A Bright Side For The Spider-Man Reboot: A New Hope For Mary-Jane

A Bright Side For The Spider-Man Reboot: A New Hope For Mary-Jane

Posted on Wednesday January 13, 2010, 09:02 by Helen O'Hara in Casting Couch

I really enjoyed Sam Raimi's first two Spider-Man films, and loved bits of his third*. But one thing always bugged me about them, and that's Mary-Jane Watson. Kristen Dunst can be a funny and likeable actress, but in these films she felt out of place, miscast and too blonde despite the dye job. Her MJ was basically wet: she was Gwen Stacey (always a more shy and retiring Spidey heroine) by another name, and made anyone who read the comics wish she'd stayed blonde, been renamed and died on the bridge at the end of that first film.

Of course, Gwen Stacey eventually turned up, in the shape of the normally redheaded Bryce Dallas Howard. But on behalf of a couple of close friends who happen to be redheaded, casting a redhead as the blonde Stacey does not make up for casting a blonde as one of pop culture's favourite redheads. Bryce Dallas Howard could have made rather a good MJ, but Gwen Stacey she was not. Swop her and Dunst and we might've been on to something.

This isn't to slag Dunst per se - just look at her in Bring It On or Get Over It or Interview with the Vampire (Her agent might want to look for scripts with the word "it" in the title, in fact, since that seems to work for her. Look, there's an "it" in "with the Vampire", OK?). But she just didn't fit. The comics' MJ, for those of you not in the know, was feisty, lively and as far from the movies' hesitant MJ as it's possible to be. Dunst's MJ never really felt like she could intimidate anyone, not even a pre-spider-bite Peter, whereas the comic's version is the girl who's just so effortlessly cool and so bubbly that she seems to glow. She's like Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding, a less girly Elle from Legally Blonde, or one of those early Anne Hathaway roles in The Princess Diaries or The Devil Wears Prada (although with more confidence than either). In fact, Hathaway's a really good model for MJ: she should be that adorable, that smart and sparky, and if Hathaway herself is older than the necessary teen demographic, find someone else who'll fit. But really, really look.

Of course, it's as much script as actress. Dunst tried her best with a couple of moments in the first film (the kiss in the rain, say), but in the latter films MJ was reduced to a whiny irritation - something as down to weak scripting for the character as much as Dunst herself. After all, she hadn't always been standing in his doorway**; she'd been shagging his richer best mate.

It's the biggest mistake that Raimi made, and something that whoever takes up the reins next should really try to correct. Between the wet-as-a-dishcloth MJ and the wearisome Aunt May character (again, nothing against Rosemary Harris, who did terrific work with awful lines), Spidey's girls got seriously short shrift last time. The Spider-Man of the books always had strong, interesting women in his life; his film counterpart deserves the same.

*I actually kinda like the emo Spidey and that comedy strut down the street. I hated the mess and waste of having three villains (if they insisted on Venom, they should've set him up in the last act but crucially NOT actually shown him until film four).

**Worst. Line. Ever. Up there with, "Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed."