Spider-Man 2
I'll just come right out and say that it was merely and OK movie. I really wanted to just go see a fun comic book flick and I ended up moaning over technicalities the whole time.
First of all, I want the guy/girl who edited this to never work in Hollywood again. It was absolutely horrible. Numerous times we were forced to watch a repetitive action that could have been cut down to a fraction of the time it was spent on screen. I mean, I get that Peter Parker is clumsy and that there are mops in the closet. I don't need a full minute of it for me to get that point. I also understand what an uncomfortable silence is without needing an unnecessarily long time to reinforce this point after the dialog was finished. I don't know how many scenes there were like this offhand, but there were enough that just pissed me off and ruin the flow of the movie. And the Mary Tyler Moore bit was stupid and again, unnecessarily long.
The CGI was ok, but I expected a little bit better effects than the first movie. There's something about the way the CGI looks in both Spider-Man movies that bothers me a little. And I've noticed it in some other movies, too. I refer to it as the "Spider-Man effect" I swear I can tell any movie that uses the same graphics house that they use for the Spider-Man films because it just has a funky plastic-y look to everything. Normally stuff like that doesn't bother me, but it's like when you first notice the boxes around the ships when watching the original Star Wars trilogy. After you get it pointed out and take notice of it, you can't keep from seeing it from then on out.
The dialog itself was pretty horrible. I could tell in a few scenes that the actors had to fight though chunky lines that just didn't flow or sound natural. Maybe the pauses in between lines weren't right, I don't know...it was crappy.
As for the good, well...I guess the special effects were pretty cool, but there really wasn't much until the second half of the film. The first half started reminding me of The Matrix Reloaded with all talk and no action. I mean, we all know who Spider-Man is now, we don't need to flesh out the damn characters. I want to see some Good vs. Evil action! Lots of explosions and stuff. With that said, this movie is a lot less action and a lot more "chick flick". Normally I don't mind this, but not when it's done out of place. This is a Spider-Man movie, not Beaches for crying out loud.
Ok, so this is more of a rant than a review, but I was let down. So, in our non-standardized rating system, I give Spider-Man 2 a 3 out of 5 shiny bottlecaps.
Oh yeah. Watch for Bruce Campbell and the Evil Dead references; the best parts of the movie (ok..next to Doc Oc).
2 Comments:
Tam gave me a summary of your review before the movie. Somehow it further fortified my suspension of belief and I really enjoyed this movie. Only astute enough to catch really bad editing, so whatever was there was replaced by appreciation for cool camera work (zooming in by step, and other horror anticipation stuff.) My buildup of watching Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness and Bubba Ho Tep also probably helped.
Tam has a lot to say on her dubbed "Fay Ray" affect, which I'm hoping she'll get too soon.
Doc Oc. was remarkable. I did want to keep shouting DIEGO!!!, and today Fark reminded me that that movie was called "Frida". There's a movie where Selma gets to be homely.
Storyline was necessary and somethigns could've shortened (but when would I refil my cheap-o free refills kiddy popcorn/drink pack? ;0), now they'll have room for action in the next one. It better be much more than that green tied goblin though. I don't need much more of him, even if is the black goblin/hobgobling true to the comic book (more Tam reference.) I saw bring on a disenfranchised evil lacky-no-more Robin. Wipe him out in the first 20 minutes then move onto foreign soil, where we're comfortable with war. Which brings me to: Abe, did you review F9/11?
I really liked it.
Mostly because it didn't stay in Supermode the whole time. That puts me to sleep unless the graphics, etc are incredible.
The humor, the physical comedy, those little moments of self realization were mixed up well, I thought. It made up for stuff like the 'Fay Wray' effect (my own coinage), Kristen Dunst's acting, silly action sequences.
When I say the Fay Wray effect I'm thinking about a classic horror/action adage which says that women must start out in dresses with a little cleaveage and end soaking wet with one huge rip up the thigh and various other well placed tears. This happens a few times in the movie (once during the subway scene) and always makes me roll my eyes...especially when Kristen Dunst didn't get wet during the whole scene but still remains seductively dripping.
And I admit it, I like Alfred Molina. They didn't give him enough time to be tormented (IMO) but he was great.
Evil Dead stuff was cool. We laughed through the hospital/chainsaw scene.
I was pleasantly surprised about Harry's change from rebellious college student to smooth business man. It was surprisingly believable. Kudos to the James Dean lookalike. Let's hope he can pull off Hobgoblin/GreenGoblin in the next movie and that having two villians (will the Professor become the Lizard?) not be too much like previous Batman disasters.
4 out of 5...I would see it again.
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