SPIDERMAN 2
I hate the title.
It's too easy just to add a number to the end of the original name every time you continue the story. It shows a lack of respect for the audience and is fucking lazy. Spiderman: Unmasked, Spiderman No More or even Spiderman: Costume Fetish would have been much better titles. I don't get excited by Spiderman 2. It's dull and boring.
Thankfully the movie is just the opposite. I enjoyed it not because I'm a Spidey fan (I was when I was a kid but these days I tend to only read comic books that feature brain damaged journalists armed with bowel disrupters) but more because I am a Sam Raimi fan.
Raimi is responsible for some of the most enjoyable movies ever made with The Evil Dead Trilogy and The Quick and the Dead. A Simple Plan showed he could get serious and even misfires like Crimewave and Darkman are thoroughly entertaining.
I'm trying to forget The Gift.
There are obvious nods to other Raimi movies in Spiderman 2 (the chainsaw, his old car, Bruce Campbell!) but the whole thing just feels like a Raimi movie. The over-the-top hospital scene in which Doc Ock's arms defend themselves is the most obviously old school Raimi sequence but the attention he allows to the story and the characters rather than the special effects make the movie one of the best sequels I've ever seen.
The cast are great. Maguire is good, really good as the bitter left behind aspect of the super-persona. It's what made Spidey so interesting to me as a kid. While Bruce Wayne had a mansion and a butler and Clark Kent wanted for very little Peter Parker had the rent to pay and family responsibilities to juggle. His Spiderman persona was the release.
The movie sets this out very well with Parker struggling to pay the rent and being a constant disappointment to his family, friends and employers.
It's nice to see Dr Connors pop up in a nice cameo as the disappointed science teacher of Parker and friend of Octavius. He's destined to become The Lizard (I guess in the third movie alongside the return of The Goblin ? and isn't Jonah's astronaut son also a soon-to-be-bad-guy?).
There is standout scene where Parker's landlord's dizzy daughter offers him chocolate cake and a glass of milk. It's a small scene that other directors may have cut in order to have a few more punches thrown or another shot of Mary Jane getting her dress wet (and there's plenty of that ? Kirsten Dunst's nipples should have their own separate credit). This simple scene shows Parker realising that there are other girl's out there besides MJ and proves you don't have to be a wanky astronaut for a girl to look twice at you. Even geeks gets laid.
It's a nice human moment in a superhuman movie. The first movie could have done with more scenes like that.
Alfred Molina did a great job with Doc Ock, especially the earlier scenes with his wife and later when he realises what he has become. The middle section of the movie sees him smashing the fuck out of the web-slinger and making a first class nuisance of himself. When was the last time you saw commuters used as blunt objects?
I never really got the character of Doc Ock in the comic books but I was sorry to see him go by this movie's close. He was a much more interesting character than Dafoe's scenery chewing Goblin.
Best part?
The unconscious and unmasked Spiderman being 'protected' by New Yorkers. A continuation of the scene in the first movie where New Yorkers attack the Goblin only not as cheesy. Every time that an onlooker shouted "Go Spidey!" I got a little rush and it made the whole preposterous concept fall away a little bit more as I was genuinely thrilled at the idea of a city not just needing a protector but actually feeling protective and supportive of him.
Speaking of cheese, those "deep pan" pizzas where definitely thin crust.
If there's one thing I know it's pizza.
Mike is blogging to: The Ataris - featured not once but twice in the above movie...
I hate the title.
It's too easy just to add a number to the end of the original name every time you continue the story. It shows a lack of respect for the audience and is fucking lazy. Spiderman: Unmasked, Spiderman No More or even Spiderman: Costume Fetish would have been much better titles. I don't get excited by Spiderman 2. It's dull and boring.
Thankfully the movie is just the opposite. I enjoyed it not because I'm a Spidey fan (I was when I was a kid but these days I tend to only read comic books that feature brain damaged journalists armed with bowel disrupters) but more because I am a Sam Raimi fan.
Raimi is responsible for some of the most enjoyable movies ever made with The Evil Dead Trilogy and The Quick and the Dead. A Simple Plan showed he could get serious and even misfires like Crimewave and Darkman are thoroughly entertaining.
I'm trying to forget The Gift.
There are obvious nods to other Raimi movies in Spiderman 2 (the chainsaw, his old car, Bruce Campbell!) but the whole thing just feels like a Raimi movie. The over-the-top hospital scene in which Doc Ock's arms defend themselves is the most obviously old school Raimi sequence but the attention he allows to the story and the characters rather than the special effects make the movie one of the best sequels I've ever seen.
