After Thoughts: Spider-Man 2

WARNING: SPOILERIFFIC!

I just got back from watching the movie.

While I enjoyed Spider-Man 2, and found myself entertained by it, I do have some major issues with the film. Enough of them that turned my Triple ‘A’ summer blockbuster into an entertaining, B average flick.

[1] The Spider-Man/Peter Parker/Mary Jane love triangle –

I realize a big part of the Spider-Man mythology is his elusive, hopeless love for Mary Jane, and his desire to have something that is too dangerous to hold --

-- but I didn’t need nearly two freakin’ hours of soaps.

The Mary Jane/Parker angle so engulfs the movie that its tedious meanderings stretches and drags the pacing across the floor. I was becoming incredibly sick of watching Peter constantly mope over his obsession with Mary Jane.

Not because I hate love stories, and not because I think moping can’t be great for a love story -- but because this wasn’t a love story.

It’s obvious to the audience they love each other, and it’s almost obvious to both Peter and Mary Jane.

IMO, great love stories involve character(s) who try to win the others heart. I didn’t get that from this movie. They already had each other’s heart; it was merely two hours of whining as to why they couldn’t keep it.

My beef is that their “love story” (if you wish to call it that) doesn’t develop enough. While obviously picking up immensely near the end, it’s essentially the same idea retold several times over for the first two hours.

After a while I could only think to myself, “umm… so what else do you got?”.

[2] Okay… okay…. I get it -- his life sucks –

The movie did a great job of visually showing us how much Parker’s life sucks, true.

Dropping his books then getting smacked around.
Aunt May’s mortgage troubles.
His own rent problems.
Getting fired.
Not getting the girl.

However, I didn’t need it re-enforced at every corner. Between the scenes of Peter being crapped on, I wanted to see more definite high points in his life.

Maybe he wins a huge prize that puts a smile on his face for a day. Or maybe something happens that brings some permanent hope to his miserable life.

This was the flow of the movie.

Pizzas late – Fired.
Get to school – Class over and tongue lashing from teacher
Birthday party (a chance for something postitive) – Harry’s contempt with Peter. More Mary Jane/Peter soap. And I also believe this is the scene where he finds out about Aunt May’s foreclosure.
At apartment – Rent problems and constantly hounded by landlord.
In the air – Starts losing powers.
At Diner party – Gets slapped around by Harry. Finds out Mary Jane is getting married and then he has to take pictures of it.
On Train – Great scene of the people carrying his body only to have it end on a low point by Doc Ock winning.
And and and….

Geez!!! While I realize that an important part of Spider-Man is having a crappy life, this movie definitely lacked moments of hope to equal the moments of darkness.

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IMO, the best part of this film happened within the last 40 or so minutes.

Finally we got to see some closure between the dragging subplots of this film.

More moments of hope (like the train scene where they carry his body)
He finally gets Mary Jane
His renewed dedication and powers

However, despite the last 40 minutes or so being great, that does not dismiss the boredom I felt during the earlier stages of the movie.
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[3] Finally….. ”Say Cheese!!!

Because Spider-Man 2 had cheese in spades. And nothing was cheesier than Doc Ock’s hospital scene.

You can tell Rami were having flashbacks to his younger, Hitchcock days with that scene.

It was so over the top cheese that I really couldn’t buy it at all. Namely because the directing and lighting in that particular scene didn’t fit with the rest of the movie.

But it wasn’t just that, I felt many of the scenes had incredibly lame dialogue and bad jokes. Even some (actually, I should say, a lot) of the Mary Jane/Peter scenes had dialogue that made me want to cringe.

And Peter’s “dream sequence” between him and Ben really had me spinning in my chair.

All in all, Spider-Man just had too much cheese for my taste (and I usually like dairy).


I also have some other nitpicks, like I wasn’t too impressed with the scenes of Spider-Man swinging through the city, and some of the Doc Ock fight scenes were too CG based and unbelievable. But overall I do like the movie.

I simply have too many major beefs with the film, like it’s pacing, dialogue, and certain directing decisions that I could justify giving this film any more than a B.

Not a bad film, not a great film (definitely not better than the first IMO), but still a solid flick.

The One, The only One
- The Lotus One

I haven' t seen the movie yet myself; however, my 11 year old son went last night to see it and his exact words were" Wait until it comes out on DVD mom and rent it from Netflix, but the popcorn and root beer was good" . In other words -- he wasn' t impressed.

It' s definitely worth seeing. I just thought the story dragged along and its pacing could have been better.

This is one of those movies where I won' t be satisfied until going to see it myself. Some movies I can just pass by when I get a lot of bad reviews from others.So...here' s hoping, it' s been awhile since I' ve seen a good flick in the theater' s.

