I have been hearing a lot of bad reports for Spider-Man 2 but I went anyway and found that it generally was a good movie, but was it a good super-hero movie?
The main things that stick in my memory were that this movie seemed to me to be a kids movie mixed with a chick flick with a superhero sub-plot. I was getting sick and tired of watching Peter Parker cry, seriously, he must have spent just as much time crying as fighting crime.
As I said I found this was actually a decent movie. I think it was well rounded but it really doesn’t feel like a super-hero movie to me, which sounds dumb because he is clearly a super-hero fighting villains. To me super-hero movies are all about giving you the sensation of a person with unique powers. Some movies do this well, some do not. This one however didn’t make me feel that very often, if anything I felt it more from Electro than Spiderman. I couldn’t help but think that we would have a better time if Spiderman never took off his mask and we never had to deal with this kids life. I’m sure that’s interesting to a lot of people but its not the reason I go to these movies. The story of a kid and his issues isn’t interesting, its cliche and overdone. Didn’t we get enough of spider-man and his relationship issues in the first movie? Or how about the first trilogy? Can we move on now?
I look at a movie like Captain-America and I don't see a movie about a love story, about a guy dealing with love, he does that very subtly. His world and set of troubles are totally unique and quite interesting. He struggles with being weak, being a hero, doing whats right, standing for something. Spiderman on the other hand has problems that a teen has, and he occasionally has to deal with bad guys. He has more trouble dealing with his girlfriend and aunt than he does with any villain. This is supposed to be fun? Spider-Man is a funny guy when hes fighting people, but in real life hes a dramatic twisted mess.
I found Electro to be a pretty fascinating character and way more interesting than Spiderman. His character was over the top in a nice way, and you could see his motivations quite clearly. Harry Osborne on the other hand started to lose some creditability at some point and lost it altogether after Gwen fell. He just disappeared. What gives? I expected Spiderman to go after Harry after that, but it went straight to a funeral. I feel ive seen Spiderman at a funeral enough. We get it, people die, and he cries.
I didn’t find myself bored but I found my eyes rolling. I mentioned chick flick because it was very relationship oriented. I appreciated how well it was done and how genuine their emotions were. It really was all done well. I just wasn’t into a romance/drama, I want to see Spiderman being amazing. They should have called it, The Crying Spiderman.
Unrelated note:
Anyone else notice that Richard Parker was also the name of the Tiger in life of Pi? And the actor in life of pi who was telling his story about the time on the boat was in the first spiderman directed by Mark Web?