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Spider-man 2
The young mind is an amazing thing, so
quick to pick up on new tasks and ideas, so open to the
world and curious. Because the young mind does soak up
every bit of everything. Most young people have a
defining moment in their early years. A moment that
effects them for the rest of their lives. A moment that
plays a role in who they are, what they do, and even who
they become. For those of my generation, the 80's, that
moment often came from television or movies. In fact
most of my contemporaries look to the Star Wars
trilogy for that moment. It makes sense, those movies
introduced romance to the young mind along with the
wonders of what could be. The wonders of adventure and
good versus evil and defending what was right. They are
exhilarating. As you may have guessed I loved those
movies too.
But, my defining moment came before those films, it came
for me standing near the candy display in J.P. Brown
Drugstore, or maybe in the back seat of my Grandmother's
70 something LTD driving away from a yard sale. For me
it came in the form of comic books. I used to get a
little money from chores and buy them at that drugstore,
or my grandmother would buy them for me at a yard sale
to ease the pain of rolling me out of bed at 5:30 in the
morning so she could be the first to peruse the
selection of carnival glass or home interior at her
neighbor's yard sale. I went to great lengths to
focus on each panel to really take in the action, reading the earth shattering
bit of text in the bubble above the brightly clad
villains head. I had to see what sort of threat he
was offering up to my hero this month.
My comic of choice in the early days was The Avengers,
those guys just kicked much ass. Plus Captain America,
who was the leader of The Avengers, taught me
about the really bad guys, the Nazis, and about
Patriotism and about doing the right thing. But when I
got just a little bit older I really began to appreciate
The Amazing Spider-man. He was clumsy, he wasn't
popular, he had a hard time in his real life as Peter
Parker, high school and later college student. But when
he threw on the red and blue tights he was a god among
men. I identified with him, I wanted to be that heroic
side of him, I pretty much had Peter Parker covered. He
made me believe you could be more than what people think
you can be. He also introduced me to romance, first
with Gwen Stacy, then with Mary Jane Watson. He liked
Mary Jane but he was
invisible to her. When she finally came around, he
couldn't be with her because he feared what might happen
to her, what did happen to Gwen, being so close to Spider-man.
This was the first and one of very few
comics that I didn't get bored reading when there was no
bad guy getting pulverized for a page or two. The battle
between good and evil was of course told in an
unbelievable over the top campy sort of way, but the
character stories were told more subtly, more
realistically. I loved this character so much when I was
young that I watched The Electric Company from
beginning to end waiting for Spider-man to appear and hand out a beat down for 30 seconds.
I never forgot those comics even when I got older and
stopped reading them. Those stories always stayed with
me.
When the first Spider-man movie was announced I
was elated. I had actually picked up a few comic
book titles after many many years of not reading them
because the companies came to the realization that kids
weren't reading comic books anymore. They were playing
video games. So they let the writers create stories that
an older generation could identify with. I of course
went back to The Amazing Spider-man, oh and
The Avengers too. When that first Spider-man
movie hit theaters I wasn't disappointed. Yes they made
changes to the story to make it play cinematically, but
they were intelligent changes. I knew that this film
would be my least favorite of the franchise, unless
something horrible happened with the sequels, because I already knew
Spider-man's back-story, I wanted to move on. I
wanted to say "screw the mainstream audience and giving
them his back-story, make 'em go read a comic book!" But
of course we can't do that.
So, now we are finally getting to it, if you've managed
to get this far. Now we're talkin' Spider-man 2.
Everybody well knows the story of Peter Parker and his
transition to Spider-man, the loss of his Uncle
at his own hands, and his unrequited love for Mary Jane.
So where would they take the story in the sequel? Mary
Jane has begun her career as an actress and a model. She
is still dealing with her troubled family life but she
is a woman now, and she's stronger. She doesn't hold
back what she thinks or feels. Peter Parker still loves
her from a distance. He is selling pictures of
Spider-man to the Daily Bugle and working another
side job to pay his bills and stay in school. But he is
struggling, the more good he does as Spider-man,
the worse his life as Peter Parker gets. Mary Jane has
given up waiting for him and gotten engaged. Oh yeah and a
new villain, Dr. Otto Octavius has emerged. Due to an
accident he has had four mechanical limbs permanently
attached to his body. So J.J. Jamison at The Daily Bugle
dubs him Dr. Octopus. Oh and Harry Osborne still blames
Spider-man for the death of his father, and he
wants revenge. That's all I'm saying about the plot
specifically because I hate when other reviewers give to
much away.
What I will say is that the filmmakers have created the
perfect mesh of an action adventure story and a
romance all in one film. The action
is exhilarating, the highs are amazing, the lows are
real and sad, the passion and chemistry is dead on and
engrossing, and the humor is very well executed. Both
the romance and the action play off one another
influencing each other, and making Peter Parker who he
is. They've
recreated the best of the comic book in look and story
without winking at the audience with "hey this is a
comic book movie" the way that The Hulk did. I
looked around and saw girls crying and men sitting on
the edge of their seats, and drinking harshly on their
sodas in that man's way of choking back a tear. The
movie isn't a tear jerker don't get me wrong. It's just
real, along with a guy swinging from a web and climbing
buildings. Spider-man 2 offers something for
everyone. Everything a fan of the comic book wants is
there. Everything a fan of summer blockbusters is there.
Everything someone looking for a powerful heart
wrenching romance and drama is also there. It's all done
expertly, and perfectly mixed. The acting is Oscar
caliber across the board, except for James Franco, who
is good but really outclassed by nearly everyone around
him.. The chemistry between Tobey Maguire and Kirstin
Dunst is, for lack of a better word authentic. I
believed every amazingly well shot and executed subtle
little facial expression and every word they said to
each other. Choosing Alfred Molina for Doc Ock is
inspired, he is an amazing character actor, a chameleon
who becomes the character. Watching him struggle with
his inner demons was utterly believable, and this is an
amazing statement considering he had four metal
appendages that worked like additional arms.
At the end of the film I looked around at my friends,
most of whom are several years younger than I, and saw
that they really enjoyed the film. But they almost
immediately started to quote funny lines or discuss
amazing action sequences. They didn't seem to be as
affected by it as I, but as I said they are younger. But
me, I had to stop and take some big gulps of my soda to
choke back a very masculine man tear. Not just because
of the amazing events these two characters, Peter Parker
and Mary Jane, had been through, although that would be
reason enough. But because this film made me feel the
same way now that I did over 25 years ago when I picked
up my first Spidey Comic.
Nuff Said
10/10
-Stephen Lackey
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