User reviews

This is the first time I've sat down to write a review on IMDB and there is a very good reason I decided this was the film id finally review.

Spider-Man lotus frustrated me beyond belief. Not because it was horrible (it wasn't), not because of the controversy but simply because you were so close to actually making an incredible spidey fan film.

Let me start with the positives!

• Overall I am a big fan of the direction you wanted to take with this characters and the themes you wanted to explore. I can tell you truly love this character by how much time and energy you spent really trying to dig into Peters grief and guilt.

• The opening sequence was explosive, exciting and fun and really allowed me to get on board with this spidey quite quickly

• the actors did a phenomenal job and really helped elevate the film

• VFX were on point and it was easy to overlook some of the minor issues.

• Faithful to the material

on to my gripes

• 2 hours was excessive. And Gavin trust me I know how hard it is to cut scenes especially when so much work went into writing location scouting and shooting them, feeding the crew, working long long hours just for that perfect take but I firmly believe at least half of the entire movie could have been cut out. And that's not because they are bad scenes. They were just unnecessary and didnt move the plot forward in a meaningful way. It got to a point where I felt this time the credits will pop up when it cuts to black. But then it kept going. Then cuts to black. Fade it. Keep going. Cut to black. It got a little tiresome. Dont be afraid to KILL YOUR DARLINGS. If a scene doesn't push the protagonist to the next stage in the story circle CUT IT. The main reason I dont want to say that this is a bad film is that there is a really good short film in hear with an hour cut from the edit.

• This film was really really really depressing. But a depressing story doesn't need to just be about people crying and being sad. Death can be weird, awkward weirdly funny. I had a close family member pass away this year. And there was a point after the funeral that my whole entire family was so tired of crying and being depressed that we all just started laughing uncontrollably. Now im not saying that there should have been a laughing scene in the movie but my point is that grief comes in many many forms not just crying in the rain and sitting and moping around. Death in movies doesn't have to just be crying. Peter is a guy that hides fear and pain through humour. I would have liked to see at least one scene when he is maybe trying to joke to Gwen over the tape recorder try make the moment light when really he is just trying to hide his own pain. It just feels that for a 2 hour runtime I didnt really get to see Peter experience anything other that immense pain and it got boring.

You took yourself too seriously. All the flashbacks and whining from every character just deflated me. And I learnt nothing new about these characters. And it frustrated me. You had everything in place all the time and money in the world but you wasted it looping the same character beats over and over.

Now im not writing all this because I hate this film or I hate you. Im writing this because I am such a fan of your journey and the balls on you to come out with your chin up and release this to the world. I really hope you see this and can learn from this film and get right back into filmmaking. You have potential. I have to keep reminding myself that this is your first film and for that it's an accomplishment and everyone should be very proud. But dont be afraid to look back and your baby and acknowledge its issues. You can do better and im sure in the coming years you will.

3/10 next project focus on structure and pacing.

I will not, in this review, be addressing the controversy surrounding the people behind this film and their recorded racism/sexism. Because even going in to this film without any potential bias against it, it still fails.

Spider-Man: Lotus is a movie. Many dismiss criticisms of it under the pretense that it is a small student project and not an actual movie, but I adamantly reject that notion. It has a budget of $25,000. It has a runtime of two hours (meaning it's not even the shortest Spider-Man film). With the status of being a feature length indie film with a respectable indie budget, there comes expectations; it is very much within reason to expect this movie to be well-directed, well-written, well-shot, and above all, economic in its production. Spider-Man: Lotus is none of these things.

This movie is unpleasant on the eyes; the directing is deeply uninspired, shots being comprised almost always of very drab imagery that do not grab one's attention. Similarly, the movie is also unpleasant on the ears and brain; the script only shows slight potential just once or twice, and the entire runtime is a plodding chore to get through with a motionless story that numbs the senses at its best infuriates at its worst.

When Spider-Man: Lotus was first announced, the filmmakers affirmed their fans that they were going to work within the confines of their budgetary limitations by shooting a drama first and foremost; the typical hallmarks of what makes a superhero movie would not be a priority. This is not what they did. There are still two superhero-y fight/action scenes in the movie; they are both distractingly terrible. These, along with a few other severely misguided creative decisions, chew through much of the budget that should've been used in other, smarter ways.

