journal features

movie review - Spiderman II

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Halifax, 2004.07.03

The strongest "comic book" movie ever. Easily. The movie was true to the original characters and stories that someone like me - who read re-releases of the original comics and watched the bizarre 70's cartoon could enjoy it. It was also engaging enough as a stand-alone movie that my girlfriend really enjoyed the movie as well - and she never read a single Spiderman comic, saw an episode of either the original or current cartoon versions, or even saw the first movie. I don't know how Raimi managed this, but it suggests that the writing and directing were both doing what they should.

The way Alfred Molina played (I'm not "evil", just get out of my *@&^#* way I'm robbing a bank/My God, what have I done?) Dr. Octopus was quite entertaining. On par with Eric Bana's "Hulk", I'd say. And the violence wraught by his character was less caroonish than one might expect. More brutal.

I could have done without the Spiderman-as-Jesus bit, though. And the way the teeny "suns" created in the movie had solar flares was laugh-out-loud ridiculous. I laughed out loud. There were only 14 other people in the cinema.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

—Roald Dahl