John Lloyd Sullivan (Joel McCrea, Sullivan's Travels, 1941)
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John Lloyd Sullivan (Joel McCrea, Sullivan's Travels, 1941) |
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(WARNING! This contains spoilers.) I collect comic books. Not as much as I used to. And even then I didn't collect very many superhero comics, if any. The comics I collect are usually more mature in theme, have swear words, and sometimes nudity. Not the usual stuff that is tolerated by the Comics Code Authority. However, sometimes I might pick up a superhero title if it catches my eye. Like when Artemis took over Wonder Woman's job, I had to read that. Although I sort of know about the more popular superheroes, I don't know everything about Spider-Man. I had seen the live-action TV show when I was a kid, the cartoons, and sometimes he’d appear in certain comics that I would pick up. But I don't recall ever actually buying an Amazing Spider-Man comic book. Even when I heard that Spidey finally married Mary Jane back in the late '80s or early '90s. (Did I spoil that for anyone?) Everyone knows Spider-Man. Some folks might recall that he was a regular on the Electric Company, a public television educational show similar to Sesame Street. There's no doubt that the first Spider-Man movie was entertaining. Even I, who think comic book superheroes are fundamentally silly, could almost believe in the character of the Green Goblin. Supervillains are always so over-the-top. Anyway, everyone has been talking about how Spider-Man 2 is the greatest comic book superhero movie ever made. I finally went to go see it yesterday. And I think that it really does earn the merit of being the best in its class. I really think so. However, it doesn't change what I think about superhero comic book movies. I think it's essentially lowbrow entertainment that's an artificial replacement for a lack of inherited cultural mythology. (Or something like that.) As far as I can tell, all of these superhero movies are more or less the same. If you can suspend your disbelief of these outrageous characters, concepts, and situations, it is an enjoyable film. For me, it's always a battle because I'm always asking pesky questions about realism. Moreover, my own doubt in the believability of anything about this movie was a challenge I had to overcome. So mostly this review nitpicks things that just did not work for me. At the beginning of the movie, I was able to believe that dorky Peter Parker would have the low self-esteem to get steamrolled by his tyrannical bosses. And since I got used to the silly idea of Spider-Man thirty years ago, a dude brachiating through the city on sticky strings was no big stretch. They pulled off the special effects in this movie better than in the first one. It's truly astounding. However, I can't help knowing full well that it's a CGI cartoon. Tobey Maguire does not even slightly move in the same way as his CGI counterpart. However, the inside joke about his bad back was amusing. Doc Ock. Oh, come on, movie! You almost had me believing that Indy's double-crossing sidekick, Satipo, was a brilliant physicist who invented a miraculous fusion power generator. The set-up was great. Peter's trouble with class work and his friendship with Osborn segue into Dr. Octavius' entrance into the movie very well. The benefits of this cheap and clean power source is truly staggering. But wait! There's more! Suddenly, and completely out of left field, there's a completely unexpected revelation about the Doc. Apparently in his spare time, not only has the good doctor invented the solution to all our energy problems, he has also invented incredibly advanced robotics technology and has managed to invent a way to interface it directly with the human central nervous system! This opens up mind-boggling possibilities in the field of cybernetics! Astonishing! And confusing! The movie had firmly established Doc Ock as a physicist. There was no suggestion whatsoever that he or anyone he was working with had any expertise with cybernetics. Free energy! And, uh... a solution to all physical handicaps... but that last part didn't seem to be important to any character in the film. Mary Jane is incredibly fickle. What does Peter really see in her? Sure, she's cute. But she seems to be high-maintenance and have the attention span of a gnat. Suddenly she's marrying an astronaut? And the title of the play she performed in, "The Importance of Being Ernest," seemed to be a heavy-handed underscoring of Peter's chronic tardiness. It's unfortunate that the movie didn't fully take advantage of Oscar Wilde's farce about mistaken identities and competition for the love of a girl. "The play's the thing." Perhaps Peter could have learned something from the play. That avenue was wide open for the film and it just scampered away from it. Why were Spider-Man’s superpowers failing? That was never completely explained. It was slightly implied that it was some sort of psychological dilemma, but I'm not quite sure. Did he need to get angry first, like the Hulk? Was it required that Mary Jane be in trouble before his powers would work at full potency? Does he need to increase his diet of web-captured bugs? What? Okay, I understand that Spider-Man has superpowers because he was bitten by a radioactive spider in the last movie. He's really strong, can spin web thread, and can take an inhuman amount of damage. But what about Doc Ock? He's not superhuman, is he? Sure, he's got those powerful cybernetic tentacles. But how does that make him indestructible? He was getting tossed around, punched, and blown through walls. And he didn't even lose his sunglesses. Okeydokey! Someone once mocked my interest in seeing Catwoman by quoting one of her woody barbs, "It's overtime!" which was spoken in the midst of some battle. Apparently, this comes nowhere near the level of wit of Spider-Man when he throws a bag of coins at Doc Ock and declares, "Here's your change!" I still don't understand how one cheesy bit of dialogue in a comic book superhero movie is better than the next. It just reinforces my opinion that all these comic book superhero movies are all more or less the same. All in all, Spider-Man 2 is a good movie. It's fun for everyone. It probably is the best comic book superhero movie ever made. But is it one of the best movies ever? Absolutely not. In fact, I enjoyed watching Bubba Hotep for the first time later that night more than watching Spider-Man 2 earlier that afternoon. But that, of course, is just my humble opinion. |
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