Spider-Blogging 6: “Cool Spidey Outfit!”
Spider-Blogging 6: “Cool Spidey Outfit!” - So I liked the movie. You figured that out. Since that’s not true for some people, it’s worth noting some of the film’s formal virtues.
The “Mary Jane post” that starts us off discusses the care with which the film is framed. While I personally think the “Christ figure!” and pieta sequences on the subway train would have worked with a slightly lighter touch, the images nevertheless fit perfectly with the film’s themes. The burning building scene is an effective recurrence: in the first movie, the burning building is really a trap for Spider-Man. In this one it’s a real danger an opportunity for heroism for Peter. The dialog this time around is much better, with some genuinely resonant lines. “This is really heavy,” Peter/Spider-Man tells Mary Jane as he holds a wall off her. The single best example in the movie is “It kind of rides up in the crotch” from the elevator scene. Underplayed, offhand and a perfect statement of The Problem. There’s a wonderful - and familiar - humanity to the exchange that cements Peter and Mary Jane as a couple, while he’s holding up that heavy wall:
“You do love me.”
“I do.”
“Even though you said you didn’t.”
This last is priceless as all true things.
And those fight scenes. My lord. Doc Ock whipping those bags of money at Spider-Man in the bank. The train sequence, the car hurtling through the window, the satisfying, primal crunching of vehicles throughout the movie - the sounds that speak to some quivering tip of the urban hind-brain.
The Iliad had great fight scenes too. I’m not saying Spider-Man 2 is the Iliad, but I will say that even to call it “the best super-hero movie ever” is fainter praise than it deserves. I think this is a great movie, period, and would have it seen as such. I gotta go to bed, but I think there’s probably a lot more one could write. I’ve barely discussed the villain, for instance, because I’ve barely begun to think about him.
All of the actors are better. I talk about Dunst at length in a prior item. JK Simmons may not be better as J. Jonah Jameson, but he’s got more tones to modulate. James Franco was not up to the close of the first installment (the script wasn’t exactly helping him) but he handles his larger role in 2 with more assurance. I have every confidence he’ll be able to carry his share of the third movie. Willem Dafoe’s cameo forgives some of the scene-chewing in S1. Nate and Jesse have written well of the “useful Raimi-isms.”
If anything, I liked it better on second viewing. I anticipate many more, and happy ones.