Spider-Man: Lotus is not a good film. At best, it is still very much subpar. It had all the tools and ingredients necessary to be an incredible version of itself, but it used them either incorrectly or not at all. To those that still feel this is all too much to expect of a film of this size, here are some other movies whose budgets were at or below that of Lotus:

El Mariachi (1992) with a budget of $7,000

Primer (2004) with a budget of $7,000

Paranormal Activity (2007) with a budget of $15,000

Resolution (2012) with a budget of $20,000

Creep (2014) with a budget of $0

One Cut of the Dead (2017) with a budget of $25,000.

Such a slog. Utterly dragged by flashbacks and drawn-out dialogue scenes. Very little actual Spider-Man.

It strays from a conventional story structure, much to this film's detriment, even if it's what the filmmakers were going for. All I can say is, learn the rules before you break them. Very little setup and payoff in this film, resulting in extreme boredom. The group I watched it with was not invested at all in the characters or the plot. Please, learn the fundamentals of writing before starting such an ambitious project.

Glad to see fans make content like this, but sad to see it executed so poorly.

Mid writing unfortunately. It relies on one someone's death WAYYYYYY to much and has way too much out of context scenes just thrown in there. It adds tons of unresolved questions and when it builds to something, it will cut out instantly instead of actually letting it have a scene or part. Its practically 15 minutes looped for the entire movie and adds nothing too what we already knew. Theres also multiple long montages and dragged out parts just to add runtime, most of these are flashbacks. Let alone how rude peter is in this movie. Straight up savagely rude to people.

The only 2 things i can say i liked 1: the cgi is great for a fan film even though there wasn't a ton 2: the dialog flows well like an actual movies. This is easy to do but fan films can never get this right which this one did.

This movie could've easily passed as a normal movie that isn't even spider-man related.

So many things to dislike about this movie so ill just state what is the worst aspect. This movie feels like it's told out of order, and the editing is extremely horrible . Scenes that should happen to set up character connections happen way too late in the movie for me to care about any characters. There is about 10mins collectively of spiderman in this movie, it's mostly a really bad melodrama about peter parker. Relies way to much on prior knowledge of the comics and movies. I genuinely can't find one silver lining about this movie, having a low budget is not an excuse for a terrible story.

The cinematography, CGI, and most of the acting in this amateur project aren't totally bad, but It's all over the place, and the pacing doesn't help at all. I mean, I sat through over an hour, and I still couldn't figure out where the heck it was heading. It wasted so much time on those pointless flashbacks and cheesy lines. Plus, there's barely any fight scenes, except for this quick two-minute bit where Spider-Man's just taking on some generic bad guys and Shocker. Just go rewatch any other Spider-Man movie; that'd be a better use of your time. I kept an open mind, even after hearing all the stuff about the people behind this, but I honestly ended up wasted my time. It's not a good Spider-Man movie or a good movie at all. Nothing really makes this one stand out; so why do I, or anyone for that matter, have to sit through two hours of just talking? Can't believe they used all that donation money for this garbage.

For a movie that was crowd-funded and the fact that it's a FAN FILM, this product was good. The plot is a little bit slow, but I'll give it this, this is 100% definitely a different take of a Spider-Man movie, in a good way, but sadly I do have some complaints. The music, which was amazing, was very inconsistent with the dialogue, which makes it hard to hear. But again, this was a crowd funded film that was made by a 15 year old, and we're now seeing it 3-4 years from now. Transitions between some of the scenes could've been handled better, but it was still good by any means. The past that happened during the movie's production should not affect if this movie is good or not. I am rather surprised at what this film accomplished. The acting was great, Gavin's direction for this whole project was great. Not to mention the last 30 minutes was fantastic and does not need to be changed at all. Overall, the movie probably needed a little bit more fine tuning and this could be amazing. But this, this is still great. Again, may I remind everyone, this was a fan film, crowd-funded and did not have a big budget. Great job Gavin!!!!

Overall, it's not bad for a fan film, but not good for an actual film, so don't go in expecting a crazy movie. Cgi had good moments but had weird ones too overall 6/10, score was cool at parts but lacked originality to set it apart from what's already been done and sounded cheap 5/10, writing was good at times 7/10, acting meh but had some good moments 6/10, choreography had moments where it was impressive but other than that meh 6/10. Overall cool but nothing special, but since it's a fan film we can't criticize it too hard.

