I was on another forum discussing the spider-Man movie and thought it would be interesting to share my thoughts here. I think it was always there in the back of mind but I was finally able to articulate it...
A buddy of mine, has a problem with both Spider-Man movies. He feels that the movies are to corny because of their optmism. He finds the concepts of love silly and any of the scenes where the New Yorker's help Spider-Man out are incomprehensible to him. I think he's just good will-deficient. It's kind of sad that people are so skeptic and cynical of human decency and if they aren't, that they, at the least, don't believe in the ideal of it.
I must say one of the things I've always enjoyed about the character, Spider-Man, is how he tries to live up to all these ideals. He's scared to let so many people down. And I think the first film (despites it's flaws) and the second film (in lieu of it's indisputable greatness ) captures all that so well. We find alot of the characters in the film try to hold on to ideals.
Harry tries to live up to his father's expectations/the somewhat warped ideal of Norman.
Mary Jane is in love with the ideal of a father figure.
Aunt May and Ben, both have this ideal of how society should work. And Peter has been taught those same beliefs and is forced to stick to them through a series of events.
Even Octavius has ideals on love and science.
I think Spidey 2, is a nice bookend to Michael Moore's Farenheit 911, because (i know, I know, but stick with me here) Moore shows us the alot of negatives of our country. How our ideals are being used against us by reckless politics. Moore has stated several times in interviews that he does not hate america, just the situation we are in and that he loves America for it's ideals and would like to see that realized. Spider-Man 2 shows us how important those ideals are, albeit in a fictional setting, but nonetheless it shows all these things.
1) how important responsibly weilding power is.
2) Allowing your ideals to not be corrupted by momentary weakness.
3) How important a promise is.
4) Believing that man can do good when chips are down.
All these ideals are interesting and, kinda fit our ideals of America. I know it's a bit extreme but I think the two do kind of fit together in that way.
what do you think? |
