Saturday, May 05, 2007
Spidey Briefly
MCF was right ... sort of.
Now granted, not everybody is as much of a geek as I am, and MCF is, and Otis, too, for that matter ... so there are probably people who don't care about the SM3 minutia we'll all debate over the next few weeks ... so I apologize to those of you who just don't care.And since I have to leave for work in a few minutes, this post will be VERY brief.
In short, it didn't suck. At no point did I roll my eyes, at no point did I find myself getting bored, and I wasn't ready for the movie to end before it did.
Neither did I ever feel exhilarated or thrilled ... and Otis didn't have to sit through one of my many "Go see this movie right now!" answering machine messages tonight. If I see something I REALLY love, I call him right away, and since he's never home, I leave a message. I didn't have to leave such a message tonight.
One thing MCF said was sooooooooooo wrong. He said:
At the very least, it's as good as Spider-man 2
I read that line a few minutes ago and said "What is he thinking??!?" I couldn't disagree more. I'm torn between Spider-Man 2 and Batman Begins as my choices for the two best superhero movies ever. I'm amazed that two superhero movies that good came out so close together. With those two films as my standard for superhero supremacy, I'd say that this new Spidey film is nowhere close to being in that league. SM3 really is, however, as good as Tim Burton's two Batman movies, and as good as the second X-Men movie, and a little better than the first Spider-Man movie or the first X-Men movie, but not as good as the third X-Men movie and not as good as Ang Lee's Hulk.
Let the screaming begin! ;) I can just imagine the other fan-boys who'll read that last paragraph and say "What is he thinking??!!?"
MCF then said:
and visually from the opening credits to the insane final battles, it's the best-looking of the three.
Oh, without a doubt. Probably the best special effects I've ever seen. Every penny spent on the production of this movie shows up on the screen. It looks great and the action sequences are outstanding.
So, no, I didn't love it. Yes, I thought it was pretty good. And I hope there's no fourth movie in this franchise. Let it lay for a while until some new Chris Nolan comes along and sees the Spider-Man story in a whole new fresh way.
More Spider-Man babbling, as you might imagine, to come...
Labels: Entertainment
Permalink -- Posted by Darrell at 20:34 
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Darrell, you ignorant slut. ;)
SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERS
I'm going to need a team of nerds to draw some venn diagrams and help me navigate your better than/worse than paragraph. Some of what I gleaned from that gibberish damaged your credibility. X3 was BETTER than X2?! Ang Lee's Hulk was GOOD?(OK, maybe after the Ed Norton/Liv Tyler reboot I might think differently, but come on....overacting Nick Nolte...Gamma Dogs....Green Balloon Hulk...) Anyway, those are other debates.
I can't wait to read your more detailed review. All kidding aside, I suspect you and I share the same criticisms, and while I didn't hate the movie for it, you didn't love it. Your assessment isn't as extreme as some of the diehard fanboys I've read likening it to Batman & Robin or Catwoman. I think that's ridiculous. I will say near the end, I was getting a B&R vibe, from one villain approaching another to a hero making a George Clooney-esque appeal to an enemy for help. It teetered on the brink of Schumacher, but didn't go over, in my book.
The train sequence in SM2 was good, but a lot of the action was on par if not superior. I loved the first fight with Sandman when he knocks him out of the truck and he's surfing on the door. Loved the fight in the sewers. I winced every time any character was slammed into anything, and held my breath a few times as Spidey was diving through debris after Gwen. I thought the film held together well until the last twenty minutes or so. You say you don't want a fourth; I say Venom should have been left out of this one and saved for a fourth. The movie needed another half hour to flesh out Eddie as the symbiote's host, maybe have him speaking in plural pronouns. My BIGGEST pet peeve overall is this need to have actors unmask every five minutes. I'm sure the Venom face looked awesome; I'll have to slow down the DVD to see that though the way they kept pulling back to show Topher's face. Same with Tobey Maguire; Peter was taking off his mask voluntarily or having it damaged to the point of being useless every five minutes. I know the actors probably have something in their contract where we have to see their faces, but it defies comic book secret identity logic.
My other pet peeve was "Alfred". If the butler knew all along what went down, he might have saved them all some Shakespearean angst and clued Harry in a lot sooner. Other than that, I liked Harry's character arc in this one and while many criticized the amnesia subplot, I vivdly remember that story lasting over a DECADE in the comics. Harry forgot about Spider-man and the Goblin, got off drugs, married Liz, had a son, and rented his upstairs loft to Pete and MJ after they got married. Even when he remembered being the Goblin during the Inferno storyline, it was still an additional year or two before he remembered who Peter really was. Harry had a tragic end in the comics, lacking redemption.
