Why the Sinister Six Movie is Probably Going To Be a Mistake

The summer of 2014 saw two different franchises attempt to replicate the successful formula of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ironically, both franchises were about Marvel characters - Spider-Man and the X-Men. Days of Future Past promised to unite the cast of the original X-Men trilogy with the cast of First Class, which pretty much meant every single X-man and woman featured on the big screen, plus a few new characters would be present in some capacity in a story that also involved time-travel and an apocalyptic future. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 promised us Electro, the Green Goblin and the Rhino, while also teasing the death of Gwen Stacy and the truth about Spider-Man's origin. Very big, very complex, very ambitious movies.

When I say both franchises were trying to replicate the Marvel Studios formula, I mean that they were both clearly setting up sequels and spin-offs, while also trying to tell their own stories. X-Men: Apocalypse, another Wolverine and a Gambit movie, as well as The Amazing Spider-Man 3, 4, a Sinister Six and a Venom movie were announced way before Days of Future Past or TASM2 even made it to theaters. If you look at the original trilogies of both franchises, you'll notice that while they did leave possibilities open for a sequel, they were clearly intended to be standalone movies. After The Avengers, that's no longer the case. Nowadays, everyone wants a piece of the "shared comic book universe multi-picture" pie - which in itself is not a bad thing, if it's done well. Days of Future Past was amazing, managing to intricately, yet very fluently weave the stories of all the X-Men together in a way that made sense, but wasn't too complex, giving the characters enough breathing room to have fully realized arcs. It's a movie that understood that you couldn't really fit all of the X-Men into one story and give each of them the same level of attention, so it instead focused on a handful of characters, while still giving the rest a noteworthy place in the grand scheme of things. It was simply brilliant and exceptionally well done. 

As for TASM 2, well.. whether you liked it or not, you have to admit it was all over the place, juggling various different sub-plots and villains, switching from heavy drama to goofy antics within the space of a cut, barely leaving its characters enough room to breathe. I found this particularly distracting, because it was very clear that the movie was more interested in setting up future sequels and spin-offs than its own story. Villain motivations felt especially rushed, probably because of the planned Sinister Six movie. As the title would imply, you need six villains for that, so you'd better crank out as many as you can as fast as you can, I guess. Or should you? Marvel Studios made sure that most of the characters from their Avenger roster had their own solo movie in order to introduce their backstory, character motivation and personalities. The only notable exceptions were Black Widow and Hawkeye, but Black Widow was a supporting character in Iron Man 2, Hawkeye made a cameo in Thor and both characters actually had their own subplot in The Avengers that fleshed them out more as characters. Bottom line, they were all at least introduced to audiences before The Avengers came out. Meanwhile, Sony plans to release the Sinister Six movie as soon as 2016, even though in the rebooted Spider-Man movies, only four villains have been introduced so far (and one of them kind of blew up, although that doesn't necessarily mean he can't come back). In the original comic in which they were introduced, the Sinister Six was made up of villains who had faced Spider-Man at least once prior. Audiences knew who they were, which is why the idea of them uniting was such an interesting concept, which is something a 2016 Sinister Six movie can't offer.

The possible Sinister Six movie line-up. Only the first four from left to right have been introduced in the previous movies

As it  stands, the Sinister Six movie has to introduce at least two more villains, probably three, (or even four, it's not entirely clear at this point) give them backstories and motivations, all while also creating the team and having the team fight Spider-Man. The only way this could work is if they sidelined the new villains to a certain extent, but since the teasers have made it abundantly clear that one of the new villains will be Doctor Octopus, one of the greatest Spider-Man foes ever and the original founder of the Sinister Six, I don't see that working out particularly well. I was worried about the Sinister Six movie even when I thought it would come out after TASM 3, but now I quite frankly think it's a mistake to go through with it. It's a dangerous gamble and one I am not at all convinced they can pull off, particularly after seeing how much of a mess TASM 2 was. The smarter move would be to hold off production on the Sinister Six, make TASM 3, introduce the new villains or flesh out the ones that were already introduced and then go for it. I think the best way to go would be to make it entirely from the perspective of the villains, sidelining Spider-Man himself and keeping him as a supporting character - which is another reason why I believe they should wait, as I think Spidey needs some time to deal with Gwen's death. We need to see him go through that emotional journey. The sequence at the end of TASM 2 was great, but entirely too short for such a significant moment in Spider-Man history. 

In my opinion, Sony seriously needs to slow down and focus more on the storytelling aspect, rather than the franchise making one. Any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, even the bad ones, could stand on their own. Days of Future Past understood the importance of that. TASM 2 didn't.