September 30th, 2008 -- Written by John Campea
Aside from the army of gaffs and problems with Spider-Man 3, most fans seem to agree that the weakest link in the entire Spider-Man franchise up to this point has been the brutal portrayal of Mary Jane by Kirsten Dunst. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Kirsten Dunst is a brutal actress… sometimes I think she can actually be quite good… but this was a classic case of miscasting. It just wasn’t the role for her.
Over the previous couple of years, the bright side of the potential of Raimi, Toby and crew leaving the Spider-Man franchise for another creative group to come in and take over the reigns was the fact that this would have meant that Dunst would be gone as Mary Jane.
Then word came out a couple of weeks ago that both Sam and Toby had resigned for Spider-Man 4. There was still some hope that Dunst wouldn’t be back… but it appears she is also returning to Spider-Man 4 sadly. The folks over at MTV give us this:
MTV News posed the big question to Dunst while she was promoting her upcoming film, “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” with Simon Pegg. Is she in or is she out? “I’m in,” said the actress matter of factly.
Now it should be mentioned that the article goes on to point out that she then backtracked a little bit and said “I’m not saying anything yet. I’ve heard the rumors”, but it seems clear to me that she let it slip. Too bad.
This isn’t going to surprise anyone. I mean, with Sam and Toby returning it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Dunst would return also. I was just really crossing my fingers and hoping it wouldn’t come to pass. What are your thoughts on this?
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Not a bad actress…but yeah…doesn’t quite fit here. Her take on MJ wasn’t really what the comic books made her out to be too…but I suppose the ‘fans’ are used to seeing her on screen with Toby.
…I actually remember her saying something on the Tonight Show a while back that if there was ever a Spider Man 4, she didn’t want to be a part of it…although I could be having another brain malfunction.
I agree that Dunst has always been a poor mary jane. Usually you actually like the hero’s girl, it makes you want to be the hero even more. But if I had to put up with that version of Mary Jane you can keep your tights peter.
I’ve never completely bought Toby as Spiderman either. He got the geek down, but for some reason just not easy to watch.
Who knows maybe we’ll get luck and she will get killed off in the first 10 min by Carnage starting the movie off on the right foot
I like Kirsten Dunst, and I’ve always liked her as Mary Jane. I don’t really see where it’s coming from that she’s not a good fit for that character. I have read some of the comics, but am definitely not an avid reader of any Spider-man series, so I suppose those that are have different insight than I do. But as a regular viewer with tentative knowledge of the story before the movies, I like Dunst as MJ and would not want to see her replaced.
I swear to God if Spider-Man 4 is about Peter and MJ having relationship problems again, which results in MJ being kidnapped and dangled from a high place, I’ll attack the screen in front of me. Knowing the Spider-Man films, it will be about MJ and Peter getting married. Doctor Connors will be invited to the wedding where he turns into the Lizard and kidnaps MJ…I hope I’m wrong!
Hopefully the movie starts with a Peter Parker internal monologue with him saying “Mary Jane and I have gone separate ways” over visuals of him taking photos for the bugle, then cutting to her waitressing at the piano bar. we never see her again throughout the movie. Then Peter says, “Thats right I’ve been slipping Gwen Stacy the dick these past 4 months.” then it cuts to Peter giving it hard to Gwen from behind while wearing only his Spiderman mask.
how does that sound?
Unless somebody pays my way, I’m not watching this. Spiderman 3 was more than enough. I’m done with this franchise.
Oh alright then honey.
The funny thing is, if Dunst had been playing Gwen Stacy, I don’t think so many people would have a problem because that character is kinda vapid and strangely unlikeable and would have fit Dunst well (sorry if that sounds catty).
I’ve said before, I don’t understand the logic behind the decisions being made on Spidey 4. This is a franchise that has burned so many people its last installment that they very well may not pay to see the next one so it won’t make as much money (and yet you’re paying Maguire some ungodly amount of money to do it). The studio needs to get the message out that they are listening to the audience and that they will try and correct the mistakes made with the last movie, and they aren’t.
Hope Venom does a cameo.
Perhaps she’ll actually become road pizza after being strung up from the building this time?
For the sake of continuity, I’m glad she’s back. Having another actress portray Mary Jane in the fourth film would be awkard.
