Conventional wisdom is beginning to coalesce that "The A-'Meh'-Zing Spider-Man" has, if nothing else, a better cast than it's predecessors. Conventional wisdom, obviously, does not know the difference between "better" and "more interesting;" but whatever. This was around the same point in the buildup that people started to think "Transformers" could concievably be good, too... but we'll all find out in 2012.
In any case, finally a piece of casting I can 100% say is pretty damn awesome. It says precisely jack about the rest of the production, but I think it's cool in and of itself - which, of course, can only mean that this will be the one that everyone else HATES: Denis Leary is Captain George Stacy, aka "Gwen's Dad."
I like it. Here's why:
Well, first off: I'm from Boston, so I'm sort of obligated to at least give Denis the benefit of the doubt on everything he does. But mainly, it's the first casting decision that actually seems to indicate an interesting character direction.
See, while Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben) and Sally Field (Aunt May) are both fine actors, their casting here simply REEKS of lazy, unimaginative thinking because we've seen them do these parts (Famous Quotation Reader and World's Greatest Mom, respectively) hundreds of times before. Contrast that with last time, where casting the same roles with veterans who were known but not "household names" (Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris) was an early clue that they were looking for performances.
Denis Leary, on the other hand, doesn't exactly take every role that comes along, isn't at the top of any agency's list and is far removed from the traditional image of Captain Stacy; which is an indicator that they have something interesting in mind for the character. Color me interested, in any case.
P.S. Let's not get into the Bill Hicks thing, huh?
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