You can tell the director put passion into it, but at the end of the day he's still a newbie, and has a long way to go. As of now, I don't see any real talent with him, but he's improving. I think doing a premiere and all the hype that surrounded it was definitely a bit much.

The only good thing about this movie is the CGI. It's still not fully perfect, however for some reason it manages to compete with No Way Home's end swinging sequence. Don't lie to yourself and think that the MCU's latest projects have good CGI. They don't. TASM2 still has the best CGI and frankly, I'm Disappointed. Anyways, the movie is boring, and has hundreds of scenes that would suggest that the movie was ending, but it just keeps going, and going, and going. The acting is also sub-par, and manages to be on the same level as the superman solar movie in some parts. No wonder they are apart of the RCU.

It never moves along it's the most boring movie l've ever had the displeasure to watch I would rather bash my toes in with a mallet than rewatch this movie I would rather be tortured by the mafia than rewatch this movie I would rather be hogtied and dragged across the Sahara desert and beaten with a metal pipe, then re-watch this movie I would rather be in a full body cast with all my bones broken and pushed down the stairs than rewatch this movie I would rather drink boiling hot broth straight off of the stove than rewatch this movie I almost fell asleep 3 times while watching this 2 hour long terrible movie.

I went into this film ignoring the controversy. I hadn't kept up with it, I simply watched the film to judge it as a film. And, as a film, it blows. This movie is nightmarishly boring, horrendously paced, abysmally written, with so few redeeming qualities that I'd argue that this film should've never been made in the first place.

Gavin is a lifelong spider-man fan, as am I, and that is part of why I am so appalled by the sheer lack of passion felt within this project. It feels like chewing on a Popeyes biscuit with no drink and then having sand as a chaser.

I enjoyed two scenes in the entire bloated two hour film. The scene where Flash and MJ talk, and the final swing. The scene where Flash and MJ talk worked for me because I think it captures Flash's character quite well. Even with that though, the writing is still more interested in telling rather than showing, and beats you over the head with its messages.

The only scene I can call 100% good is the final swing, which is genuinely great and I give all the props to the visual effects team.

Outside of those two positives, this film was utter drivel. For a film with such an arrogant inception, it utterly fails to provide a film even remotely as good as the MCU trilogy, it can't even manage to be better than most fan films I have watched. "The fan film to end all fan films." Was Gavin's goal, and it once again shows the arrogance behind this movie.

I came into this, hoping for a decent time, instead I came out of it profoundly unfeeling, and with a sour taste in my mouth.

Do not watch this film. There is nothing in it that makes it worthwhile.

Making movies is hard.

Virtually everyone knows that, and you don't even need any experience having worked on film sets to know that. Between the numerous problems that can plague you in preproduction, production to post, it's virtually impossible for a first-time director to completely stick the landing.

Spider-Man Lotus is no exception.

Even to ignore the controversy that (reasonably) has driven away thousands of potential viewers from this project, at a fundamental level Spider-Man Lotus sought to curate some of the most iconic Spider-Man scenes across media and combine them into a single cohesive narrative. And to do so with Instagram-model non-actors and only a handful of setpieces.

To have successfully strung the true emotional weight & setup for these scenes (in their original versions being built up to episodically -- and instead presented here to viewers non-familiar with the books with virtually no context) and to have done so along their tight budget would've been daunting for even the most experienced director. So while the ambition is admirable, it comes as no surprise to casual viewers that a shoestring fan film with a huge PR campaign was... precisely that.

Additionally, it just plain suffers from a number of should've-been-solved-in-film-school-type problems. While coverage & camera-work is proficient for someone the director's age, a college level screenwriting class might've solved some glaring issues.

The plot jumps around with a non-chronological order as scenes play intermittently with flashbacks. Every scene is paced far too slowly and the editing lingers far, far too long. (Even watching on 2x speed I imagine would still feel too long.) It's a kitsch recollection of moments that are deliberately stretched to fit to resemble moments from the bronze age comics and transplanting the 90's moodiness... and as mentioned, without a nerd-level understanding of Spider-Man, casual viewers (like my viewing party) are going to be completely, and totally, bored.

And no amount of music swelling over a cross-dissolving camera panning across (presumably the director's) Spider-man memorabilia-decorated bedroom can save it from being a forced, and far too drawn out, scene.

