| |
|
OK, I finally saw this. And really loved it.
Let me chime in on many things people are discussing here.
1) >> Loved how once [Aunt May] had her quiet realization when she heard Spidey yell, she decided to hit Doc Ock upside the head.
Anyone else get the sense that May recognized Peter's voice when he saved her and knows he's Spidey? I felt a subtext in her 'we need heroes' speech -- I saw a glint in her eye that she knows, or has a strong suspicion, and isn't telling.
2) I too found my eyes welling up with tears for most of the movie - partly at the touching scenes, partly cause of the thing when you cry cause you're just so happy that something you're watching is so good!
3) The cute but too-thin blonde next door and her cake scene: I don't think this is intended to be Gwen at all (but I can see why people think she might be a nod to her), but I think her and the cake scene is (as an earlier poster mentioned) about someone appreciating Peter, just 'getting' him and being there to support him. A nice simple, normal moment amidst the chaos of his life, with someone who likes him and appreciates him.
And I think she was also there - along with the cute giggling girls on the street checking Peter out during the 'happy Peter/Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' sequence - to show that women dig Peter despite his geekiness, and he's sort of oblivious to that (as a previous poster also already mentioned). I think it was also to show that although MJ is the one for him, there are others who see something special in him in some small way.
3) Is the "Mr. Jackson across the street" you're mentioning the Hungarian or whatever angry landlord who's always demanding rent? I didn't get a sense that he was supposed to be someone from the comics.
4) I thought Jameson's sudden change of heart that Spidey is a hero and he did a bad thing by driving him away -- but then back to angry Spidey-hating Jameson when Spidey snatched his costume back moments later-- was a bit campy and silly. But still ok, I guess, though I feel it could have been played/directly SLIGHTLY more sincerely.
Anyone else feel like the shots showing Spidey's costume tacked up on the wall looked kind of....odd? Like the bare wall and the way the shot was framed just seemed like it stucked out somehow from the other shots in that office? And it also seemed a little campy/silly that Spidey's web snatches the costume away in like a SPLIT-SECOND and the people in the room don't even seem to see the web? again, a little much, but still ok, I guess.
5) I loved all the stuff with the tentacles, especially how they were so serpent-like. The final shot of dead Doc Ock in the water and the tentacles' lights slowly going out was really beautiful.
6) >> - When the train passengers stand up to Doc Ock and summarily and literally pushed aside.
Although this was cool, part of me felt like "they did this bit where NYers say 'We'll stand up for Spidey and fight the villain' in the first one. But this time, they had a lot more reason to protect Spidey - he just saved all their lives. I just wish the moment wasn't played so similarly to the first movie when a big Italian/Brooklyn looking guy says "You'll have to go through me". I would've much preferred shell-shocked passengers saying "That guy just saved our lives... we won't let you have him" with frazzled determination, rather than doing the whole tired "You pick on one NYer, you pick on ALL of us" thing the first movie did. I nitpick, I know, but this is something I thought of.
7) I did feel there were a few moments where things weren't as clear or sharp as they could be. Amidst a really nice scene, we have a clunker line like Peter's "Punch me and I bleed!!", which just came off odd to me. I know the reference and all that, but I just felt a better line could have taken its place.
8) Anyone else feel like Peter's confession to Aunt May that he let the burglar go who killed Uncle Ben (which is a BRILLIANT IDEA, by the way - I don't think this has ever been done in the comics, even with JMS' recent "Aunt May knows he's Spidey" move) was a little weird or vague? But we...and Aunt May...got it. Anyone else also want Aunt May to say a *tiny* bit more about why Peter shouldn't blame himself for Ben's death, especially considering the bomb Peter dropped earlier?
9) Also nit-picky, I know, but I loved the "Spider-Man...no more!" voice-over as we see the mask in the trailers so much that I wanted to see the same thing in the movie: the voice-over as we see Peter walking away in the alley, mask in trash in the foreground. Maybe cause it felt like in the trailer, you're looking at a living Amazing Spider-Man comic book cover.
10) >> There were some goofy 'thought bubble' monologues Peter and Harry kept doing to no one in particular that bothered me
Although I love James Franco (in FREAKS & GEEKS and the Spidey films), part of me felt that his "I'm ruined... it's Spider-Man's fault" speech as they come out of the blown-up lab wasn't up to the usual acting greatness he gives us. It felt a little over-the-top. I LOVED Willem DaFoe's cameo - he shows us that you can be a maniac and still be so committed as an actor that it doesn't come off campy - in fact, he comes off fucking scary.
Oh, and how cool is it how Harry/Franco calls Spidey (with utter venom and contempt) "the bug"? I don't recall ever hearing this epithet used for Spidey in the comics.
