Webb of Spider-Man

That was quick. Just one week after Spider-Man 4 was mercifully put down and Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire were sent dancing down the street, Sony has announced that their Spidey reboot movie will be directed by Marc Webb. I’m assuming this is more because he directed the critically liked (500) Days of Summer, and not, you know, because his last name is Webb. I saw (500) Days of Summer and enjoyed it — well, except for the hamfisted ending — although it really was just a better than average romantic comedy, and not nearly as good as the hype suggested. What concerns me more is there’s nothing in (500) Days of Summer that suggests to me that Webb would be at all good at directing a Spider-Man movie. There’s not much that would suggest he’d be bad, either, but that’s because Summer is a romantic comedy and totally unlike a comic book film (I included the trailer above; see for yourself). Was Webb picked because he’d toe Sony’s line? Was Sony in a rush so that the Spidey movie rights wouldn’t revert back to Marvel? Does Sony not care about quality but only about a product that generates a revenue stream? If you answered yes to all three, face it, tiger, you hit the jackpot.