Saturday, July 17, 2004
Blogger gobbled up a news linkery related post I did earlier and I can't be bothered to find the constituent parts and do it again.
Went to see Spiderman 2 this afternoon and wasn't that impressed. I'm not a Tobey Maguire fan so any film which has him front and centre trying to emote rather than putting on the silly costume is not going to rate highly with me. The second film has so much thematically in common with the first it could sue for plagiarism. But Maguire isn't the only problem here, he, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco have to carry the film as the triangle of the younger cast and they just don't manage it. At no point does there seem to be any spark of interest between Mary-Jane and Peter, you would have thought that as M-J is supposed to be such a good actress she could at least pretend. But as one of the most interesting loose ends from the first film was the relationship between Harry Osborn and Peter while Harry wanted revenge for the 'murder' of his father the scene where Harry finally discovers Peter and Spiderman are one and the same is laughable in either tension or drama.
In acting stakes the film is rescued by it's older cast. Alfred Molina steps in to Willem Dafoe's shoes as 'crazy supercriminal that likes Peter while fighting Spidey'. Some effort is made to make him an interesting and three-dimensional character. We see more sides to him in his first scene where he meets Peter than we see Maguire performing in the rest of the movie. And despite having to dispense even more fortune cookie wisdom even Rosemary Harris as Aunt May manages to outshine the youngsters. The script is worse this time, presumerably to show Peter's angst Spiderman is almost silent in his fights, almost completely quip-free.
The first film seemed hampered because there was so much backstory it had to put into place, Peter getting his powers, his uncle dying, with great power blah blah blah. Sequels tend to blossom because they're largely freed from the necessity for world-building (look at X-Men and X2). S2 makes it look as if it was only those key origin scenes that actually held the first film together.
The main problem with Film two is that there are two stories going on which don't work together. There's the fairly standard 'Spidey versus Doc Ock' story but the second story is one of responsibility, why should Peter Parker put his life on the line for others when he's in danger of loosing his apartment, when he can't make it to class, when he can't even have a relationship for fear of what some villain might do if they found out. So we have the slightly farcical situation in the middle of the movie, when Spidey has rescued some kids from being run over, stopped some criminals, saved countless people from being destroyed by Doc Ock's malfunctioning machines and fought off Doc Ock and saved Aunt May that he decides that obviously there's no point or value to being Spiderman and throws his costume away, deciding just to be Peter and not Spidey.
He does have a physical problem, namely his powers sputtering in and out. It seems psychosomatic but connected to what it's not clear. It can't be stress as there can't be more moments in one's life as stressful as trying to be killed by a 16 stone bruiser with four powerful cybernetic tentacles while he's hanging your aunt off a building. No, it seems that the root cause of this malady is one of plot, when the script-writers need help to start Peter along the path of doubting himself his powers start to vanish, when it's time for the main event they come back again.
This same plot device that upsets Peter's powers also has a negative effect on Mary-Jane's hormones as, not get anywhere with Peter, she announces halfway through the film she's getting married to J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son. Peter's overdeveloped ego stops him from trying to woo her himself, but of course she gets kidnapped by Ock, rescued by Spidey and discovers he's Peter. She then runs out on the wedding to be with him rather than the astronaut. What could have been a nice opportunity for M-J to be more than the faux liberated object of Peter's mystifying adoration, by actually pointing out that Peter has got her into danger twice while trying to protect her from super-villains and if he's going to risk his life to save others he's got to allow her to risk her life by being with him is wasted as presumerably too much effort. Aunt May presumerably also knows, a scene where she talks to Peter about how life is full of difficult choices and people need heroes lacks only her saying "Peter, go out and fight that nasty man, here, I've made you a new Spiderman costume out of bits of the curtain and carpet".
The money scenes do look quite nice though. The special effects people have worked hard to make Spidey and Ock as lithe as possible, giving them a fluidity that doesn't work on the comic page. However, the scene that everyone will have seen in the trailer is the one where Peter and M-J are in a cafe and Doc Ock throws a car through the window of the cafe at them. Now, he has no suspicion at this point that Peter is Spidey. Neither of them are looking in his direction and it's only Spidey-sense that saves the pair of them from being squished. So Ock is rather careless. However, as he seems to come round the corner in the next scene maybe that's just a lucky rebound of a car being thrown from further away. Quite how he's able to track down Parker isn't explained either, Ock can hardly travel secretly around town so he's exceptionally lucky to find Peter in a place not seen before in either of the two movies.
The train fight looks nice but the whole rigmarole of Spidey having to stop the train is daft. Is the best idea they can come up with for Spidey to stop a speeding train is to stand at the front and fire webs at passing buildings and hope his arms don't get ripped off? And the horrible bit when the passengers stand up to Doc Ock, "If you want Spiderman you'll have to go through us", recalling the "if you attack one of us you attack all of us" scene with the Green Goblin in the first movie, is treated with the contempt it deserves as he simply sweeps them aside.
The final fight scene at his obligatory abandoned pierside base seems strangely anti-climatic, as though the train fight was the last scene and this is just a coda to wrap things up, they fight briefly until Spidey short-circuits the arms, allowing good old Otto to regain control and sacrifice himself nobly to destroy his machine which is about to destroy the world.
All in all, though it looks pretty Spiderman 2 is a thematic mess with unengaging paper-thin characters. In the comics Harry Osborn is a noble character gone bad, it's a genuine shock when he turns evil. James Franco can only reach 'petulant' here and it's worrying if he's going to be the main threat next time, though there's another adult actor who may get involved, Doctor Curt Connors who, in the comics, becomes the savage Lizard. So we'll have to wait and see, but there's little cause for optimism.