11) Loved the Alex Ross opening "Previously in Spider-Man..." sequence. So cool that they used him, after they rejected his costume designs for the first movie (and they of course picked the right costume - Ross' tried to movie-fy his costume, instead they just did his costume as it is in the comics; a bold move considering movies usually modify the costumes quite a bit).
12) Elevator scene was classic Spidey. It reminded me of a comics scene where Spidey runs out of web fluid and has to take a cab from NYC back into Queens. Or a scene where he's in Queens and there are no buildings above 3 stories for him to swing on, so he's gotta take a cab. (Or maybe those are both the same scene I'm mis-remembering) 
13) I agree, Doc Ock's speech about not understanding T.S. Elliot was brilliant. Molina played Octavius so well, never going too over-the-top. His scene with Peter as he reasserts control over the arms and agrees to defuse the reaction is really class.
(although Peter seemed to be unmasking/getting unmasked left and right in this movie, every time was for a good reason. With Ock, Peter takes his mask off because he knows he'll have a better chance of reaching the real Dr. Octavius' good side if he shows his face, since Ock feels all paternal towards him and really likes him. I also loved how in that scene, you're so caught up in Ock & Peter's exchange that you almost forget MJ is there - and suddenly we see MJ's reaction and you're like "Oh shit, that's right!! She's there and sees him!! Awesome!"
14) >> I wasn't feeling the whole carrying maskless Spider-Man until I "got it" when the one guy says he's no older than his own son. That's when I pert near lost it. I can't really think of any other sequence, maybe even in the comics, that so wordlessly captured what "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility" really means, and how much Peter really sacrifices for us shlubs.
YES YES YES YES YES!!!!
15) Anyone else want MJ to say "Face it, tiger, you just hit the jackpot" in their final scene together? Although maybe they rejected it cause it would have made MJ sound too egotistical (i.e. "I'm hot stuff, you're lucky you have me")...
Really nice that the shot of Spidey swinging away off into the sunset in the direction of the rescue copters is undercut by a shot back to worried MJ....leaves us with an ominous feeling (she's the wife waiting for the cop husband to come home, worried for his safety), and not the 'happy hero swings off into the sunset as we dazzle you with yet more improved CGI' final shot we all expected.
16) I just gotta say I love how it uses the bit from Spidey comics that whenever Spidey is going up against a crazed villain, he almost always pulls some huge electrical wires outta the walls (which are always there in some lab thingie) and fries the villain with 'em. Or that Spidey pulls the plug on various wires through grunting strength.
Anyone else think Peter holding up the wall to save MJ at the end was a nod to the famous (and now homaged by JMS twice in his Spidey run with John Romita Jr.) "Spidey holds up tons of machinery about to fall on him with furious effort & willpower to save those he loves" scene from the comics?
>> Is it just me, or is there something wonderful about the fact that Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi, both famed for low-budget horror movies (and, in my deluded moviegoer's romantic world, People Like Us), are now raking it in? It kind of negates EVERY TIME someone's looked at me like I'm a moron when I say Evil Dead is one of the greatest movies of all time.
Again, YES to this!!
>> I'm not liking that the villains are fucking dying at the end of each film. This isn't Batman for God's sake.
LOL!
OK, as for Harry: Sam Raimi has said that although they do seem to be setting that up [that Harry goes Hobgoblin], he said something like 'we don't want to go exactly where the audience thinks we're going with this.' (in a recent interview carried by Comics Continuum from the press junkets for Spidey 2).
So that means he doesn't want to be too predictable, and to me that means [I hereby make my official prediction, check in 2 years] that Harry will become the Hobgoblin, but 1/3 of the way into the movie, he will get easily defeated by Peter, leaving the rest of the movie to whoever the main villain is (kinda sucks if they can't use Venom, but there are certainly other great villains - Kraven, anyone?).
Think of it - Harry is a fuck-up and can never live up to his dad's expectations. So how appropriate would it be if he gets taken down by Spidey (or, even more humiliating, the regular police) his first time outta the gate in costume (which had damn well better be orange and silver/grey)?? This will make Harry even more fucked up and tortured. And although I love Franco, I don't really picture him having the presence to the MAIN villain for an entire movie. And this way they give us what we wanted but not really, and they also manage to have 2 villains in one movie without that formula sucking ass as it always has.
I really wonder how they'll handle the fact that Harry knows now, regardless of what they do with Harry's character.
And anyone else think it was interesting that Peter doesn't deny that he killed Harry's father, and Peter doesn't even try to defend himself (nothing like "Your dad had lost it, he tried to kill me, I was just defending myself") -- he just focuses on the task at hand, saving MJ, and leaves that discussion for later. Nice.
This could be the longest post I ever did on Barbelith. Sorry. |
|
|
