Review: Spiderman 534
First off lets talk about the cast. Toby Maguire was great in The Cider House Rules. He's just a solid actor. But I was seriously wary of him in the role of the webbed one. He seemed like a flimsy choice. He needed to pull off the one liners, but still convince us of his love for Mary Jane. But he pulls it off admirably. From the goofy glasses wearing scenes in the beginning to his badass battle scenes towards the end, its a solid showing. The best scenes in the whole movie are the ones where we see Peter Parker coming to grips with his new spider powers.
Now I'm gonna skip in a bit with a statement about staying true to comic books. Yes- some of the details have been changed from the books. Like most noticably, the nature of Spiderman's webbing. But whatever- this is story telling and it works for me.
Kirsten Dunst does a good job in what could have been a bland role in the hands of an actress who was just a pretty face. Mary Jane is convincing, and since she is in many ways the thing that grounds spiderman, its a tough burden. And the other biggie is of course the head of Oscorp, Mr. Norman Osborn, Willem Defoe. he does allright, but most of his maniacal scenes are covered by a mask that leaves him little room for any actual facial expressions.
So the plot: Boy loves girl. Boy gets bit by radioactive spider and develops super powers. Boys friend's dad inhales nano gas that makes him super powerful, and super crazy. Boy explores powers and eventually must save city from the attack of the newly crazed buddy's dad, all while dealing with the loss of his family. It's spiderman in a nutshell, and it's just damn solid.
The special effects are smooth. From the ads I was a little concerned since spiderman looked a little fake leaping around. But within the context of the movie it usually worked for me. They looked unnatural, but frankly seeing spiderman leap off inflatable balloon floats and swinging around flagpoles suspended by spiderwebs is already pretty unnatural so I let the suspension of disbelief win out on this one.
Danny Elfman hasn't sounded this good since Batman. I loved the score. It doesn't really feel original, but it sure fits like a glove.
In short, its a great movie. I won't comic-book-guy the details that were missed in the transition from paper to film, but I think they did a great job of making an entertaining movie, and staying extremely true to what I think Spiderman is all about. And goddamn it, the raw sense of excitement as he discovers his abilities is enough to make every guy wish he had those powers- swinging from building to building and howling like a mad freak. God I loved it. Congratulations to everyone involved- you win.
All that, and I even scored tickets to the 12:01 showing of star wars on opening day ;)
Spidey is why I learned to read (Score:5, Insightful)
I grew up with Spiderman. He is the reason I learned to read, because a) the Electric Company featured him every day, b) my Mom wouldn't read comics to me, and c) my dad was always too busy to read them to me.
Spidey also seemed to cross racial lines, IME. We all thought he was cool, no matter if we were asian, black, hispanic, or white. Spidey just rocked.
AFAIK, he's also one of the few superheros to come close to killing Wolverine. How to actually kill Wolverine was the topic of many a cafeteria discussion when I was in college.
Someone has to say it... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Uh whatever (Score:2, Insightful)
In that case, my sister works for the guy who produced and wrote Pleasantville, Big, and other movies [imdb.com] and SHE said it was good.
Exactly, who the hell cares what she thinks.
I liked it too (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a long time Spider-Man fan, so I was looking forward to/dreading seeing it made into a film. The best praise I can give it is that it was very accurate. The story of the original Green Goblin was told just as I remember it from the comic books, with a few exceptions which aren't really worth getting into.
The greatest thing about it isn't so much that the plot is accurate, but that the characters are. The first scene with J. Jonah Jameson captured the man's essence perfectly. Does he really think Spider-Man is a menace or does he just want to sell more papers? Norman Osborne is very well done, which is good since he gets the majority of screen time, after Parker. His personality-changing rage is reminiscent of the Incredible Hulk, but more devious. His interactions with Harry are are nice as well. You can already see the personality flaws and fatherly abuses that will eventually lead Harry to his own fate.
Despite the film's strong characterization and fantastic special effects, I didn't leave the film completely awed as I did with other films. It was all excellent, and polished, but it was missing a sense of wonder. Most of the film has been done before, just not all at the same time. Regardless, I think the film was successful. Hardcore Spidey fans won't be shocked by any heresy, action fans will be impressed by the web-swinging, and even those who prefer love stories won't be disappointed.
Re:Already done (Score:2, Insightful)
So,We are not boycotting the evil MPAA this week? (Score:3, Insightful)
:-P
Re:Uh whatever (Score:1, Insightful)
Taco you are obviously not one for refined taste and discretion.
Your second post got modded as a troll probably because you're too much of a moron to realize it.
Re:It's Spider-Man. (Score:2, Insightful)
No, but we need an "Anal Retentive" moderation category...
Re:Nitpicks. (spoilage) (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Someone has to say it... (Score:5, Insightful)
Find a theater showing Spider-man and an Indie flick at about the same time. Buy a ticket for the Indie and sit down in the Spider-man theater "by mistake." Just don't do it when Spider-man is sold out.
For bonus points, buy another ticket for the Indie flick and see that too.
see it, help the pro-DMCA, anti-freedom lobby? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a Sony Pictures movie. Sony's a member of the MPAA [mpaa.org], who love the DMCA [mpaa.org]. Sony Pictures has been cited as a supporter of Fritz Holling's Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) [interesting-people.org] bill. We're talking about the kind of folks that hire lawyers to sue teenage hackers for writing unauthorized DVD playback software [mpaa.org] for GNU/Linux systems. Sure, it might be a great movie, but at least stop a minute to think where your money's going, what it will be used for down the road.
Anybody who says one vote doesn't matter must've missed the last US elections.
Bullet Time... yet again. (Score:2, Insightful)
J.
Re:Good, but did the same mistake as Batman did (Score:2, Insightful)
For the first movie, I would've liked to see Spidey take on a non-superhuman like the Kingpin. That way, the audience would've gotten a better idea of how Spider-Man's powers compare to those of a human foe, albeit an extremely rich, well-armed and resourceful one.
Then there's Dr. Octopus. To an extent, his mechanical tentacles give him similar mobility to Spider-Man, which should make for some very interesting battles and chase scenes across the cityscape. The problem with Doc Ock is that he's another crazed scientist in a techno suit, making him less suitable for an immediate sequel.
Speaking of crazed scientists, there's also the Lizard, whose tragic history would place Spider-Man's own genesis into an interesting context. If you've ever seen the Spider-Man cartoons, you'll know that at some point in the story the spider-half of Parker's genetic makeup becomes dominant, essentially transforming him into a giant spider very slowly. He seeks out the help of Lizard's human alter ego, who in turn is desperately trying to keep his own animal side from gaining control.
And of course you've got Rhino, who's probably not impressive enough as an enemy; Elektro, whose powers seem too straightforward (let's not mention his ridiculous costume either); Mysterio, who would make for some very tiresome illusion-inside-an-illusion storytelling; and Sandman, who.. well... After 'The Mummy', his powers just wouldn't be all that impressive to audiences.
The ultimate foe for Spider-Man would probably be Venom, or maybe Carnage. The problem with those two is their back story: even if it could be squeezed into one movie, it's probably too far-fetched for most movie audiences. A genetically altered human gaining spider-like powers is hard enough to swallow; let's not enter symbiotic alien suits from a galaxy far away into the equasion. Still, as long as Venom remains an evil, more powerful version of Spider-Man, Raimi can adapt his back story however he sees fit.
And if they REALLY run out of ideas, they could always have some mercenary uncover all of Osbourne's research, expose himself to the same technology, and turn him into the Hobgoblin...
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)