EVERYONES watching spiderman 4…no ones staying at home bitching about how bad the acting is with their arms crossed and a frown on their face watching “2 and a half men”
who cares if shes in? shes not a bad mary jane! if she wore a pushup bra and more lipstick..TRUST ME people would think shes perfect. its not her fault…its the people who dress her and the peopel who do the make up who are to blame
same with toby….people say hes a bad petter parker…HES PERFECT! the only reason why hes bad is because whoever wrote the script doesnt give him any funny sarcastic lines…its the crew thats to blame not tobey…tobey mcwire didnt write the script..he didnt choose to cry and dance in spiderman 3.
if he made jokes and made fun of venoms breath in spiderman 3 it would have been perfect. but he didnt. and thats not tobys fault
if toby smiled and laughed more…and cried less…and made more fun of his enemies while he fought them..holy shit would i love that. and mary jane has to wear a bra and she has to wer lipstick damnit!!! cuz dunst has tits…believe me
NOW lets talk about soemthing that matters! i say we need at least 2 posts a week to discuss the potential spiderman 4 5 and 6 villains!!!!
=]
now that i brought THAT up^^^^
i say without counting carnage and lizard…bring in fucking electro!!!
and a young kickass technology oriented vulture for fucks sake!
and of course…the beetle. not the old beetle…the new beetle that apeared in “ultimate spiderman” that looked like a red ironman HOLY SHIT did the beetle look awsome!
I dont mind Dunst as MaryJane really.
Provided the story doesnt revolve around her. In Spiderman 2 they hit her up as much as they needed to. She was the catalyst that made Peter reconsider his double identity. He was losing his job, failing school and none of that pushed him, but when he faced losing MJ once and for all he started having doubts.
MJ is a vital plot point (as all spidey’s ladies have been) but its a subplot, not the main theme. She can be in it, just not BE it.
Thoughts are that Spiderman 4 will be just as bad as 3. It made a shit ton of money even though it was horrible. You really think that the money gluttons are going to listen to the internet fan base.
To be honest, I never felt Dunst was ever a good fit for Mary Jane. In the comic books Mary Jane is just so hot it is crazy, Dunst is cute but never matches the Mary Jane hotness depicted in books. Not her fault really, you can be only so attractive right. Another thing is, she never really came off as a Red Head, the role was just miscast altogether.
If you remember the pre-interview Spiderman 3 before release, Dunst did a lot of whining about, oh I wasnt really sure I wanted to do another one… blah, blah, blah. It just really irked me, I mean she has gotten crazy famous off the role and thats how she comes off in interviews?
I say find a crazy hot natural Redhead and replace the Dunst, who needs her.
Her part needs to be downsized and then maybe it won’t be so painful to watch her on the screen. I didn’t mind her as MJ in the first movie, but it became progressively more annoying with the next two, especially 3.
Kirsten, in my opinion, has ceased to grow as an actress and continues on in comfortable parts where she can basically play herself. I use to like her, but I’m pretty much bored at this point. I would much rather see her fall on her face by failing at a challenging role…she seemed to have so much potential when she started out.
@Hazmat….You can give Dunst Triple F breasts. It still won’t detract from her bent gangled teeth she has from handing out BJ’s to casting directors and face that looks like it grew up sucking on a crack pipe instead of a pacifier.
I have never really liked Dunst in any of her roles to be honest, as she typically always ends up in her underwear showing the world how awfully skinny she is and how MUCH she needs to eat a hamburger.
But, besides that, I’ve never bought into their chemistry in any of the Spidey movies. And I agree with Robert(Wolf) that if the movie is as cookie-cutter as the rest have been with her and Peter’s storyline and their troubled relationship, I’m going to be upset.
She just needs to be killed off to end her character and Peter’s pursuit of her, that ultimately will cloud his sensible Spidey judgment and send him walking into a trap that ANYBODY could see coming. Kill her early, and create a revenge-thirsty Spider-man who doesn’t care about anything, doesn’t care about the Bugle, being emo on the street…wait, that’s how it always ends up….
DAN
NO ONE wants an emo spiderman!
we want the spiderman that makes fun of moonknight because he wore white after labor day! not the one that cries on the bridge!
i was so pissed when there was NOT ONE funny remark on venoms disgusting appearance in spiderman 3…there should have been at LEAST one good line about venom!
While I think kirsten dunst is plenty hot sometimes, as Mary Jane it just did not fit.
I think so far all of the women in Spiderman have been pretty mediocre, reboot the women and get hot actresses to do gwen and MJ, oh and then give them better attitudes and remove all the relationship drama, it should not be like an episode of the hills.
And I KNOW she’s gonna ruin that new Simon Pegg flick for me, too. Damn her:(
People saying “I’m not watching this shit” are lying to theirselves… Lets just wait ‘n see when it’s out.
Like people have already pointed out, there is a big risk for Spider-Man 4 not making so much profit since the last film… But they’re signing in. Can’t be a bad sign. Maybe the script is one damn good one? Meh, probably just fan-talk….
I REALLY DON’T SEE A PROBLEM WITH HER IN SPIDEY1-3 CAN SOMEONE HELP ME OUT?
I don’t understand the hate for her here on this site either. She just isn’t that bad.
imo 1 was blah.
imo 2 was well done.
imo 3 was teh god awful suckfest.
i have absolutely no interest in #4.
