Spider-man 2-II: The return of the topic (spoilers)
 

I watched Spider-man 2 today. "Wow, already?", you'll say, not realizing it only opened today in Sweden.

So I went here to vent the wow-ness, found a nice thread on the topic, read it through and through, found some interesting points to adress, and then it turns out the thread was closed. Whatcha gonna do except start a new one?

Why do you close threads that get long anyway? :confused:

1. In the comic, MJ found out the secret in the very first issue, even if the reader doesn't see it. You could say she knows it from the very first step, as she sees him coming out the window when he first takes the suit on with heroic intent. (To catch Ben's killer.)

2. I LOVED Doc Ock. He's never been very interesting in the comic, but the movie put him in a whole new light: Watching him walk when he's just put on the arms and leaning to compensate from the weight alone was priceless. Anchoring an arm to get leverage (well most of the time anyway :)), seeing through their eyes, these things I'd never given a single thought. And the way the street shook when he took a step, the arms being insulated, polarised, heat resistant and everything, the little gadgets in each arm - like the hostage-holder - and even the triangularish shape of the arms, I loved every detail about him.

Yeah, character-wise too. He's always had those moments balancing between psychosis and brilliance, the arms talking to him just made it more visual. I found myself wondering What They Want. The arms seem to act on animal instinct, on some sort of Freudian superego-trip, but in a very articulate way. Putting your own interests over those of others is a simple thing, but those interests include building a fusion reactor. . .

3. The pseudo-science <i>felt</i> real, no matter what the nitpickers may say. Magnetic shields can be used to contain any amount of heat, as far as I know, and I loved the shorthanded talk of harmonic resonances in atoms: In my opinion, you can do just about anything with harmonic resonance if applied correctly. I'm a big fan of string theory.

4. I never noticed any lack of action. The drama was a little Dawson's creek-y at times, but I'm not saying that's a bad thing. People talking articulately about their feelings is cool IMDO. The closer we get to the characters, the more I forget it's just a movie. Which is always good.

I was enormously annoyed by the way Peter didn't talk. Spill it, man, at least say SOMEthing, I couldn't make that kind of industrial strength uncomfortable silence even if I tried. And how did he go for TWO YEARS not telling May how Ben died?

5. It seems Spidey is awfully weak compared to the comic, or he doesn't have any idea how to hit people, or he was incridibly rushed to score a hit on Octopus due to tenctacles lashing left and right. Maybe a little bit of everything.

6. Future prospects? I sure hope that thin blonde girl was Gwen Stacey; people say she looks awful but I can't see it. She seemed to flicker between "broken" and "adorably crazy" and I couldn't tell you which I like more. Whoever she is I want to see more of her.

Heh, when that wall fell down I was <i>sure</i> Mary Jane would die. My heart nearly stopped. I hope they don't get married, it nearly broke the comic before they realized it doesn't work.

7. A few random things I like that also apply to the first movie: Spidey not stopping the robber for the cause of revenge adds more sweet, sweet guilt. Web swinging scenes. Alex Ross' art. JJJ - he's a colder son of a bitch than fucking Bob Kelso. Web glands, much more plausible than high school science. Spidey consciousy denying himself having a life, just so amazingly heroic.

Better stop ranting while I'm still making a shadow of sense. . . oh right, this comic describes my overall opinion of the movie perfectly. :)

Bob Kelso (from Scrubs) is way more of a jackhole than JJ. Kelso would have everyone in that newspaper fired, JJ is just demanding and doesn't realize what he's doing.

Also, now that the tentacle hostage taker thing was mentioned, what possible use could a mettalic rope be for fusion?

I guess it's just that they realized the arms were generally too unwieldy to wrap smoothly around a hostage and added it late in the design stage. :)

Movie-ally speaking, it's probably just one of those swiss army knife things, it may be good to have once in a while. Another thing I like about Doc Ock is his allroundedness, he can tackle just about any situation, any opponent, any surface and anything. (Climbing around, he looks more like a spider than Spider-man, heh.) He's the Hydralisk of Marvel universe. ^_^

Oh yeah, and Kelso is evil and mean and he loves watching people in pain, but J Jonah Jameson, in the movie anyway, is absolutely emotionless. He loves disasters just because they sell papers. He's so cold it scares me. I laugh just so I won't cry or throw up, it's a defensive reflex.

