Sticky Stuff on the Screen
Posted on | July 5, 2004 at 5:39 pm | 4 Comments
I went to a 4th of July barbecue on Saturday night. I really shouldn’t do that, as it just reconfirms my social status as a Freakish Outsider. I gotta rent me some kids or learn sports statistics or something. And I certainly shouldn’t see movies like Farenheit 9/11. Although I don’t feel that much like an insider even at family barbecues, like the one I attended Sunday at my sister’s.
Speaking of freakish outsiders, I saw Spider-Man 2 today with my friend Bryce. This was actually the second time Bryce had seen it, though he had to leave halfway through the first time because it was too intense for his 8-year old son. Seems to me that the major complaint from kids would be that it is too slow/boring – there’s a lot of character / relationship stuff in this movie, and not as much action as I thought there’d be. (But what action there is, really kicks butt.) That sounds like a knock, but it’s not. It’s the character bits and the story that are going to get people (i.e. adults) into the theater, not the cool action sequences. If more producers of comic book movies would realize this, we’d all be in better shape. (I’m cringing thinking about the upcoming Thunderbirds movie and how much it looks like it’s going to be one of those flicks that rapes my childhood memories, perversely by pandering to young children.)
I agree with the critical raves that SM2 is better than the first movie, though I’m not sure I’d designate it the best super-hero movie of all time. The CGI looked a lot better this time, with a minimal amount of obvious fakery (the most blatant to me was the scene near the end where SM is on top of a crane at night and looks back over his shoulder before jumping off). Doc Ock was a good villain, Alfred Molina was a perfect choice to play him, and those mechanical arms were intense.
I know many people will disagree with this, but I don’t think that Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are that attractive – they both have really odd faces, for one. But in a way, that makes for a better movie and gives more weight to those character moments and arcs. Peter Parker is such a normal guy with pedestrian problems, and his story resonates better when played by someone average-looking (and acting) like Maguire. It’s somehow reassuring that our superheroes and their girlfriends really could be the people next door and not Captain Beefcake and Supermodel. Or maybe I’m just projecting.
I’m not sure I liked the way they are potentially setting up the third movie (though anyone steeped in SM lore could see it coming from the end of the first one), but I have faith that Raimi can pull it off. Go get ‘em, Tiger.
Latre.
Comments
4 Responses to “Sticky Stuff on the Screen”
July 5th, 2004 @ 10:03 pm
Some of the kids at our 11:30 AM screening also seemed to think it was too intense. One crying child had to be escorted out after the fire-rescue scene. It’s PG-13 for a reason, folks!
July 6th, 2004 @ 7:56 am
The scene that did it for Bryce’s son was the one in the operating room. I gotta admit it was pretty intense. Until you get used to those arms, they’re pretty scary!
July 7th, 2004 @ 1:44 pm
Here’s a kid-safe version of Spiderman, using Legos:
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1277881&sdm=web&qtw=480&
July 7th, 2004 @ 10:39 pm
That’s very cute – loved the elephant.