It's good.
Before I tell you about its goodness, I wish to say something to my fellow audience-members.
Dear cinema audience,
Hi. I am doing pretty well. How are you? Actually, don't answer that. I know how you are. You are stupid and insolent. Cinema audience, you make me feel so, so very misanthropic. You do not laugh when J. Jonah Jameson does something funny! And then you do laugh when you should be feeling sentiment, when those passengers are bearing Spider-Man's body through the train! Can you not pick up on the most basic of emotional cues? And I heard you whispering. Yes, Fatty, I'm talking to you. If I wanted to hear inane and vapid mumblings I would talk to myself, you fool.
Sincerely,
HogBlog
PS...You are stupid and insolent.
There...
The movie is, as I mentioned, rather good. If you're looking for deep and probing looks at the dark side of human nature, and if you thought you'd find them in a Spider-Man film, then you are silly. Spider-Man is all about niceness. Peter Parker: he's really nice. He is super-duper-mega-ultra-hyper-nice with cherries and whipped cream. That is his thing, his schtick. Niceness. If you aren't looking for a great big slice of Essential Goodness and Nobility of the Human Spirit Shortcake, then you will end up a hungry, hungry cinema-goer indeed. If you don't leave the cinema hating your fellow man that little bit less, then you have a heart made of purest dung. I am still uplifted now. (You should have seen what I thought about the audience before.)
It's a shame there wasn't more of Dr Octopus, though...His transformation from Promethean to villain was all a bit abrupt. Much more could have been done with those tentacles, whispering in his head, making him do these terrible things. (Oh, did I spoil that for you? Dr Octopus has tentacles. Now you know.) More of these maddened, seductive mechanical whispers and demands and threats would've been nice, and maybe a little touch of blasphemous obscenity as living flesh becomes a tool for pitiless mechanism. It would've made him creepier and more exciting, and added extra pow to the ending.
Beautifully done, though...I was especially delighted by the scenes of Spider-Man slinging his way along the streets. They're so fluid...They project such a sense of freedom, of endless, eternal motion through infinite, shining cityscapes...
That bit when Spider-Man is straining so hard he starts to split his costume? Hot. That bit in the elevator, when he talks about the crotch riding up? Also hot. Tobey Maguire using any vaguely genital-related word is very hot. I wonder if anyone has a sound clip of Tobey Maguire saying 'hog'?
Kudos to the makers of the film for making Dr Octavius' device recognisably an iconographickal representation of an inertial-confinement fusion reactor, without ever having to use the phrase 'inertial-confinement'. I like that.
I would very much like to know what Michael Chabon's original script was like...He was credited, but I gather his draft was fed to a script doctor...And his website doesn't seem to shed any light on it. Ah well.
Good film, Tobey Maguire's a babe, so is Michael Chabon, go see it.
Posted by aloysius at July 10, 2004 01:28 AM | TrackBack |