The cast are great. Maguire is good, really good as the bitter left behind aspect of the super-persona. It's what made Spidey so interesting to me as a kid. While Bruce Wayne had a mansion and a butler and Clark Kent wanted for very little Peter Parker had the rent to pay and family responsibilities to juggle. His Spiderman persona was the release.
The movie sets this out very well with Parker struggling to pay the rent and being a constant disappointment to his family, friends and employers.
It's nice to see Dr Connors pop up in a nice cameo as the disappointed science teacher of Parker and friend of Octavius. He's destined to become The Lizard (I guess in the third movie alongside the return of The Goblin ? and isn't Jonah's astronaut son also a soon-to-be-bad-guy?).
There is standout scene where Parker's landlord's dizzy daughter offers him chocolate cake and a glass of milk. It's a small scene that other directors may have cut in order to have a few more punches thrown or another shot of Mary Jane getting her dress wet (and there's plenty of that ? Kirsten Dunst's nipples should have their own separate credit). This simple scene shows Parker realising that there are other girl's out there besides MJ and proves you don't have to be a wanky astronaut for a girl to look twice at you. Even geeks gets laid.
It's a nice human moment in a superhuman movie. The first movie could have done with more scenes like that.
Alfred Molina did a great job with Doc Ock, especially the earlier scenes with his wife and later when he realises what he has become. The middle section of the movie sees him smashing the fuck out of the web-slinger and making a first class nuisance of himself. When was the last time you saw commuters used as blunt objects?
I never really got the character of Doc Ock in the comic books but I was sorry to see him go by this movie's close. He was a much more interesting character than Dafoe's scenery chewing Goblin.
Best part?
The unconscious and unmasked Spiderman being 'protected' by New Yorkers. A continuation of the scene in the first movie where New Yorkers attack the Goblin only not as cheesy. Every time that an onlooker shouted "Go Spidey!" I got a little rush and it made the whole preposterous concept fall away a little bit more as I was genuinely thrilled at the idea of a city not just needing a protector but actually feeling protective and supportive of him.
Speaking of cheese, those "deep pan" pizzas where definitely thin crust.
If there's one thing I know it's pizza.
Mike is blogging to: The Ataris - featured not once but twice in the above movie...
5 Comments:
"Jonah's astronaut son..."
I seem to remember him being in an accident. I think the rocket blew up at launch the first time he was going into space, and transformed him (don't remember why, and it was probably pretty thin) into some crazy wolf-being called Silverstone or something. He was very angry and then Spiderman beat him up and JJJ was grumpy as always.
Oh yeah - wasn't he Man-Wolf? Something dumb like that?
I was wondering if him being an astronaut was a way to introduce Venom later in the series as I didn't remember him too well from the comic...
The photographer that Parker replaces at the society bash I'm guessing is the same 'Eddie' that later becomes Venom after Spidey discards the black suit?
JJJ is spot on, don't you think?
I think they could've done without some of the hero/love speeches (and conversations with uncle Ben). I think the actors were doing a good job showing us what they were feeling/thinking while they were doing things....But I used to think the same thing in the comics too. Feels like they were just time fillers.
Yeah the vision of Uncle Ben was maybe a little too much. It's a worry that they are going to try and force the "With great power comes..." line in every movie. A simple flashback would have sufficed.
The scene with Aunt May moving out maybe went on a few minutes longer than it should. It played as if she knew Peter was Spiderman and was giving him the kick in the arse he needed but I'm guessing it was just a very heavy handed American version of irony.
I would have thought that allowing some poor fucker to die in that fire would have provided enough reason for him to put the mask back on. Being a role model for the kid across the street is a tad thin.
NBut what about those credits? I HATED the generic credits in the first movie - no different from X Men or Hulk - must be the same guy doing them? But getting Alex Ross to paint up key scenes from the first movie was inspired.
oh yeah, i was also wondering why peter parker, with having so many problems with paying the rent, couldn't just live with aunt may??
and for part 3, which i'm guessing they'll make, i am really hoping they don't bring back the green goblin but it is so obvious that they will. at least introduce another bad guy so we don't get the same exact thing. but i don't want them to bombard the screen with baddies like the later batman movies did which led to the series downfall, or perhaps that's because tim burton didn't direct them and/or george clooney played batman. it's going to be interesting how the next batman movie is going to be. i saw a pic for some offroad batmobile or something, and that looked ugly.
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