Spiderman. Never that bothered about him to be honest. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever even owned a Spiderman comic, despite having been through a short-lived but quite intense Marvel buying period circa 1988-9 which I don’t like to talk about thanks very much. Sure, I know the whole mythos pretty well but more from unavoidable osmosis thanks to 15 years in comics than actually giving a damn.
So the word goes out amongst my comics mates that a trip it planned to the multiplex to go see Spiderman 2 and I figure what the hell. I’d noticed something of a positive vibe about the film emanating from areas of the web where I wouldn’t expect such a vibe, a general sense that normally rational, level-headed folks who, while geeky in some ways were not geeky in a Spiderman way, had enjoyed the film rather a lot. The word seemed to be that Sam Raimi, having gained the trust of the studio by not messing up the first one, had gone hell for leather and lived up to the promise of his Evil Dead and Darkman days. That alone I’d be interested in seeing.
You know where this is going…
Spiderman 2 is one of the best films I’ve ever seen. At this moment I’d say it’s the best film I’ve ever seen. I can’t remember a film having that kind of effect on me in the cinema. It absolutely blew me away. Raimi is at the height of his powers and completely at ease as he drags the audience willingly into this absurdly brilliant… Yes, the action scenes are spot on, taking the controlled madness of his early experiments with the shaky cam to new levels. But then he switches gears with these incongruous extended scenes where nothing happens, as if you’re suddenly in some continental art-house movie for five minutes, and it works. The film is utterly loyal to the comics, pretty much based on the original 60′s Lee and Ditko run if I’m not mistaken. Yet it’s not pretentiously overblown nor dragged down by fanboy baggage. It’s the perfect superhero movie, which is a minor achievement. What makes it incredible is that the perfect superhero movie is also the best film of the year if not of the decade, and it’s Spiderman 2. What were the odds?
Something interesting is going on in movie land. Peter Jackson (Brain Dead, Meet the Feebles) manages to take the turgid prose of Lord of the Rings and produce a 12 hour trilogy that not only pleases the tediously picky fans of said book but is also eminently watchable for people who really can’t deal with the whole elf thing. And now Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) does the same with Spiderman.
I mean, Spiderman! I’m ranting and grinning like a kid over a Spiderman movie! I’m urging my friends to go see a Spiderman movie, a sequel at that! I never thought I’d see the day…
It is good, isn’t it. I might go and see it again.
Yeah, it rocks the Kasbah. I’m aiming for my second trip tonight. The glad-to-be-geek section in the middle was just so funny …
Oh, and speaking of Evil Dead, a nice cameo from Bruce Campbell, too. It’s nice that they don’t forget their friends …
Bruce Campbell has been in every Sam Raimi film, though I didn’t click this time until it was pointed out to me – he’s bulked up a lot! That’s another paralel with Jackson – his key team on LotR is essentially his mates who he used to blow stuff up with as a kid.
Didn’t spot Bruce!?!??!!?!?!? I nearly died and went to heaven …
This happens to be quite a lot with cameos. If he’s walked up and done a “Hi, I’m Bruce Campbell and this is my cameo” type thing then I’d have got it, but because he just slotted in there perfectly I was rather swept along with it all.
I did spot Stan Lee’s half-second cameo in an instant, which makes my point rather well…
Oh well, you can strike me down with a thunderbolt if you want, but I didn’t like it as much as I’d hoped! All that stuff with MJ and Peter was sooo drawn out, to the point of irritation. His yearning to tell her who he really is, was all too predictable and like a bad episode of Eastenders.
Then there was that train sequence, where all the passengers started coming forward and saying “You’re gonna have to get through me first” etc.; it was so syrupy and cliched. (And who builds a railway track that stops hundreds of feet in the air and over-looking a river? That was all a bit too bugs bunny for me.)
Loved Doctor Octopus though, apart from the stupid idea of having a major (garbled nonsensical) scientific experiment in his front room. And J.Jonah Jameson was an absolute breath of fresh air. Bruce was ace too!
I know I’m being a miserable git, but I didn’t enjoy it half as much as XMen2 or even the Hulk! And I was really up for it too!
Maybe I’ll watch it again knowing how things resolved, and maybe I won’t be so irritated by the Peter/MJ thing.
MJ stuff: Didn’t bother me that much, but then I was lead to expect it to be awful and it’s wasn’t And I quite liked the way it was drawn out – so different to the mad action stuff.
Train: And then Doc Ock smushes them all to one side, grabs spidey and leaves. Magic.
As for the other stuff, it’s a fecking comic book superhero movie based on the works of Stan Lee. Of course it’s going be to unrealistic, cliched and implausible.
(Am I having this discussion? Eek…)
I’m afraid I wouldn’t go and see Spiderman 2 on the basis there are only 2 films I have almost walked out of, The Wedding Singer and Spiderman 1. And thats saying something as I am a BIG Sam Raimi fan.
Incidentally one definition of a geek must be anyone (like me) who managed to get every level of humour and irony intended in the superb Evil Dead joke in High Fidelity.
Subjectivity is an absolute fucker when you look at it. You can love one movie for all it’s comicbook sci-fi nonsense, and yet hate another film for exactly the same reasons. Sometimes I wonder if it has much to do with expectations; I go in with high expectations and come out disappointed, Pete goes in non-plussed with scant interest in the subject, and gets blown away.
I’ve had the same problem with other films; Batman Returns, Se7en: high expectations – but thought they were rubbish. Godzilla, Daredevil: low expectations – but thought they were great, but kept quiet in case people thought I was mad.
Mikal – risk it. I was pretty non-plussed with Spiderman 1 but this is in a different class. Pure Raimi with some Spiderman action on top.
Gary – could be right, but then I approach pretty much every movie with low expectations these days, especially the action bollockbusters, and usually come out with “hmm, that was nice”. Maybe it was the company I was in – I got the feeling the five of us were feeding off each other’s rising enjoyment. And we were sitting four rows from the front. I have a feeling it won’t be the same on DVD but right now it’s done the job.
I’ll worry about that when I know who you are. (I’m guessing Trucker Pete?) ;)
this is really cool!!!