I seen the movie yesterday.
Much better then the original.

BEST MOVIE OF 2004.

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I must agree with lotus- the movie did have a lot of negative moments, but this was what the series was about- how Marvel developed Spiderman in the comics, etc.

What I didn' t like was how they refuted common practice/science and somehow drowned a HUGE fusion energy ball (basically a blackhole of energy- sucking everything in) in the sea- as if THAT would destroy it? That was lame....oh and how they kept putting Dunst in a rain scene with no bra- what' s with that? Far out! I didn' t see the movie for that! I saw it because I loved the comics, and the original (minus the same scene), for the action, and the slight (very slight) romance- in fact, in the comics, it hardly touched on it too much...

I still preferred it to the original, but there needed to be more web-slingin' through the city!

I' m bumping this up again, because I need everyone to read my opinions!

Mary Jane is an evil bitch-whore! She waited all the way up to her wedding day to ditch the guy she was gonna marry. Ditching someone at the alter is evil. Hopefully she will die a slow, painful death in the guaranteed-to-be-horrible Spiderman 3 (as suggested by one of the last scenes in part 2). And why didn' t Peter Parker hook up with that chick who made him chocolate cake/pie/whatever? She looks 10 times better than Kirsten Dunst and isn' t such an evil bitch-whore!

The lady plucking the Spiderman tune on the violin was just retarded. Why do filmmakers insist on putting idiotic stuff like that in movies? This scene, which is played TWICE ruined my whole day by getting that tune stuck in my head. It was not funny when it appeared onscreen. Nobody laughed.

Anyway, besides those few issues, this was better than the first movie, which struggled to be mediocre. This one is a little better than mediocre. The first hour or five are slow and boring. It seems like Doctor Octopus isn' t even created until the 3rd or 4th hour, and he is given very little to do in the movie. He was a way better villian than Dennis Leary/Willem Da-Foe (same guy) as hobgoblin. But I never really cared for any of the characters. I knew Peter would save New York, I knew Peter would get his stupid bitch-whore in the end, and I knew there would be next to no onscreen deaths. At the scene where the train people say " you' ll have to go through us to get Spider Man" and Doctor Octopus says " OK" and smiles, I literally wanted to see his arms go through the people, impaling them. But no, the movie has to be rated G. Also, a guy strong enough to stop a train would absolutely pummel Doc Oc to death very quickly as he was punching him in the face. Also, what was with the freeze frame at the end of the li' l musical montage?

My guess what Spiderman 3 will be:
It will have another uninteresting goblin character played by that punk. But he certainly isn' t enough to carry the movie. So they' ll go the Batman route and have more than one villian. I' m getting in line for tickets now!

About the presentation:
The AMC video projector (used for the pre-show ads) looked far better and sharper than the movie which was on film. Granted I could see scan lines, but it didn' t bob and weave like the film did. The film was very soft and lacked the detail that was provided in the video preshow due to them not being able to focus, plus the aforementioned bob and weave of the extremely unmaintained projector. The sound had actual bass, which is a first for any AMC theater on the planet. But of course it was not turned up enough. There were many morons in the audience. I was one of them simply for seeing the movie! Lots o' lab splices and CAP code (in reel 2) to help ruin the theatrical presentation, ensuring that the best presentations will always be had at home on HD-DVD. I seriously am starting to hate the theater experience. Very few places can get it right, and they don' t want to put forth the money/effort in order to do it right. Also, until we can get rid of the CAP code, theaters just cannot compete with home video.

And why didn' t Peter Parker hook up with that chick who made him chocolate cake/pie/whatever? She looks 10 times better than Kirsten Dunst and isn' t such an evil bitch-whore!

I agree! And I was in shock for myself thinking that. All way through the first Spidey I couldn' t get over how HOT Kirstin Dunst looked with red hair. But in number two I couldn' t stand her and was waiting for Peter to get with the hot blonde chick!

*sigh*

Oh yeah, but the movie was ace. lotusson might not have liked the two main themes of the movie: Peter struggling with being a super hero and the love stuff... but I think they made the movie. Showing him struggling with being a super hero was interesting and engaging. It was nice to see exactly what he was getting up to in his life and how things were starting to slowly fall apart. You built up a real kind of sympathy for the guy.

The only thing I didn' t like was how they set up the next movie. Another Goblin would be very boring and I' m hoping they will pull another villan into the mix, but can' t think of whom. Dr. Conners was introduced, one arm and all. I can' t see Lizard working in a movie though. Plus if they have to set anything up I' d like to see the arrival of the symbiote, Peter using it to vanquish his foes but ditching it after it starts making him evil. Eddie Brock then finds it...