Movie of the Week: Spiderman 2
May. 17th, 2014 04:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceyWhat a mess! More precisely what a storytelling mess!
With Spiderman 3 and 4 already on the stocks this doesn't even have the excuse of being the middle film in a trilogy, but there are storytelling strands unravelling all over the place like an old cardigan.
Amongst other things Spidey toughs it out with Electro, (Jamie Foxx) whose near fatal dip with a tank full of electric eels not only manages to electrify him, but also manages to fix the gap in his front teeth. The Rhino (Paul Giamatti) seems to have been thrown in as an afterthought. There's a real mishmash encompassing Peter's relationship with Gwen, his friendship with Harry Osborn, his discovery of what his dad had been up to, Norman Osborne's mad plans and, apparently, we still have the whole Mary Jane saga to come (in Spidey 3 and 4). At one point Peter finds his Dad's secret workplace/hideout and we discover that his dad's last desperate message, a message he'd managed to heroically and dramatically send in the movie opening (while in the process of seeing his wife killed and being murdered himself), actually had zero significance at all except for the purposes of being found fifteen years later by the son he could never reasonably believe would see it. And then it's never mentioned again... duh!
When the big dramatic moment in the movie happened I honestly couldn't bring myself to care. Oh dear.
I can only think that in trying to pave the way for the plot bunnies in the next two movies they've lost the plot completely with this one.
Maybe it was too soon for a Spiderman reboot. Hey, Hollywood, how about a few more new stories instead of rehashing Superman and Spidey before the previous versions have gone cold? If you're going to redo something that's been done fairly recently, you have to a) bring something new to it and b) do it better than the original. Christian Bale's Batman suceeded because it was tons better than its predecessors. Sadly Spiderman is just... a bit different.
Recommendation? Go and see 'Divergent' instead.
With Spiderman 3 and 4 already on the stocks this doesn't even have the excuse of being the middle film in a trilogy, but there are storytelling strands unravelling all over the place like an old cardigan.
Amongst other things Spidey toughs it out with Electro, (Jamie Foxx) whose near fatal dip with a tank full of electric eels not only manages to electrify him, but also manages to fix the gap in his front teeth. The Rhino (Paul Giamatti) seems to have been thrown in as an afterthought. There's a real mishmash encompassing Peter's relationship with Gwen, his friendship with Harry Osborn, his discovery of what his dad had been up to, Norman Osborne's mad plans and, apparently, we still have the whole Mary Jane saga to come (in Spidey 3 and 4). At one point Peter finds his Dad's secret workplace/hideout and we discover that his dad's last desperate message, a message he'd managed to heroically and dramatically send in the movie opening (while in the process of seeing his wife killed and being murdered himself), actually had zero significance at all except for the purposes of being found fifteen years later by the son he could never reasonably believe would see it. And then it's never mentioned again... duh!
When the big dramatic moment in the movie happened I honestly couldn't bring myself to care. Oh dear.
I can only think that in trying to pave the way for the plot bunnies in the next two movies they've lost the plot completely with this one.
Maybe it was too soon for a Spiderman reboot. Hey, Hollywood, how about a few more new stories instead of rehashing Superman and Spidey before the previous versions have gone cold? If you're going to redo something that's been done fairly recently, you have to a) bring something new to it and b) do it better than the original. Christian Bale's Batman suceeded because it was tons better than its predecessors. Sadly Spiderman is just... a bit different.
Recommendation? Go and see 'Divergent' instead.
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Date: May. 17th, 2014 08:04 am (UTC)What is ready for a reboot/new attempt is Tarzan. Not that I disliked Greystoke - I was very impressed by invoking the whole French accent subplot which usually gets ignored, but I'd like to see how CGI could be used now. I suppose there was the TV series which I only saw one episode of, but that was a while ago now.
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Date: May. 18th, 2014 11:21 am (UTC)I haven't even seen the trailer for the new Tarzan, but it's animation and I'd like to see a new live action one. I thought Greystoke was pretty good at the time I seem to recall. I thought Christopher Lambert's Tarzan was nicely pitched. It's 1984 would you believe. Now that is long enough for a reboot.
I don't think it matters how long since Christopher Reeve's Sperman movies, a reboot isn't nedcessary (though perhps only the first two movies should be taken into account. Three and four were not so good.) It's hard to top Reeve. Iconic and dead are factors that will always boost his Superman portrayal.
It's almost a pity they didn't cut off Smallville after season six or seven and reboot Superman from there. Tom Welling would have been fine. His acting improved dramatically over the course of the TV series and he certainly has more of the 'look'. As it was Smallville probably ran for too many seasons. Lord knows what Tom Welling will do next. His IMDB worksheet is a bit thin post-Smallville.
Speaking of reboots. Does the world really need a new Godzilla? I will go and see it, probably next week as we're going to risk Pompeii this week, even though it's a bit like Titanic. You know the ending. (It sinks.) (Titanic, not Pompeii.) :-)