as a DVD back in 2004 and it has been one of my favorite DVD's of all time. It also had a documentary of the story behind the production and it was very enlightening and informative. Not only did I see the fan film but the hard work  and sacrifice that Dan Poole did and the "out of the box" thinking needed to create something special like this. As I've said the documentary was very helpful and I suggest anyone interested in film-making to check out the fan-film and documentary.

Today, you wouldn't be able to get the DVD anywhere since there are a lot copyright issues but fortunately both the film and documentary can be seen on Youtube. I suggest checking both out if you're a comic fan, aspiring film-maker and/or just a fan of fun stuff.

My review on Amazing Spider-man 2...

This past weekend, My very pregnant wife, a few friends and I braved the long lines to see the 2nd must see movie of the year for me (after Captain America:Winter Soldier, naturally) and we were not disappointed. It was such a great experience that I wanted to dedicate the second entry of this new blog to do a brief movie review on "The Amazing Spider-man 2".

I'm a life-long diehard web head and I enjoyed the Sam Raimi movies. It was a thrill to finally see Spidey on the big screen and for the most part I felt they were pretty good. Although, Spiderman 3 was the weakest out of the trilogy, I kinda liked it.  Now after watching Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-man"I'm convinced this is a much better rendition of the character. This movie really captured the Peter Parker/Spider-man character we all know and love from the comics, specifically his mannerisms and wit. It was great to see Spidey crack jokes while in the middle of a super villain battle.

The positives besides the perfectly captured Spiderman/Peter Parker character are the special effects and action scenes. It really felt like i was watching a comic book in motion. The music was also a plus and a lot more memorable, especially Electro's theme music, it was totally bad ass and added to the battle scenes.

The actor's did an overall great job; Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and especially Dane Dehaan were great in their roles. Dane really stole the show as Harry Osborne as a tortured and  brooding boy billionaire.  Sally Field as Aunt May turned a minor role into one of the strongest performances in the film.

Some of the problems I had with the movie was that it was way too long.  they jammed too many plot points and felt overwhelming at times. Also, a big disappointment was the Rhino. He did not need to be in this movie in that it added nothing and would have been better as an after credit scene.

To wrap up, I enjoyed the movie especially as a Spider-man fan. It's not as good as "Captain America: Winter Soldier" but it's better than the first Amazing Spider-man movie.  #amazingspiderman2 #asm2

MY RATING
 * See it now *
 Rent it
 Forget about it

Before I go, here is treat of with our own Spider heroine from UltraHeroix.com: Arachne Dame