The problem isn’t Dunst so much as the fact that Raimi essentially threw out the comics character of Mary Jane in favor of an oddly shallow, needy and depressing girl who turns molehills into mountains. Compound that with Raimi missing wide of the mark when adapting Stan Lee’s classic themes of teenage angst and you get to the heart of the “why does everyone hate Kirsten” debate.
In Raimi’s Spidey films, Peter Parker’s life is less about the mounting pressures that come with emerging adulthood and more about an exaggerated — and childish — state of sadness that seems to engulf him and everyone else on screen as well.
The Mary Jane character in the comics was one of unexpected depth. She was the party girl, the girl who never took anything seriously or let anything bother her, and Parker had no special connection to her. She was the female equivalent of the guy friend who seems to get all the girls, have the most fun etc and it’s only later when you move in as roommates you learn how fucked up his home life is and how he drinks himself to sleep at night. It was only late in the comics, when her story was told more fully that we learned about her family issues and it was then that she and Peter connected in a serious way.
But Raimi throws the abusive father stuff at us within moments of meeting the character (albeit in a PG way) and from minute one Peter presents her as the girl of his dreams. The kid isn’t even bitten by the spider yet and Raimi has already blazed through two and a half decades of MJ’s character development, leaving virtually nowhere for the admittedly shallow character to go.
Thus by the end of the first film (where if Peter had kissed her in the cemetery their love story would have been over) Dunst’s MJ is left to exist in a state of perpetual unhappiness, never satisfied with Peter, no longer wowed by Spider-Man, creating her own problems and expecting them to be solved by someone else. By defining her character so simply and then locking her into a holding pattern of development, the audience ends up being annoyed with every second spent on her plot threads.
In essence, this is Jake Lloyd being cursed by Star Wars fans for his acting — as if there’s a better or more convincing way for an actor to read lines like “Yippee!” and “Now THIS is podracing”.
So Kirsten Dunst gets the blame, but it should really fall on Raimi’s head.
I would be happy to see the entire cast replaced and move on to a completely different story line. I think that both Tobey and Kirsten don’t look the part of either character, but they play them well. I think if you put Kirsten in as Peter Parker and Tobey in as Mary Jane, it would make for an interesting film too, they could pull it off as actors, and it would drive people insane.
I don’t need to see a wedding either. I know they get married. Make these characters into successful adults that have been married for like 10 years and start from there. I’d actually like to see a Spider Man movie written and filmed better than any comic book that I’ve ever read.
the movie gonna suck anyways, but that doesn’t mean i won’t watch it,
im just gonna watch it just for the action !
(I say they should’ve recast her with rachel mc adams..
I’m fine with it. I think the problem’s not Dunst, it’s the script.
I think its great she is back. She is beautiful and having another actress would shred the franchise (already destroyed by the third picture)
Boooo… the Spider-Man series sucks.
I guess continuity wise this is a good thing.
I have more probs with the way she’s writen than her apperance.
Sorry guys but I feel that neither Tobey or Kirsten were the right actors for the role. Tobey is NOT an action hero and messed up the look and feel of the character. Just like Kirsten. She was a feeble MJ…
i liked tobey but to me they need a bigger n better “man” for venom (if he aint in it then wtf…fuck this movie) mary jane is a meh character at this point…wtf do they even need her in it for……….i dont hate kirsten dunst and i think that people complaining about her are just looking for more shit to bitch about…granted she wasnt good but from some of the bs i have read about her is kind of just plane rude.
well im looking forward for the upcoming venom moive..i mean in coomingsoon .net they say its official…now that would be good..im curious and confused about it though…
I agree with Bill Clay’s assessment, the characters were ruined to begin with. The one thing that bugs me about the Tobey Maguire Spiderman is…… Spiderman is essentially a smart-ass, and Tobey no matter how hard he tries cannot pull that off. The one person who I can think of that has that type of personality as an actor is Ryan Reynolds. I am not saying he should be Spiderman, I am just saying Spiderman’s persona should be something like that. That is my only complaint with Tobey Maguire. Hell, for that matter I could argue that Topher Grace would have been a much better Spiderman as he is the king of Smartass from that 70’s show. He was miscast as Venom! What were they thinking on that?
Oh yea, I would like to see Alicia Witt as Mary Jane! She is smoking hot redhead.
Why is she back? Get some hot girl like Anne Hathaway to play the part man
The important thing about Kirsten Dunst is that you can fantasize about eating her pretty little brain, and using her dainty little dismembered hands as hood ornaments. NOM NOM NOM IMO
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In the comics, a deal was made WITH THE DEVIL to remove MJ from Pater Parker’s life. So…anyone out there willing to bite the bullet, take one for the team, to remove Dunst? Anyone?
…..please….?