The part where peter gets his spider suit back from JJJ' s office just as JJJ was admitting Spider Man really was a hero was so funny. Spiderman' s a Menace!!!

Jee-miny, no offense, but do any of you kids ever actually read the rules until we tell you to? :P Here.

It's funny that you mention that, because Brian's great idea was replacing Spidey's doctor with Dr. Cox. "Aw, does oo widdle superhewwo have a cough? Here's a lollipop -- now why don't you get the hell out of my office so the people with real problems can be treated?"

Nope. Name's Ursula. I like how she looks too, although that shot of her hipbones makes me wince every time. Peter, give her your slice of cake, she needs it more than you do! It's too bad she's American and 25, she'd be a really great Luna Lovegood for the Harry Potter flicks.

Edited to add: anyone who enjoys the Spidey-Jameson conflict is very much urged to go find the new She-Hulk #4. She-Hulk is an attorney by day -- seriously -- and she and her co-worker Pug think that maybe they've found a way for Spider-man to get the best of Jameson once and for all: a lawsuit. The art is gorgeous -- the take on Spidey's hands in particular is unique, along with the painterly style of coloring -- and the writing's pretty funny and charming.

Heck no. We go "Scroll, scroll, scroll, where do I sign? Ah there's the checkbox. Huh? A whole forum for rules? Now I can't see it. . . must've read it wrong."

Most of it's inituitive, but this thing. . . oh well, I'll look at the link. 9_9

Aaaaalright. It doesn't officially open here until tomorrow, but there was a preview tonight from which yours truly has just now come home. Firstly I'll vent my anger though...

There was waaay to much in it we've already seen in the first one. Highly scientific experiment gone wrong? Check. Villain constantly struggling with an "evil" part of his conscience? Check. Identity crisis? Check. Okay, maybe not that much, but you get my point...

As has been pointed out, there was too much talk; nothing wrong with that as long as the dialogue is interesting, but this... no. Most of it struck me as a row of hollow phrases, to be perfectly honest.

A thing I didn't like in the fist movie already was how the citizens cheer for Spidey... then again, I realize that's hardly the movie's fault, since Spiderman is kinda the city's hero from what I recall and certainly no dark and brooding hero like Wolverine or Batman... but it still irked me.

And: Bank scene. It started out very good, but from the point on where the Doc captured Aunt May, the scene went downhill. Comic book movie or not, I will under no circumstances believe that Aunt May can hold on to her umbrella that friggin' long, and her sliding off just to land on a ledge was just stupid.

But now for all the goodness. The actors were fantastic, especially Alfred Molina, who made the whole thing worthwhile again. The train fight scene was absolutely mindblowing. Two minor scenes I really liked were the elevator scene (best dialogue ever) and the Evil Dead reference. That made me chuckle... as the only one in the theater, but I'm used to that.

Strangely, I can't think of anything more. That doesn't mean I loathed the movie, now, in fact I rather enjoyed it (even if it doesn't show in my post) and it's a rather OK popcorn movie, but for my taste there wasn't enough to keep me with it.

To summarize: I was entertained and don't regret having spent my money for this, but it has very little review value in my book. To be a really good movie it too much tries to drive its point home with a hammer, if you know what I mean. And overall, I couldn't shake off the impression that the Spiderman movie franchise is currently degrading into batmanandrobinness very fast. I don't think I'll be watching another installment... unless they include Venom. I want to see what modern CGI makes of that.

Just one man's opinion.

EDIT: What in the heck was up with all the scream shots anyway?

'Twas great.

Now for a wee game...

Who knows which character was Bruce Campell (Star of the cult classic Evil Dead series)

FOR BONUS POINTS:

Who was he in the first Spider-man?

In SP1 he was the ring announcer, in SP2 he was the usher/doorman.

And is that the only Evil Dead reference meister was talking about or did I miss something else?

That's way too easy. Bruce Cambell was the annoying usher at the play. In the first movie he was the announcer at the wrestling match.