The end result is something that felt painful to have watched. My heart truly goes out to the director who made this, as I'm sure the controversy already sucked most the wind out of his sails and likely made his passion project hard to complete to begin with. But it also just sucks because what is so obviously a hyper-emotionally-charged passion project doesn't, and will likely never, reach the audiences the director sought to give this to. Both because of a (deservedly) self-imposed downfall and because the end product just plain isn't that technically nor narratively impressive.

In the end, as mentioned, it's just another Spidey fan film and will probably be the one to dominate Youtube for the decade, as Peter's Web did the decade prior and Dan Poole's Green Goblin's Last Stand (an ironically STILL better film despite being crudely made with home-sewn costumes and filmed on VHS) did for the '90s. (Last Stand ironically also still having a better and much more tonally faithful adaptation of a crucial scene featured here.)

Konop (the director) has proven himself technically proficient enough to have done what most aspiring directors his age typically haven't mastered - actually producing something -- and he need not worry for the greater path of his career as he will easily be able to nab most any directing/ film & video production job if he opts to continue working in the industry. The actors (or models) -- I can't really say as much given the low quality of the performances and the obvious controversy being more likely to more greatly effect the film's lead (provided they become the 'face' of any production they're tied to whereas a director with some controversy generally can still slip under the radar of public scrutiny and continue to find work).

All in all, Spider-Man Lotus amounted to mostly everything it promised to be: a fan production led by an amateur director who is serious about film, helmed by instagram actor-models, and retelling transplanted scenes from the comics. Does it work? Not really. But like its now emotionally-battered protagonist who limps about its prolonged runtime in sloggish confusion, it's trying, and maybe that's what counted.

This movie is is just plain boring while i like some things about it the acting is bad and I felt it could have been handle better, and not to mention that with the racism and supposed grooming allegations against the green goblin actor I feel like every day this movie gets worse and worse. Also Harrys drug addiction is probably one of the worst adaptations of it as its only shown when peter goes to the apartment looking for harry and when Mary jane finds harry at his fathers grave after he had been walking around then has a conversation with her that was stupid. Unfortunately this movie overall is just terrible.

At a staggering budget of $100,000 USD, Spider-Man Lotus enters the indie fan film arena with anticipation riding high. However, despite its financial prowess, the film struggles to translate its substantial investment into a polished and coherent cinematic experience.

Cinematography, takes an unexpected tumble here. Struggling with inconsistent color choices, shaky camera work, and odd moments where characters lose focus, the film fails to capitalize for visually captivating shots.

The editing further compounds the film's challenges, as it's plagued by puzzling continuity errors. For example: MJ knowing where Harry is after months without seeing him or even knowing about Harry's drug problem, since went missing right after his father died. Or Green Goblin knowing the place where Uncle Ben's Killer was arrested. Even Goblin's motivation left to be desired too.

Knowing that this is a indie movie, the GCI is expected to be weak. The diference between the work of the initial artists and their successors is evident, casting a shadow over the overall visual consistency of the production.

The soundtrack, while initially promising with its impressive score, falls short in execution. The music's placement disrupts rather than enhances the flow, and an unfortunate tendency to overuse the music detracts from the film's quieter moments. Given the substantial budget, the film could have better leveraged its soundtrack to create a more immersive experience.

The cast's performances exhibit a wide range of skill, with some shining and others faltering. Surprisingly, the "uncredited kid from true blood," Warden Wayne, delivers a performance lacking emotional depth and conviction. In contrast, standout portrayals by Moriah Brooklyn, Maxwell Fox-Andrews, Mariah Fox and Jack Wooton breathe authenticity into their characters, holding the best scenes in the movie (scenes where Spider-Man is not in!).

The pacing emerges as another obstacle, with prolonged dramatic segments and recurring scenes that detract from the narrative's flow. The film's attempt to juggle multiple storylines results in rushed resolutions, leaving some arcs feeling underdeveloped. The Harry and MJ subplot stands out as one of the film's more cohesive elements. If the movie had condensed its runtime to about an hour and centered on Peter Parker's process of coming to terms with Gwen Stacy's death, ultimately connecting with "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man", the story would have found a more fitting and engaging balance.

