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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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Seen, Heard, Noted & Quoted
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B+ Rated PG-13 140 min
Peter Parker picked a pickled pepper (say it real fast) and morphed into the mighty Spiderman franchise, making megabucks for its producers and anointing a previously unknown actor, Tobey Maguire as a megastar. Clearly, this comic book nonsense is popular with everyone but me. Why, why, why?
Nevermind, even I was entertained by the flashy special effects and clash of the super-villains Sandman and Venom with Spidey swinging around buildings like a trapeze artist. In this film, the Man in Tights explores his dark side adorned in an alien spider suit. More significantly, Peter struggles with his relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). Between his low paying job as a photographer at the newspaper and his Spiderman activities, he still finds time to court Mary Jane, deluded by his naive idyllic view of romance.
Yes, the Man in Tights is back for a third installment to thrill the multitudes of fans who have bought advance tickets so fast, the first three days of Spiderman’s opening weekend are sold out in most cities. The movie is divided into action sequences followed by slow periods of gushy sophomoric romance between Peter and Mary Jane (which remains ambiguous on Mary Jane’s part). When she sees Spidey kiss another woman at a promotion, then is fired from her acting job on Broadway, she is in no mood for Peter’s ideas about romance. Thus, Peter blows his chance to pop the question. Mary Jane goes to Peter’s former friend and nemesis, Harry Osborn (James Franco), for comfort.
In the third Spidey adventure, filmmaker Sam Raimi had to strike a balance between the CGI sequences and the dramatic time in between. For the most part, he did a fair job. However, after the exciting CGI scenes, the drama has to overcome the anticlimactic letdown after the action. This is almost impossible to pull off.
Still, the dramatic scenes are important to the story of Peter’s struggle to defeat the alien suit from taking over his soul and converting him to the dark side permanently. Meanwhile, Raimi had to fit in the romance elements with finesse. Indeed, this is the main flaw in Raimi’s direction. He dragged out the ambiguity of Mary Jane’s feelings for Peter.
Alas, it’s not easy being in love with the Man in Tights. He’s a superstar, adored by millions. In other words, there is too much of a gap between the action and the drama to hold the viewer’s interest. Ironically, this yin-yang romance is the core of the third script. Otherwise, the movie is just about a Man in Tights saving the city from catastrophe and crime.
Funny, Peter lives like a pauper in a dingy apartment with no phone. One would think that by now, he would have reached an income level that would afford him a few amenities. Of course, he isn’t paid for his community service of being the superhero, Spiderman. Perhaps he should be paid like a policeman of fireman. Or, he could be subsidized by the State with a decent salary. When his city is plagued by the Sandman causing death and destruction and Venom racing around on his jet-powered surfboard hell bent to kill Spidey, the State would gladly pay for Spiderman’s services.
Spidey saves Gwen (Bryce Dalas Howard), a classmate of Peter’s, from certain death after a crane goes out of control and sends her flying into the air, his superhero status reaches a fever pitch. Then, after Peter tries on the black suit, he is suddenly John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, strutting around all full of himself. It’s a turn-off to Mary Jane, but then she starts acting jealous and bitchy.
Well, maybe Mary Jane’s got a point. Peter still seems emotionally immature and enjoying his stardom just a little too much. He hasn’t bothered to understand Mary Jane’s darker moods and is, basically, like all guys his age, thinking only of himself. Mary Jane needs more attention than Peter is willing to give her. This deeper need to communicate her feelings sends her into the arms of Harry– who hits his head and can’t remember being Peter’s nemesis. For some viewers, Peter is more interesting in the dark suit–he’s more mature and spontaneous. As Spiderman he is too much of a boy scout.
Ah yes, in the comic book consciousness, good must triumph over evil. So all this dark side exploration sets up the big showdown scene when Peter puts the red suit back on and goes back to work saving the world. But should he live so poor for all his good work? Give Spidey some serious money for his service so he can live like Harry Osborn orwith a butler, like Batman.
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