Spider-Man (contains spoilers, unsurprisingly)

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... that's probably enough.


Well, the England-Denmark game was won before half-time, so we
went off to see "Spider-Man" instead. I wasn't much keen, finding
comic-book films generally range from the mediocrity of "Superman"
to the direness of "X-Men". But Rachael wanted to see it, so
we did.

When I first got into this sort of genre, I found some of them
a bit, well, bland. "Superman" in particular was not my thing,
and it was the more gritty "Spider-Man" that got my attention.
(That and "The Incredible Hulk", which never got more than a
terribly cheesy TV series to its name, and "Thor", who didn't
get even that.) I was more a "2000AD" person, I'm afraid.
Not that I liked "Judge Dredd" any better. He took off his
helmet. What was that all about? But I digress. Having
seen the many film-adaptations of the genre, I really
didn't expect very much of Spidey.

Well, I was wrong. Perhaps it is because Stan Lee was involved
right from the start, but the original grittiness has come
through. (As Executive Producer, he'll have been part
of the deal to finance it, and you all know the saw
about paying the pipers and calling the tunes.) As
you've all seen in the trailers, this is "not Superman",
and the character is a real person with real worries and
real emotions, thrown into the bizarre position of being
a superhero by the bite of a genetically modified (not
radioactive) spider. It is fun to see him discovering
his super-powers, doing the "hey wow" bit of playing with
it, and noticeably getting better at what he does as the
film progresses. This draws us into sympathy with the
main character (played by Tobey Maguire, who plays the
same sort of "hey wow" in "Pleasantville") and keeps the
whole film earthed in a way that "Superman" or "Judge
Dredd" never were.

Well, every superhero needs a supervillain, and Spideys
is the Green Goblin, played by William Dafoe (he of
"Existenz" and many other things). The part is well
played in a sort of "Jekyll and Hyde" way, with a
mirror scene that is particularly purple. It's marvellous
stuff (if you'll excuse the pun.)

The plot is pretty formulaic, of course, but that's to
be expected. The action is, well, big and expensive, which
is also to be expected. The thing that makes this good is
the characterisation, and the empathy that this gives us
for the lives of these ordinary people caught up in these
odd roles.

One more thing - the violence. It says "rated 12 for
strong depictions of fantasy violence". Well, the
original was violent, but translating that violence from
the four-colour page to the immediacy of the silver screen
make for something pretty hard-hitting. This is not a
children's film.

I think I'd describe it as the best I've seen of the
four-colour to film genre. But then I always had a
soft spot for Spidey.

simon@ wrote:
[...]
30 is probably more than enough... particularly considering it didn't
seem to contain any particularly bad spoilers anyway! :-)

---

Nick Waterman. Senior Systems Administrator, Research In Motion
mailto:sig@ http://noseynick.com/ http://www.rim.net/
AX25:G7RZQ@#32.GBR.EU #include <stddisclaimer> Team *AMIGA*!
I drink to make other people interesting. -- George Jean Nathan

Out of interest Simon have you (or anyone else) read any of the JMS scribed
Spidermen ?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Philip Ayres
payres@
www.netcomuk.co.uk/~payres
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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[snip]

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... that's probably enough.


I liked it. The plot is so contrived and corny that you can ignore it and
concentrate on all the cool bits. And eh, a geek gets superpowers, that's
always cool. :>

Hmm, I don't really have any spoilers either. Oh no, wait - it turns out
that Peter Parker IS Spiderman...


George-rah

Ahh, but Thor DID get an incredibly cheesy film!
(Er, WITH the Hulk, if I remember correctly....)
Well, if you're arrested, you don't have an option.
It's true to the setting, if not true to the intent of the original authors.
You can't criticise it on consistency or internal logic.

Dominic

On Mon, 17 June 2002, "Dominic Thomas" wrote
Please tell me more. :-)
I'm not criticising it on consistency or internal logic.
My objection is more like "true to the intent of the original
authors."

One of the failings of many of the translations from four-colour
to large or small screen is that the original character is lost.
Sometimes that is a necessity - imagine for a mad minute a film
based on "Preacher", for instance - but even if it is necessary,
to me that is a reason not to make the film, rather than an excuse
for making a film which contains characters with the same name
as the ones in the original, but bears no other resemblance.

My original reluctance to see "Spider-Man" was based on the fact
that I have suffered too many failed attempts to translate
the medium. The last one I saw was "X-Men". 'Nuff said.

At this point, I should mention that Hulk is being made at the moment -
slated for a June / July 2003 release... Fan maintained news site here:
http://www.hulkmovie.com/

---

Adrian, etc...

Scarily, it appears that it did, but since I wasn't actually born at the
time, I have a valid excuse.
(Simon, on the other hand...)

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0156221 It's a 1967 animation....
Ahh. Looks like he only co-starred with the green one.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0095368 The Incredible Hulk Returns.
Well, the rest of the setting seemed damn close to the intent of the
original authors, so I let them off.
A comic I never read, although I am reasonably aware of it. I've browsed a
few issues on occasion.
If there's anyone can lend me a set, I'd be quite appreciative.
No, not really.
Remember, I was a HUGE, and largely Marvel-oriented superhero fan as a kid.
I bought a fair few DC comics, and one or two 2000ADs, but I devotedly
followed the UK Spider-Man strip for a long long time, and it always had
guest strips in it - Avengers, Thor, Hulk, Fantastic 4, etc. etc. Including
X-Men. (In later years, I collected quite a few Kazaars as well. Never have
I seen a mainstream superhero have more sex...)

Whilst there were some changes from the comics for the X-Men movie, I must
say I thought it had the overall effect that was close enough. Did you
really want Wolverine in yellow spandex?

I wasn't a massive X-Men fan, but I certainly read a few - what were your
problems with it? How did it let you down?

Dominic

On 2002.06.15 16:59 simon@ wrote:
I can't be the only one who remembers Dredd taking his helmet
off in 2000AD? Of course in the comic it was as tastfully done as
a nude scene in a Freeserve advert.....


Darren