In conclusion, my expectations for this film were elevated, particularly considering the manner in which it was being approached with a distinct sense of professionalism, reminiscent of mainstream productions. However, it regrettably falls short in delivering a straightforward narrative centered on overcoming challenges during trying circumstances.

This movie was really great for a fan made movie, from the cgi, to the environment, and the emotion. Although this seemed to be more about peter parker than about Spiderman, with it focused more on peter dealing the loss of family friends and a lover. The costumes looked amazing for what their budget was. The only complaints i have is some of the dialogue going on for so long that it started to get boring. I think the reason that the review on this movie is so low is because of the controversy with the actor of peter. I would definitely recommend watching this in your free time if you're a Spiderman fan.

I'll start off by saying this is far from a perfect film, but I really do appreciate the time and effort put in by everyone involved to make this movie happen. The costume design and cinematography is probably where I have to give most of my points to on this movie. The costumes were like they were taken right out of the page of a comic book. The lighting,framing, and overall creative choices for some of the shots were great; especially for first time amateur film makers. My criticism would have to lie mostly in pacing, and dialogue. It was difficult to tell where exactly in the story you were while watching it; though I will say the movie improves significantly after the second act. Some of the dialogue felt cheesy, but what do you expect from a fan made comic book film? But overall I'm just glad this movie was released, probably the best feature length fan film ever made. Well done, Gavin.

I understand that the film was made with little investment, but perhaps it is therefore necessary to invest more in the type of action film as you would expect from Spider-Man.

It just doesn't work. The filming is bad in general, the shots are wrong and badly made, the writing is very bad, the story is very uninteresting, and above all, it's boring.

I also think the CGI is bad honestly, I know that with little money you can't do much, but I don't like it.

Then there is the fundamental problem of realizing that it is made by kids, where there are only kid actors, playing roles that are not very credible for their age. I can't take this seriously, not even a little bit.

Then there's all the hassle of flashbacks and completely boring dialogue with no background whatsoever.

It's a lousy movie and that's the result. Maybe they should have invested in a short film, I'm sure it worked better for an audience like me.

When giving a 1/10, I feel i must be certain that there is no area of merit at all. This normally results in me excusing a 1 in favour for a 2 or 3, when the wider scope of the film has something likeable - maybe an unusually good musical score, some creative cinematography, or just one person in the cast whose particularly captivating.

I was not aware of the controversy that surrounded this film before I saw it. So this review will stick entirely to the film's content.

Spider-Man Lotus is not so lucky. Perhaps if the VFX team had not been forced to quit in protest, this very low budget film may have eked out a 2.

The plot, and film generally, are incredibly depressing. The main characters spend a majority of the time arguing, and even when they didn't, were far from showing a deep friendship. Their positive relationship is pushed to the side for tragedy and 'drama' way too quickly for anyone to care, so then their fallout seems too extreme and unjustified. Although if you had to listen to the dialogue they had written, maybe the creators came to the same conclusion and most of it ended up on the cutting room floor.

This would also explain the rather short runtime - not that it feels it. You spend minutes staring at blank skyline in transitions for no reason. It's set in New York, we know that. If you're going to show a transition shot of a location, do it at the specific location you're going to. Instead, it's a drone shot of NYC in one direction, then 10 minutes later, a drone shot of NYC in the other direction. I have no idea where we're going, where we've come from, and why we're spending so long looking at generic skyline.

The feeling of going nowhere is amplified by the film's insistence of flashbacks, often in black and white for the lowest common-denominator filmmaking to make it 'dramatic'. This gives us more time to pan random locations, to watch characters we don't like talk in ways that aren't human for long stretches.

I'll give the costumes and locations themselves a pass, as the budget is laterally going to constraint those kinds of things, and unless they were obtusely bad, there's not much to complain about - aside the fact that there's very little Spider-Man in this Spider-Man movie, so if the actors are using their own clothes for so much, maybe a little more could have been spent on the main costume, and definitely on the Shocker suit.

Honestly, the core tone seems the biggest issue. This is supposed to be Spider-Man - who fires his mouth faster than his webs. But it's moody, grim, and seems to have complete contempt for audience. The opening scene (being the only one that Spider-Man is remotely identifiable as the character) is woefully written. It seems spitefully bad in order to force the audience to come on board with its depressing tone for the rest of it. Clearly from other reviews, most people have seen through it and we have come to the same conclusion.