I really liked Flint Marko's tale too and they pulled off the "uncle's real killer" better than I expected. You really feel bad for Haden Church and he says so much with his droopy dawg expression. If they didn't cram in Brock and the Stacys, we might have had more of that. As for Gwen, while Bryce brought her to life, any random girl could have filled the role of Emo Pete's rebound/make MJ jealous chick. Felicia Hardy would have made the most sense, but explaining Black Cat would have added too much as well. The Saturday Night Fever bit cracked me up no end and I loved the parallel with the second movie. Even suave he's a dork, just uninhibited and the women's looks of disgust were priceless.
And Bruce Campbell is the ^%$^#ing man.
I think with an extra half hour, or more focus on some characters over the rushed Venom, this film would have been as good as the second one if not better. I had fun, and I think I walked out of the theater more satisfied than you did in spite of its flaws.
SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERS
I'm going to need a team of nerds to draw some venn diagrams and help me navigate your better than/worse than paragraph. Some of what I gleaned from that gibberish damaged your credibility. X3 was BETTER than X2?! Ang Lee's Hulk was GOOD?(OK, maybe after the Ed Norton/Liv Tyler reboot I might think differently, but come on....overacting Nick Nolte...Gamma Dogs....Green Balloon Hulk...) Anyway, those are other debates.
I can't wait to read your more detailed review. All kidding aside, I suspect you and I share the same criticisms, and while I didn't hate the movie for it, you didn't love it. Your assessment isn't as extreme as some of the diehard fanboys I've read likening it to Batman & Robin or Catwoman. I think that's ridiculous. I will say near the end, I was getting a B&R vibe, from one villain approaching another to a hero making a George Clooney-esque appeal to an enemy for help. It teetered on the brink of Schumacher, but didn't go over, in my book.
The train sequence in SM2 was good, but a lot of the action was on par if not superior. I loved the first fight with Sandman when he knocks him out of the truck and he's surfing on the door. Loved the fight in the sewers. I winced every time any character was slammed into anything, and held my breath a few times as Spidey was diving through debris after Gwen. I thought the film held together well until the last twenty minutes or so. You say you don't want a fourth; I say Venom should have been left out of this one and saved for a fourth. The movie needed another half hour to flesh out Eddie as the symbiote's host, maybe have him speaking in plural pronouns. My BIGGEST pet peeve overall is this need to have actors unmask every five minutes. I'm sure the Venom face looked awesome; I'll have to slow down the DVD to see that though the way they kept pulling back to show Topher's face. Same with Tobey Maguire; Peter was taking off his mask voluntarily or having it damaged to the point of being useless every five minutes. I know the actors probably have something in their contract where we have to see their faces, but it defies comic book secret identity logic.
My other pet peeve was "Alfred". If the butler knew all along what went down, he might have saved them all some Shakespearean angst and clued Harry in a lot sooner. Other than that, I liked Harry's character arc in this one and while many criticized the amnesia subplot, I vivdly remember that story lasting over a DECADE in the comics. Harry forgot about Spider-man and the Goblin, got off drugs, married Liz, had a son, and rented his upstairs loft to Pete and MJ after they got married. Even when he remembered being the Goblin during the Inferno storyline, it was still an additional year or two before he remembered who Peter really was. Harry had a tragic end in the comics, lacking redemption.
I really liked Flint Marko's tale too and they pulled off the "uncle's real killer" better than I expected. You really feel bad for Haden Church and he says so much with his droopy dawg expression. If they didn't cram in Brock and the Stacys, we might have had more of that. As for Gwen, while Bryce brought her to life, any random girl could have filled the role of Emo Pete's rebound/make MJ jealous chick. Felicia Hardy would have made the most sense, but explaining Black Cat would have added too much as well. The Saturday Night Fever bit cracked me up no end and I loved the parallel with the second movie. Even suave he's a dork, just uninhibited and the women's looks of disgust were priceless.
And Bruce Campbell is the ^%$^#ing man.
I think with an extra half hour, or more focus on some characters over the rushed Venom, this film would have been as good as the second one if not better. I had fun, and I think I walked out of the theater more satisfied than you did in spite of its flaws.
An extra half hour!? Are you serious man? I mean I loved this film warts and all, but it was long enough.
I agree that gettign rid of/saving Venom for SM:4 (and there will be a fourth with that much money flowing in) would have been a great idea.
And Ang Lee's Hulk is easily up there in terms of one of the best comic book adaptations made.
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I agree that gettign rid of/saving Venom for SM:4 (and there will be a fourth with that much money flowing in) would have been a great idea.
And Ang Lee's Hulk is easily up there in terms of one of the best comic book adaptations made.
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