My thoughts on Spiderman movie
Well, I posted some comments on it last Saturday, when I came home after watching it. Now, with some more time passed and some thinking done, I will try to post my complete impressions on the subject.
Well, I had big hopes for this film. Eventhough I'm not a "huge" comic book fan, I do like certain characters, be it Blade, Spawn, Batman or Spidey. And I like Xmen as well :) Each of those found their way to the big screen, but the results were wide ranged from Awesome to Plain bad. Blade series and Xmen worked great as comic to film transition, but Batman and Robin and Spawn(eventhough I still like it alot :)), werent good. ANd this takes us to the latest entry - Spiderman.
Film starts great, with character origins being explained, and you can see early day Peter Parker as school nerd, being picked on by bullies, being laughed at all the time, shy and clumsy, looking at the girl of his dreams. Tobey Macguire really gets this part of the character right, he fits the role really well. His only friend Harry Osborn is also played well in the beginning, but later slips into whiny friend territory. I thoigh Kristen Durnst was a good choice for MJ, but my wife though that she was little too old looking for the part.
Then on the trip to science lab, Peter gets bitten by genetically created spider, and he experiences quite a change. I really enjoyed this part of the movie, with him trying to accept and learn his new powers. It was really done well, and you can feel the sense of amazement that Peter experiences on the screen. Character of Norman Osborn is also introduced, and Willem Dafoe does quite a good job playing him. Driven by his work, his goes through dangerous experiment on himself, and it leads to his madness.
Trying to make some money to impress MJ, Peter decides to become a wrestler, hoping that his newfound powers will bring him some cash he really needs. This leads to great wrestling match, and awesome chase as Peter goes after his uncle's killer. Uncle Ben's speach was also good, and later happening are very nicely represented, as Peter learns hard facts of responsibility.
It was great to spot Bruce Campbell as Ring Announcer, its alway pleasure to see him on the big screen :).
Then film switches to the Big City, as all the characters move to New York city after graduation. Norman Osborn gradually going mad, goes into his Goblin personality, and Peter fights crime as Spiderman on the streets of New York. He also meets MJ who has a dreams to be an actress, but had to work as waitress for living. He also learns that she and Harry are dating.
What follows after that are mix of action scenes were Spidey takes on Goblin, and romance & character development scenes. Some work great, and some seem to drag on. Visual fx of Spiderman swinging alongsite the cityscapes are excellent, and I had no problem of them looking fake, in fact they looked amazing. But I didnt like Green Goblins new look. His body armor was very good, but that mask that made him look like a Power Ranger villian, was a bad touch :( I'm not saying that had to keep the old, comic book look, but the not moving Goblin face with big yellow eyes looked silly. As for Spidey look, it was spot on, his suit looked great, and was represented well.
As for action sequences, I liked the close up fights, even though it relyed on the slo-mo(matrix like, as many people like to call them) shots. Last fight with Goblin was quite brutal, and I enjoyed it for most part. But aerial battles didnt look as well, :( I though they were represented in Spiderman the game, in much better way than in the real film. Especially scene with cable car, it was such a rip of from Batman Forever, where Batman had a quite simular choice. And those people of New York, one minute they hate Spiderman, than they love him. Whats up with that? :) Too bad there were plenty more of simular cliche moments during the film :(
Actors did a good job in their roles. Jameson guy was excellent in his role, and I thought Aunt May was pretty good too. Too bad Harry Osborn, was quite plain, and whiny in the later part of the film. And whether Tobey Macguire was great for early days Peter Parker, he didnt worked out as good as later day. It was too big contrast of him and Spiderman.
As I said before, the last 10 minutes of the film made me laugh. I dont know but the ending scene just didnt work for me at all, and flet overlong and dragging. And that patriotic shot, felt forced. But it might just be my own feeling of it.
It left me with a few questions though, some of them are SPOILERS so if you dont want to read them, dont read any further:
Spiderman organic web. Does it dissolves with time? Otherwise there will be quite alot of it everywhere Spiderman goes.
When Osborn stole the Glider and Suit from his lab, it didnt looked like the suit had Goblin mask. Where did he got it from then? I dont think it was originally designed to be a part of the suit. Millitary would never approved something that silly looking.
Cable car scene, both Goblin and Spiderman, can easily hold the whole cart full of childeren with one arm, while on the Glider, or hanging on the web respectedly? Can they do that? I know they strong but not to that level?
As usually all masked superheroes cannot be recognised if they have mask on. I though Peters and Spidermans voice sounded the same, so MJ couldnt tell the difference?
Peter Parker wears Spiderman costume underneath his regular cloth, in case he needs a quick change into Spiderman. But remember the scene at the house when they waiting for Peter for dinner, and Norman Osborn finds the blood on the floor, and minute later Peter shows up in his regular clothes? Where did he got those? Was he wearing another layer under the Spiderman suite. That would make 2 regular suites and one Spiderman suites on?
During the last fight, Goblins pumkin bomb blows into Peters face, but only rips his mask. Was his mask made from somekind of armor material, otherwise why his face wasnt ripped off?
As usually, villians stupid. WHy cant goblin just take the mask of Spoderman, when he had him sleeping after using the gas on him. No, he has to lear hard way later. Boo-hoo.
WHole sequence of Spiderman bringing the body of Norman Osborn back to his apparment and Harry Osborn witnessing it. How will he explain the huge wound in crotch area that Norman should suffer after Glider blades slamming into him? Wouldnt Harry call the police and have a murder case against Spiderman, and be a actuall witness of that? But it all quickly forgotten, and Spiderman is HERO again?? Doesnt make sense :(
Well, So I was little dissapointed with this film, but right now, I dont think that it is as bad, as I thought it was, back on Saturday. Was it a best cominc book to film adaptation? No, it wasnt. I think Blade 1&2 and Xmen were much better, but was it a bad film? No, just average. I hope the sequel will have more action, because romance parts really broke the films temp. I wish they would have Venom as new villian, but its probably will never happen.
Well, Maybe if I was a bigger comic book fan, than I am, then I would probably liked it more. DJ had a great time during it, and argued with me, about this film being not that good. Maybe I'm little too old and jaded now. :)