Went to see Spiderman 2 this afternoon and wasn't that impressed. I'm not a Tobey Maguire fan so any film which has him front and centre trying to emote rather than putting on the silly costume is not going to rate highly with me. The second film has so much thematically in common with the first it could sue for plagiarism. But Maguire isn't the only problem here, he, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco have to carry the film as the triangle of the younger cast and they just don't manage it. At no point does there seem to be any spark of interest between Mary-Jane and Peter, you would have thought that as M-J is supposed to be such a good actress she could at least pretend. But as one of the most interesting loose ends from the first film was the relationship between Harry Osborn and Peter while Harry wanted revenge for the 'murder' of his father the scene where Harry finally discovers Peter and Spiderman are one and the same is laughable in either tension or drama.
In acting stakes the film is rescued by it's older cast. Alfred Molina steps in to Willem Dafoe's shoes as 'crazy supercriminal that likes Peter while fighting Spidey'. Some effort is made to make him an interesting and three-dimensional character. We see more sides to him in his first scene where he meets Peter than we see Maguire performing in the rest of the movie. And despite having to dispense even more fortune cookie wisdom even Rosemary Harris as Aunt May manages to outshine the youngsters. The script is worse this time, presumerably to show Peter's angst Spiderman is almost silent in his fights, almost completely quip-free.
The first film seemed hampered because there was so much backstory it had to put into place, Peter getting his powers, his uncle dying, with great power blah blah blah. Sequels tend to blossom because they're largely freed from the necessity for world-building (look at X-Men and X2). S2 makes it look as if it was only those key origin scenes that actually held the first film together.
The main problem with Film two is that there are two stories going on which don't work together. There's the fairly standard 'Spidey versus Doc Ock' story but the second story is one of responsibility, why should Peter Parker put his life on the line for others when he's in danger of loosing his apartment, when he can't make it to class, when he can't even have a relationship for fear of what some villain might do if they found out. So we have the slightly farcical situation in the middle of the movie, when Spidey has rescued some kids from being run over, stopped some criminals, saved countless people from being destroyed by Doc Ock's malfunctioning machines and fought off Doc Ock and saved Aunt May that he decides that obviously there's no point or value to being Spiderman and throws his costume away, deciding just to be Peter and not Spidey.
He does have a physical problem, namely his powers sputtering in and out. It seems psychosomatic but connected to what it's not clear. It can't be stress as there can't be more moments in one's life as stressful as trying to be killed by a 16 stone bruiser with four powerful cybernetic tentacles while he's hanging your aunt off a building. No, it seems that the root cause of this malady is one of plot, when the script-writers need help to start Peter along the path of doubting himself his powers start to vanish, when it's time for the main event they come back again.
This same plot device that upsets Peter's powers also has a negative effect on Mary-Jane's hormones as, not get anywhere with Peter, she announces halfway through the film she's getting married to J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son. Peter's overdeveloped ego stops him from trying to woo her himself, but of course she gets kidnapped by Ock, rescued by Spidey and discovers he's Peter. She then runs out on the wedding to be with him rather than the astronaut. What could have been a nice opportunity for M-J to be more than the faux liberated object of Peter's mystifying adoration, by actually pointing out that Peter has got her into danger twice while trying to protect her from super-villains and if he's going to risk his life to save others he's got to allow her to risk her life by being with him is wasted as presumerably too much effort. Aunt May presumerably also knows, a scene where she talks to Peter about how life is full of difficult choices and people need heroes lacks only her saying "Peter, go out and fight that nasty man, here, I've made you a new Spiderman costume out of bits of the curtain and carpet".
The money scenes do look quite nice though. The special effects people have worked hard to make Spidey and Ock as lithe as possible, giving them a fluidity that doesn't work on the comic page. However, the scene that everyone will have seen in the trailer is the one where Peter and M-J are in a cafe and Doc Ock throws a car through the window of the cafe at them. Now, he has no suspicion at this point that Peter is Spidey. Neither of them are looking in his direction and it's only Spidey-sense that saves the pair of them from being squished. So Ock is rather careless. However, as he seems to come round the corner in the next scene maybe that's just a lucky rebound of a car being thrown from further away. Quite how he's able to track down Parker isn't explained either, Ock can hardly travel secretly around town so he's exceptionally lucky to find Peter in a place not seen before in either of the two movies.
The train fight looks nice but the whole rigmarole of Spidey having to stop the train is daft. Is the best idea they can come up with for Spidey to stop a speeding train is to stand at the front and fire webs at passing buildings and hope his arms don't get ripped off? And the horrible bit when the passengers stand up to Doc Ock, "If you want Spiderman you'll have to go through us", recalling the "if you attack one of us you attack all of us" scene with the Green Goblin in the first movie, is treated with the contempt it deserves as he simply sweeps them aside.
The final fight scene at his obligatory abandoned pierside base seems strangely anti-climatic, as though the train fight was the last scene and this is just a coda to wrap things up, they fight briefly until Spidey short-circuits the arms, allowing good old Otto to regain control and sacrifice himself nobly to destroy his machine which is about to destroy the world.
All in all, though it looks pretty Spiderman 2 is a thematic mess with unengaging paper-thin characters. In the comics Harry Osborn is a noble character gone bad, it's a genuine shock when he turns evil. James Franco can only reach 'petulant' here and it's worrying if he's going to be the main threat next time, though there's another adult actor who may get involved, Doctor Curt Connors who, in the comics, becomes the savage Lizard. So we'll have to wait and see, but there's little cause for optimism.
